Changing Careers

Host: Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension, University of Kentucky 

Guests:  Caroline Francis, Director of Alumni Career Services and Amanda Schagane, Assistant Director of Alumni Career Services

0:00 Welcome to Talking FACS; what you need to know about family, food, finance and fitness. Hosted by the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program, our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families and communities to improve quality of life.

0:20 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Hello and welcome to Talking FACS. This is your host, Dr. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Director for Family Consumer Sciences Extension at the University of Kentucky.

Today, I'm pleased to be joined by two guests, Caroline Francis, Director of the University of Kentucky Alumni Career Center as well as Amanda Schagane, the Associate Director for the UK alumni Career Services Center. Thank you both for joining us today.

0:44 Amanda Schagane: Thank you.

0:45 Caroline Francis: Thanks for having us.

0:46 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I am thrilled to have you all. And actually, you're going to join us a few times to record a series of podcasts on the topic of careers. And we're going to talk all things about career change and why individuals may consider a career change, what to think about during that career change process.

But let's just get started with really beginning to discuss; how often does an individual change careers throughout their lifetime?

1:15 Caroline Francis: The Bureau of Labor and Statistics, Jennifer, is showing that Americans are changing jobs about every four years; by choice or not. And when people are under 30, they typically change jobs more frequently than that.

1:29 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: I was getting ready to ask if it was generational. Because I think we hear so much and it might just be in popular news media that the younger generations tend to change jobs much more often than maybe some of our older generations.

1:44 Caroline Francis: Well, if you look back, it's not unusual for all of us to have had several jobs in our 20s while we're kind of zig-zagging and figuring out what we like, what we don't like. There's nothing like a little career pain to help get us on the right direction.

1:58 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, the idea, when we're thinking about changing careers, that's really thinking about jumping from one area of focus in a career to a completely new area; is that correct?

2:09 Caroline Francis: Correct. And as career counselors, we always encourage people to have a job change or so before a drastic career change. Sometimes, perhaps the climate, the environment, the company, maybe it's a boss, maybe it's your specific task and responsibilities are not a good fit. And sometimes, just simply changing jobs will put you in a situation where you're going to be much happier in your work.

So, that's always a good first step; a job change or two before a drastic career change.

2:45 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Which I think makes sense because as you were just saying that it could be though the work environment that maybe has soured you on the job and it's not necessarily the career path.

2:56 Caroline Francis: Correct. Sometimes we have clients that are just burned out and they think, “Oh, I never want to be an accountant again” or “I never want to be this again.” And stepping back and helping them isolate, “Why do you want to change careers?” helping them really pinpoint what's driving this feeling can be very helpful.

3:16 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: When an individual has identified that their next step is a different career, what type of things should they be thinking about and identifying what that new career may be?

3:29 Amanda Schagane: Whenever we're thinking about a big career change, we have to keep in mind that some soul searching is always healthy. We want to think about four different parameters: our values; what’s most important to us as we're making this decision, our interests; everyone wants to be passionate about the work that they do, the personality; the type of folks that you work with and collaborate with the best and the skills; the things that you're naturally good at. You want to lean in on those.

3:54 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: As a person is doing this soul searching, do you typically recommend that they make lists or that maybe they journal about these parameters? How can someone really organize their thoughts around?

4:05 Amanda Schagane: You know, everyone does this process differently and journaling is a great way to do it. You can always take a career assessment with a career counselor and that's offered by the UK Alumni Association Career Services. But I think people go about that in so many different ways. What do you think, Caroline Francis?

4:18 Caroline Francis: I would agree. I'd also add that we encourage baby steps and experimenting. Perhaps take a class in something you're interested in and do some shadowing, volunteer work, conduct some informational interviews to see if the career is what you're romanticizing it to be.

4:37 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: And I think that that's a really good tip because as I think about the college students that I work with, as they're embarking on their first career, those are all things that we recommend that they do; that maybe they have an internship or they spend some time doing job shadowing.

