成功转行6大策略

    职位搜索网站SimplyHired.com副总裁卡洛琳•休斯坦承：“当前的招聘市场，每个空缺职位都会收到将近200份求职简历，这对于招聘经理来说是司空见惯的事。而且，从业经验与招聘职位对口的求职者也不乏其人。因此，如果你的简历并没有反映这种优势，招聘经理有什么理由不将你淘汰出局？”

    别着急！在宣判跳槽计划失败之前，不妨对以下6项策略仔细斟酌一番。实践证明，这6项策略确实屡试不爽。也许其中的某一招或者其中某几项的组合拳，就可以让你成功实现转行。

    打短工积累经验：休斯表示，跳槽却不具备期望行业的相关经验，无疑会让自己处于不利境地。最简单的解决办法就是获得相关经验。“签约一家专门从事此领域的临时工服务中介公司，”她建议道。“这样做也许工资会大幅缩水，但是却获得了一个证明自己的机会，何乐而不为呢？最重要的是得先入行。”

    休斯的这番话可谓经验之谈。15年前，她在南加利福尼亚州为一家报纸销售广告。但是“目睹科技公司如雨后春笋般涌现，我不禁心生向往，由衷希望能进入这个行业，”她说。

    通过调查，休斯找出那些为圣巴巴拉市周边科技公司提供职员的临时工服务中介，之后她辞掉了报社的工作，开始按计划行动。通过从事一系列的短期工作，她积累了足够的经验，最终如愿踏入高科技人力资源领域。

    大力推销 “通用技能”：职业发展咨询公司Impact Group总经理唐•马罗托经常为有意改行的高管提供建议。他问他们：“你擅长的领域中，有哪些技能对其他行业雇佣者来说同样适用？例如，有些人擅长某行业的销售、客户服务或营业分析等工作，那么这些人无论跳槽到哪个行业，这些技能都是通用的。”

    即便不是这样，他补充说，“大部分人所具备的‘通用技能’往往比自己想象的要多。”我们首先要做的就是找出这些技能，学着用潜在雇主容易接受的语言展示这些技能。举例来说，史黛丝•希尔顿之前在美国缅因州首府奥古斯塔从事电视新闻记者及新闻主播工作，而现在她在北卡罗来纳州首府罗利正体验着公共关系领域一个全新的职业。她是怎样成功转行的呢？

    希尔顿说：“作为一名新闻主播，我不仅要指导团队的工作，而且要负责每天的播报内容；这在公共关系领域被称为项目经理。据此，我的简历也做了相应的调整，突出强调为什么我在电视新闻领域的工作经验使我同样能够胜任公共关系领域的工作。”尽管耗费了她六个月的时间，但希尔顿最终完成了事业的华丽转身，获得了营销、咨询与公共关系公司 919 Marketing客户经理一职。

    你对自己所掌握的技能是否适用于其他领域还存在疑问吗？下面这个办法可以帮你答疑解惑：美国劳工部（U.S. Department of Labor）下属的网站O*Net为众多求职者明确地列出了25,000个不同工种所要求的专业知识与资质，不妨登陆这个网站了解一下。

    当然，SimplyHired.com等求职网站也可以提供有用的信息，如哪类公司需要我们所具备的技能。卡洛琳•休斯指出，“在搜索栏键入可以描述工作经验的关键字，需要这些经验背景的各类公司就会被筛选出来。稍微进行一些调查，可能就会有惊喜。”

    Carolyn Hughes, a vice president at career site SimplyHired.com, puts it bluntly: "In this job market, it's not at all unusual for a hiring manager to be looking at a pile of 200 resumes for each opening. Some of those candidates are going to have exactly the industry experience they're looking for. So if yours doesn't, why shouldn't they throw it out?" Gulp.

    But wait! Before you throw in the towel on trying to change careers, consider these six tried-and-true methods. One of them, or some combination, might get you where you want to go.

    Try temping. Since you're at a disadvantage without industry experience, Hughes says, an obvious solution is to get some. "Sign on with a temp agency that specializes in the field you want to enter," she suggests. "You'll probably have to take a step down in pay, but it gives you the chance to prove yourself. The important thing is to get a foot in the door."

    Hughes knows whereof she speaks. Fifteen years ago, she was selling advertising for a newspaper in southern California, but "I saw all these tech companies springing up, and I really wanted to get into one," she says.

    So she researched which temp agencies supplied staffers to tech firms in and around Santa Barbara, quit her newspaper job, and made the move. A series of short-term assignments gave her enough experience to launch her current career in high-tech human resources.

    Be ready to talk up your portable skills."What have you done well that a different type of employer might be able to use?" asks Don Marotto, a managing director at career development firm Impact Group who often counsels executive career changers. "If you've succeeded in sales, customer service, or business analysis in any industry, you can do it almost anywhere else."

    Even if not, he adds, "Most people have more transferable skills than they think they have." The key is to identify yours, then practice putting them in terms a prospective employer can easily recognize. Consider, for example, how Stacey Hilton moved from a job as a TV news reporter and anchor in Augusta, Ga., to a new career in public relations in Raleigh, N.C.

    "As a news anchor, I was responsible for a team of people and what we put on the air each day. In PR, they call that a project manager," Hilton says. "So I tailored my resume accordingly, and played up specific ways my TV experiences would make me great at PR." It took six months, but Hilton got her dream job as an account manager at 919 Marketing.

    Not sure exactly how your skills would fit into a different business? One way to find out: Check out a U.S. Department of Labor web site called O*Net, which spells out the specific knowledge and aptitudes required to get hired in 25,000 types of jobs.

    You can also find out who's seeking your skills at sites like SimplyHired.com. "If you enter the keywords that describe what you've done so far, it will show you what kinds of companies want people with your background," notes Carolyn Hughes. "Explore a bit, and you may be surprised at what you find."