This article on career transition is a guest article written by France Lys, co-founder of PERAO, a new generation outplacement firm that supports managers in their professional transitions.
Are you ready to start a professional transition? This article is for you: here are the 10 essential tips to be absolutely sure of a successful career transition. With these 10 points, there is no doubt, you will identify all the opportunities, you will only get proposals that are consistent with your skills and you will have the impact you are looking for during network or job interviews.
So let's go through the 10 steps of this infallible method.
Today, while 31% of senior managers are considering a professional transition (according to a study conducted in December 2022 by APEC), talking to those around them is still a taboo.
Talking about your transition allows you to gradually distance yourself and identify the help you need. In this way, the people around them will know how to position themselves: listening, helping, advising.
Using LinkedIn, updating your profile, making yourself visible means giving yourself the opportunity to be identified and contacted by a headhunter. Beware of using the “open to work” banner, which in our opinion is counterproductive, in fact, difficult to “chase” someone who is actively looking for something. Update your profile, detail the experiences that you think are most important to you, choose a photo and a banner adapted to the professional world.
Once your profile is up to date, allow time to work on your editorial line (comment on articles, publish or republish content in your field) this would allow contacts to identify you in a field of expertise.
Networking means using the most effective way to find an opportunity: 61% of managers find new ones through this way.
And then networking means first of all being interested in others, getting them to talk about their career, their jobs, their successes, their difficulties. It is about creating a relationship of trust and setting up a context in which it will be possible to pitch a project to them and ask them for feedback and contacts.
There are often several possible projects that emerge during a transition. So the first step is to prioritize them, you don't run several hares at the same time.
Knowing how to position yourself on a project with an intention and formulate a service offer with clarity and conciseness, it works! Accepting to prioritize allows you to mobilize your energy in one direction and to be able to complete the exploration of plan A, then plan B.
As with learning a foreign language, knowing how to pitch a service offer can be learned.
There are methods that exist and that have proven their worth (see the multiple tutorials on YouTube), why deprive yourself of them? Applying a method may seem restrictive and tedious, but the risk of getting lost in your story for 20 to 30 minutes when the person you are talking to has 3 to 5 minutes to give you is too great!
Being supported by an outplacement firm means taking the risk of receiving sound advice, of being challenged, of being shaken up in your certainties. It means taking the risk of experiencing enriching collective moments (co-development, workshops, conferences). It means taking the risk of being effective and experiencing your transition as an enriching moment.
It's better to do it alone in your own corner, it's safer 😊
Do something other than look for your next opportunity to clear your mind, maintain a healthy lifestyle, and take a step back.
This may seem counterintuitive but to bring out something new, you have to empty your mind, and therefore sanctuary moments when you are not active in your research.
Since it's impossible to say everything about a career in a resume, it's best to be as clear and concise as possible. The one-page resume is the goal to be achieved.
The must-haves: a job title that will be understood by everyone, a list of key missions and concrete results
Pitfalls: too big a list of soft-skills, the use of jargon
A structured network, with a careers office organizing workshops, providing expert advice, whose sole mission is to be at the service of its alumni: it would be a shame to deprive yourself of it.
Your school may have joined a network, a group that pools resources and assistance offered to alumni. It's worth looking into it.
Prepare for your interview, anticipate difficult questions (those that I have trouble answering or those for which my non-verbal is more eloquent than what I say), anticipate the recruiter's needs, prepare my questions for the recruiter, to prepare my questions for the recruiter, to be perceived as committed to the process.
Having worked on your CV, your Linkedin profile and your pitch allows you to arrive at the interview with a clear speech, a serene posture and expectations in line with the service offer you have to offer.
