Following my recent tips to ace your next job interview, as requested, here are some further tips to help you make your next career transition:
Think about what you want at this stage of your life
If you are feeling stuck with regards to what your next career move will be, I suggest you start by looking at where you are at during this stage of your life, and what it is that you want. For example, are you looking for a challenge, or would you prefer something where you can get a better balance between work and life?
We want different things from our careers at different stages of our lives. What you want in your late 30s may be very different to what you wanted in your early 20s, which may differ once you get to your 50s.
Identify your values and what is important for you in your work at this stage of your life. Also, think about what values you want to see in an organisation. Then look at your skills and strengths and what roles would enable you to utilise these.
Taking a skills assessment will help them to identify your transferable skills if you are uncertain. The National Careers Service has a free tool on its website that also makes career suggestions based on preferences, as well as more in depth assessments. This may be a good starting point for you to work from if you are uncertain.
Develop your network
Whether it be making an introduction to someone in a company you’re interested in working at, or hearing about a position that is soon going to become available, many opportunities come about as a result of networks. Develop your network and utilise it.
As well as networking events, use social media (in particular LinkedIn) to build meaningful connections online, and to continue to nurture existing ones. When attending networking events (whether virtual or in person), if you are given a list of the names of the others attending, or can see who else is on the session, connect with them on LinkedIn.
Personalise your LinkedIn invite and start a conversation. Nurture the relationship and invite people to have virtual coffees with you. Likewise, with your existing network, periodically send them messages via LinkedIn or email, and identify those who you would like to have a virtual one to one catch up with.
Remember, networking is a two-way relationship. It’s about looking at what you can do to support/help the other person, and not just what they can do to help you. Being generous with the help you give somebody could pay back dividends. But help because you want to, not just to get something in return.
Address imposter syndrome if you experience it
For many people, imposter syndrome manifests itself at interview stage, and if this is you, you may be worrying that you’ll get found out that you are not good enough. You may be thinking that you shouldn’t have been shortlisted for interview.
To manage this, challenge your negative self-talk. Remind yourself that you were shortlisted for the interview because you demonstrated that you meet the criteria or competencies and reacquaint yourself with the evidence to support this. This will help to change how you feel.
If you are about to go into the interview (or are in the interview itself) and these thoughts surface, tell yourself you haven’t got time to worry about it now. Right now, you are focusing on getting through the interview and will worry about those thoughts later when you get home. Delaying your worrying in this way can help to change how you feel in that moment. By the time you got home, having got through the interview, chances are it’s no longer an issue. But it might still be an opportunity to reflect on how things went and what you could do differently in the future.
Frame your responses to make them succinct
When answering interview questions use the S.T.A.R. (situation, task, action, result) as a framework for your answers for behavioural and situational type questions. In preparation for the interview, I suggest thinking of a few examples for each behaviour or competency. Framing how you dealt with the situation with S.T.A.R. enables you to describe what happened in a concise way.
It is important to make sure that your responses are pitched at the right level for the role you are being interviewed for, so that you demonstrate that you can perform at that level.
First published on LinkedIn.
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