How to Successfully Change Careers After a Layoff
Many professionals are of the view that being laid off could be scary. Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, this scary thought has now become a reality for many professionals across the world. However, for many professionals, losing their job could prove to be a blessing in disguise. There are many professionals that need a career change. However, they are often too afraid to make the career change. As a result, people successfully change careers after a layoff, when they lose their job.
Apart from that, several workers who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 crisis could find it difficult to get into the industries they were initially working for. Making a career change is certainly not easy. But with the right strategic approach, you can change careers after a layoff and this could be done successfully. The change would not certainly happen overnight. However, with patience and commitment, you could well end up in a better place.
Commitment to career change
Before you commit to a career change, it is essential that you make sure that you are ready to say goodbye to your current career. It is essential that a career change must never be an impulse decision. Moreover, it should not be strictly driven by the fear of getting laid off. As a result, it's essential to take time to really think things over. However, if your personal decision does come from a period of prolonged unhappiness, then this is the perfect time that those people should change careers after a layoff.
For a
smooth career change, you should focus on identifying the new industry that you are looking to get into. You should be able to narrow down a few companies that you want to apply to. Take a self-evaluation of yourself and identify the skills that you possess that could also be applicable to this new industry. You should also assess the skills that you are missing for the new position. After that, you can come up with a plan for gaining these important skills.
Use your professional network
If you have successfully drafted a career change plan, the real challenge that you now have is to effectively use your professional network. When you apply to a new company, it's not enough to just apply online and hope that you will get an interview. You will have to do much more than that. It is essential for you to visit the organization's website or LinkedIn account.
This will help you to identify the company’s human resources manager as well as identify the company's key players. You should also try to make a successful connection. You could tap into your current network to view if you do personally know anyone that has been working at the company or you know a friend that personally knows the employee.
You could also use your individual connections to learn more regarding the company. Tell them your personal career story. This could include your decision to change careers after a layoff, your previous experience, etc. Any individual connection that you do make could well prove to be a pivotal one for your career. Apart from securing an individual interview, putting in this effort would also help you to improve your networking skills and also expand your professional network.
Learn the skills for your new job
Wouldn’t it be good if you were able to acquire a job at the organization you want to work for but not at the position that you initially wanted? When it comes to changing your career, it is very rare that you could just switch jobs and get your new dream job. It is essential that you are able to ease your way in for a new job.
If you're struggling to get the position you want within a certain company, research other positions inside that company to see if there are any positions that better fit into your current skill sets. If there is, apply for that position. By doing this, you can least get a job within the company. From there, you could successfully figure out a way to acquire the necessary skills
leading to your goal. This could help you to land your dream job in the future.
Salary negotiations
It could be very difficult to believe that when it comes to change careers after a layoff, salary is probably the last thing that may come to your mind. This is because the process of career change is directly involved in this. It takes significant effort for directly coming up with a plan and can eventually secure an interview. Within this context, salary considerations are something that could well get placed on the back-end. However, if you have reached the point within the process where it's time to discuss salary, you have done something right and don't want to reveal things.
Depending primarily on the specific industry that you want to enter into, you could be looking at either a decrease or an increase in salary or a match. It is important that you do carry out your background research regarding the position and the salary for the position within your geographical area. You can check out specific career-related websites that could provide you sufficient resources for this important information.
Having access to this data could help you out during your
salary negotiations. If not help you during salary negotiations, it can at least mentally prepare you, specifically if you are able to face a salary decrease. It's essential to be honest regarding your last drawn salary if you want to obtain better remuneration.
