New year, new career?
Making a big change in your career can often be seen as a daunting challenge. You might know full well that you’re a fantastic person to have in a team but how do you convince a recruiter or an interview panel that you could successfully transfer your previous work experience and skills to a new job?
Phil Backhouse, Physical Fuel Trader, joined Drax 8 months ago after deciding on a complete career change, so I sat down with him and asked him how he went about changing his career.
“I was working in the sports industry and it wasn’t giving me the career stability I wanted, so I knew I needed to find a new career. Finding out what my options were was a little overwhelming. To help me figure out what I could do I tried to look at what parts of my roles I had enjoyed that weren’t specific to the sports industry. I realised I had experience in negotiating contracts and services, understanding markets and identifying commercial opportunities for the business that could all be transferrable.”
“I saw the physical fuel trader role advertised online and when I properly read the advert, I tried to understand what the core skills Drax was asking for in this role and did some extra research about what the job really covered. The position struck me as being really interesting and I thought a company like Drax could offer me a career path that was stable but also interesting and challenging. So, I looked at my experience again and realised that I could bring some transferrable skills to the role. When I was ready to apply for the job, I tried to translate my CV into what I had actually done rather than highlighting sports industry specific job titles and tried to give more background or explanation to my roles.”
As a recruiter at Drax I usually interview with our managers, helping them through the recruitment process and I can remember sitting in Phil’s interview and how well he was able to articulate what transferrable skills he could bring, so I asked Phil about how he prepared for the interview.
“I tried to remind myself which parts of the role interested me initially, as well as why I wanted to move careers and what the gaps in my experience would be from your point of view, as a company interviewing me. I was honest and open about those gaps and didn’t try to avoid talking about them, but I also wanted to focus on a few key skills I knew the role needed, such as negotiation and spotting commercial opportunities. To get this across as clearly as I could I used as many practical examples of where I had used those skills in the past.”
“The advice I’d give someone looking to change their career is to give it a go. Do the research and put the work into tailoring your applications, as its worth it. I have had the opportunity to learn so much at Drax so I am getting job satisfaction and can see opportunities for me to progress here. Even though I am not in the industry I started in, I am still using the experience I gained from those years in sport, and don’t feel like I’ve had to start at the bottom and spend years getting back to a level I was at.”
Drax is pioneering in new industries and continually developing innovative technologies. We do not expect all candidates to have previous experience in all the areas in which we work. We are open to bringing in people with values that fit ours and those that have relevant and transferrable skills. So, if you are looking for a change of direction and a rewarding new career, we may just be the place for you.
You can find all of our advertised opportunities at www.drax.com/careers