So, even though an individual might be a little bit later in life, these are still the steps that they would take to determine if the career is the best fit for them.

5:01 Caroline Francis: Absolutely. All ages, all stages; those are great ways to prep for a career transition.

5:08 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: And thinking about career transition, is there a specific time for a person to know that now's the time to make this career change?

5:18 Caroline Francis: I think that's very individualized. It's really interesting right now. With the economy being better than it's been for a while, we're seeing a lot of people that are making career changes. They’re feeling more confident in their skills and abilities and being able to make that transition.

Also, we're seeing a lot of people, 50 plus, that are to the point in their life where they can do some on-core careering and do some careers that they've never had the opportunity to try before. You know, maybe their children are getting a little older and they have a little more financial freedom to make a drastic career change. So, those are people we're seeing a lot of these days.

5:58 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: If a person is going to try and switch careers, when they begin applying for a new job. I just recently had a job posting that we were hiring for and one of the applicants that all of their experience was in a completely different field. And I really felt like this is what the applicant was hoping to do; that they were hoping to switch careers. And I expected, when I read the cover letter, to see an explanation of that.

Unfortunately, there was not really kind of that desire shared of why they would be pursuing this opportunity at this stage in life. How do you recommend that someone presents to an employer the skillset that maybe they have acquired from a previous career and still show their interest and ability in a new career?

6:46 Caroline Francis: Excellent point. A cover letter is a place to share why you're making this career transition, but we also recommend a functional résumé or more of a skills-based résumé; any type of a résumé that focuses on transferable skills.

The job seeker has to be able to convince the employer to take a chance on you: if you do not have the industry or field experience, if you're coming into it fresh.

And this is where networking can really help. Somebody on the inside that knows your transferable skills, perhaps being able to put in a good word for you or you getting on the employer's radar through LinkedIn or a volunteer experience.

So, when you are changing careers, the employers are taking a risk on you and you have to convince them you have what they need. You can help their pain points.

7:40 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Right. And I think that that's what I was looking for in the application and there was just a few little tidbits in there that made me think, “Well, maybe they have the experience, but not enough to set it aside.” Because, you know, when you're narrowing down a pool of candidates to interview, you can only interview so many. There just wasn't quite enough to really kind of make that application jump up into that next step.

So, I really think the idea of a skills-based or functional résumé that you mentioned would have been helpful in this particular situation.

When an individual, especially if they've been kind of out of the job-hunt process for a while and you talk about these different types of résumés, where can they find more information about how to format their résumé or what it should look like. You know, have résumé formats changed over time to really make it look current?

8:32 Caroline Francis: Résumés are a lot like clothes; they do go in and out of style. And although people want to help each other, be careful who you ask to help you format a résumé.

Career counselors are available in many communities. Alumni career services help people around the globe as well. Libraries often have current résumé books; you do want a current résumé a book. Googling, online searching, free résumé formats are additional ways to learn more about most up-to-date résumé formats. And if you know someone in HR, they would be a great resource to help review your résumé and give you some feedback.

9:16 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: So, I definitely think if someone is considering changing careers, especially if they have been in their current career for a while, reaching out for additional help is a very logical step. Because I feel like mistakes are easy to make and the résumé, the cover letter, the application; you only get one chance to get it right.

So, kind of reaching out for those steps and the resources that you shared, I think, are great examples of how individuals can do that.

9:43 Caroline Francis: Absolutely.

9:44 Dr. Jennifer Hunter: Thank you all so much for joining us today and talking about how we can think through changing careers and providing helpful tips to our listeners about the steps they can take.

9:54 Caroline Francis: We appreciate the invitation. Thank you, Jennifer.

9:57 Amanda Schagane: Thank you so much.

9:57 Thank you for listening to Talking FACS. We deliver programs focusing on nutrition, health, resource management, family development and civic engagement.

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