Career Change Resources — Updated October 2020

Photo by Clark Tibbs on Unsplash

This is a summary that accompanies the original interview published on Work In Progress Podcast. Here we highlight our favorite parts from this conversation and some useful resources at the end of the article. Listen to the full interview here.

In this episode we share some useful resources if you are considering changing careers. The intention is to keep this list updated regularly as we continue to talk to people who have made transitions.

Some resources we personally go to for career transitions:

Podcasts

1. NPR Life Kit: “How to make a career change, from someone who has done it”:

• The career is not a ladder anymore, that model no longer works for most industries. Rather, it’s more like a portfolio
• You take your experiences with you to your next career.

2. The Career Change maker podcast by Janine Esbrand: Episode 89

• Jamie talks about career change tips, strategies and inspirational stories that can help you get unstuck and transition into work that you love. She has a “Career Clarity Academy” where she helps people find clarity in what they want to do and help them do it!
• Episodes 89–93 Janine break down steps to career transition by day, making it easy to follow along for looking inward to find your WHY.

Use Your Network

• We all know networking is so important but it can be so daunting to start. As a first baby step, use the people in your life as resources. When I was first considering Product Management, I talked to everyone I knew who worked as a Product Manager. This included by brother-in-law and my classmates in business school.
• The key is to find people who are doing what you want to do and ask them how they got to where they are. Ask your friends and family to give you a warm introduction to make connecting with strangers easier.

If you have a specific role or industry in mind…

Do Your Research

• It can be very easy to dive head first into a new and shiny role…resist the urge to do so. Do your research, don’t make assumptions about any job or any industry until you have talked to at least 5 people.
• We find events on Eventbrite to attend and meet people who are doing what we want to do. These events are always a great way to meet people who work at companies that host the events so you can learn more about company culture.

Join An Online Community

• There are many online communities founded by professionals for almost every role and industry you can think of. Being part of these online communities is a great way to keep up-to-date on industry trends as you can participate in discussions on topics that industry professionals care about.
• Being part of a community means you can easily connect with others for informational interviews. I’ve conducted informational interviews with several Product Managers when I was first transitioning and I’ve learned a lot about different approaches to solving problems and gained interesting perspectives on different types of problems.
• Search by skill sets or job titles and you’ll find a ton of groups on Meetup, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Mindset Is EVERYTHING

• Have an open mind, be super clear about your WHYs and what drives you even if money is not in the equation.
• You never know when and how your next opportunity is going to come your way. If you have any ounce of doubt still about networking, listen to our episode where we interviewed Britt Ramsey who turned a 2 week internship into a full time job!