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Archive for July, 2009

How to Make Your Job Translate

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

What do you do when you’re ready to leave your job, but it seems like you’re not truly qualified for what you want to do?

Take my friend Heather, for example. A newspaper designer by trade, Heather had spent the last 10+ years of her life designing pages. And was great with that…until she had no place to go with the company and felt unchallenged.

Now, Heather is a very smart girl. Extremely innovative. Organized. A true multi-tasker. Resourceful. And obviously has an eye for the creative.

So what took her so long to land the job of her dreams? (Yes, she did succeed in this market–but I’ll get to that in a second.)

In a word, ignorance.

As a newspaper designer, Heather says, hiring managers saw “newspaper” and the conversation ended.

“People don’t understand how newspapers come together,” Heather says. “The industry doesn’t translate.”

One potential company couldn’t connect the dots to how Heather would be able to design for their small magazine (now there’s a leap–newspaper to magazine!)

But the truth is not only was Heather a seasoned PRINT designer but a great project manager as well. She just needed the right people to SEE it.

Then Red Door Interactive came two years later. Instead of scanning then dismissing her resume, Red Door took the time to talk to Heather and learn what she could really do/bring to the table. Heather is now loving working as a project coordinator for the company, which she described as smart, fun, and innovative. A perfect match.

So what did she learn through this process?

• When you’ve been at a job for a while and want a career change, ask yourself: I’ve been doing this for a long time, but what else can I do? What have I learned along the way? What skills have I acquired? If you take a step back, you’ll see you have developed skills you didn’t realize you had.
• Talk to people along the way who could see things in you that you may not be able to see in yourself. The turning point for Heather: She found an article written as an open-ended letter of reference on Poynter Online that gave 10 reasons to hire a journalist. This gave her the confidence she needed to put herself out there.
• Stop doubting yourself/thinking that no one will look at you. Give yourself credit for what you’ve accomplished. And if you haven’t developed the necessary skills, identify what they are and figure out a way to learn them (i.e. interview people in the industry, get a mentor, take a class, etc.).

Now get moving!

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