Ask-A-Recruiter: How To Start A Career Change – Part 2
Contributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart
I am lawyer who is sick of practicing law. I have practiced corporate law for 5 years at a big firm, want to leave the law for a job in business with greater autonomy and better quality of life. How do I market myself? Where should I start my job search?
Last week, my response focused on the importance of deciding where you are targeting your search (i.e., what area of business) before deciding how to market yourself and where to start. For those of you having difficulty in identifying appropriate targets, keep in mind that your ideal job or company is a moving target. Your interests change, companies change, industries change. However, to help find initial targets to start your search, here are some practical tips to try:
Read general business magazines and newspapers to spark your curiosity. What industries and topics attract your attention? Sales, finance, marketing, operations, HR? Small or large companies? Specific sectors within a larger industry (for example, within financial services, retail banking, insurance or investing)?
Read biographies and business books to identify prototypes. Maybe your interest seems to cut across industries or functional areas. People who might be doing what you want to do are prototypes you can study or emulate. Read compilations of several biographies, rags to riches stories, great entrepreneurs, top marketers, etc. What jobs and training did they have along the way? What sectors did they focus on?
Research industry trade journals and associations to fine tune your interests. Now that you have identified some sectors of interest, what are the main issues there? Who are its main companies and what is being written by or about them? Hint: if this preliminary research bores you, then you picked the wrong sector and need to start again.
List your “in-the-zone” moments to find common threads. Write down all the times, professional and personal, when you felt engaged, fully utilizing your full self, and excited about what you were doing. What do these “in-the-zone” moments have in common? Are there specific activities you are doing or skills you are using? Are there specific environments in which you flourish?
Prioritize your choices and confirm these with a trusted source. What do you really need to have in your next job? Some ideas include: Autonomy, advancement, power, fast pace, engaging colleagues, good boss, executive title, high base salary, high bonus potential, equity, sense of purpose, development opportunities, new experience, industry expertise, functional expertise, balanced lifestyle and CEO track. Add more if you must, but at least, rank order the above. Yes, you have to choose. Then, ask someone that knows you well to look at the same list and to guess which three you chose as your top prioritized. If they choose differently, you are sending mixed signals. You need to align your intent with how you are perceived before you go on the market.
All information is copyright © Caroline Ceniza-Levine 2008. Caroline has worked in retained search and corporate HR. Pose a question for a future Ask-A-Recruiter column at caroline@sixfigurestart.com. Learn more about career change and other job search secrets from SixFigureStart’s Proactive Job Search Basics teleclass series. Next series starts April 26. More info at www.sixfigurestart.com.
Lesson Number One: Never be afraid of change. When things out of your control indicate that changes may start happening, don’t be afraid. Look for the growth opportunity in the situation, not the downside. In 1990, when the law firm at which I was a partnership-track associate began to splinter at the seams, this former commercial real estate attorney dusted off her resume. Well guess what?: No one needed my real estate transaction expertise in the middle of a real estate recession when no lending was taking place. The situation, however, led me on a fascinating and varied job hunt, which led to my job at Trepp. I learned then: Never be afraid.
Lesson Two: Think of yourself in terms of adjectives, not nouns. When I was pounding the pavement in that hot summer of 1990, I learned that I needed to stop calling myself by the label: “commercial real estate lawyer”. Instead, I reminded myself that I was real estate-knowledgeable, transaction-experienced, quick-to-learn, personable, organized, tenacious, and hard working.
With these adjectives in mind, I realized there were many, many jobs for which I could apply. I applied for positions writing for real-estate related publications; selling properties for real estate brokerage firms; and even working as bankruptcy associate for a number of law firms. (In the middle of that recession, bankruptcy lawyers were a hot commodity). For this last role, I marketed myself by stressing that the number of bankruptcy issues with which I had interfaced during 7 years of commercial real estate transactions gave me at least the working knowledge of a 3-year bankruptcy associate. That approach yielded me enormous respect from law firm partners who praised my creativity and willingness to reinvent myself. All of these different job hunting approaches yielded me job offers in a tight, difficult job market, including the one I accepted: a job as in-house counsel in a financial consulting firm called Trepp, monitoring a relatively new type of security called a commercial mortgage-backed bond. Remember, you are not a noun; you are a compilation of wonderfully rich experiences and skills.
In 2005, after 15 years as in-house counsel, I was made CEO of Trepp.