Starting a new career means developing a unique skill set and learning how to relate your previous experience and skills to the new role you’re pursuing. If you’re ready to start a new career path, this reading will help you position yourself for success in your job search. You’ll learn how to understand what your potential employer is looking for and how to connect your background to their needs. The strategies outlined below are designed to help you become a strong job candidate, even if you don’t have directly relevant experience.
The first step is to understand the role you’re targeting entirely.
Understand your target role.
One of the primary challenges for anyone looking to launch a new career is standing out against candidates with experience in the field. Overcoming this challenge begins with developing a comprehensive understanding of your target role. You’ll need to understand the role in the context of any company you’re applying to and more broadly. A holistic understanding of what it takes to succeed in your target role will help you determine your suitability for the role and identify any steps you can take to improve your chances of getting hired.
To understand everything from minimum must-have requirements to skills that might help you stand out, you can begin by researching and analyzing job descriptions across different organizations.
Below, you’ll find our recommended strategy for approaching this process effectively.
Analyze job listings
The first part of the process is to gather information from multiple job listings:
- Pull up ten job descriptions for your target role. You can use job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn to do this. Make sure the parts you select come from different companies, share similar titles, and are parts you would apply for. In each job description, you should identify a section listing requirements for the position.
- Combine all the job requirements. To do this, create a new Google document and copy over all the required responsibilities from all ten job descriptions.
- Order requirements based on appearance frequency. Specific conditions appear in multiple descriptions. The more commonly they appear, the more likely they’re essential for the role. Put the most frequently appearing requirements at the top of your list. For example, a condition occurring in all ten descriptions would go at the top.
After completing these steps, you should have a clearer picture of the most common and essential requirements for the role. You may also have questions:
- Why do requirements differ across job descriptions? One of the most common reasons for this is overly general job titles that don’t necessarily communicate the specific scope of a given role at a particular company. For example, a program manager at one company might be focused on customer management, while at another company, the emphasis might be on project management. A Data Analyst might primarily use SQL at one company and Python at another. Because of these differences, it’s essential to look beyond job titles. This is why we recommend the process outlined above — to help ensure you’re targeting the exact roles that are right for you — and that you understand the requirements for those roles.
- Why are some requirements higher on my list than I expected, while others I expected to see barely show up? If you’re surprised by your results, you may need to spend more time learning what the role entails, as you may have some preconceptions about the role that requires adjusting. You might also need additional research to ensure you’re targeting the right parts in your job search.
- How do I know if I’m suitable for my target role? It’s perfectly normal to experience self-doubt at this stage of the process. Remember, this is a new career for you. You’re not expected to know everything about the role, and your existing skills and experience will probably not align perfectly. The more you learn about the position, the better you’ll understand what’s required for success, and the more you’ll know about how to prepare yourself for that success.
Create your professional inventory.
For this next step, you can temporarily set aside the master list of role requirements you previously created. The focus here will be on your existing professional qualifications and any other skills or experience you possess that might be relevant to your target role and of value to a potential employer.
To begin, assemble a comprehensive list of the following:
- Technical (hard) skills. These skills relate to a specific task or situation, such as programming, technical writing, project management, etc.
- Non-technical (interpersonal) skills. These skills enable people to navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals. They include skills like communication, leadership, team management, and more.
- Personal qualities. These are positive attributes and personality traits such as honesty, a good sense of humor, and being dependable. You can also include your professional interests on this list.
- Education. This includes any post-secondary education, certifications, or independent classes completed online or offline.
Tip: You need not expand your professional inventory beyond skills and qualities developed through professional experience. Consider any volunteer, extracurricular, or personal experiences that might help a hiring manager understand your capabilities.
Once you’ve created your inventory of skills and experience, you’re ready to line these up against your requirements list.
Match your profile to the job requirements.
The concluding step in this process is to match your profile to the job requirements. The goal is to make it easy for hiring managers to see why you’re an excellent fit for their role. You’ll accomplish this by learning what to emphasize and focus on in your search, on your resume, and during interviews.
Review your professional inventory of skills and experience, highlighting each item in green, orange, or red, depending on its relevance to your target role. Relevance is determined by whether a given skill appears on your role requirements list, how high it appears, and how directly it aligns with your list.
For example, let’s say you’re interested in a program manager role. If you’re skilled at using project management software, and project management software skills are high on your job requirements list, then highlight that item in green. If you have some experience with tools that do not consistently appear on job descriptions but could still be relevant, highlight these skills in orange.
- Green should be used for skills directly relevant to your target role. It would be best if you looked for positions that emphasize these skills. You should highlight these skills on your resume and be prepared to discuss them in an interview.
- Orange should be used to identify those skills and experiences that are relevant to the role but not necessarily in a direct way. These are generally your transferable skills — skills you bring from past experiences that can help you succeed in your new role. Plan to explain these to recruiters and hiring managers, as their relevance may not be immediately evident.
- Red should be used for items that are not relevant to your job search. De-prioritize these skills, and steer clear of highlighting them on your resume and focusing on them during interviews.
Of these three categories, the orange items are where you’ll need to focus extra attention. You must do the convincing when it comes to transferable skills, as you can’t count on a recruiter or hiring manager to make the connection. For example, no job description for a project manager role calls for waitstaff experience. However, that project manager job description will likely mention excellent communication skills — which you would have developed during your hospitality career. When applying for the project manager role, ensure your resume explicitly says and lists “waiter” or “waitress” as your previous occupation. Once you’ve categorized your skills and experience based on how well they align with the requirements for your target role, you’re ready to move your job search forward.
