Planning major career change:

LEVEL, SECTOR, COUNTRY

The worst mistake you can ever make is to write a CV that shows your anxiety...

The managed career is the way of the future.

This means understanding both your own ambitions and the opportunities available...

If you are now redundant, take heart; the days of constant progress with one organisation have gone and most people can expect to get blown away in the fallout from mergers, acquisitions, downsizing and corporate strategy changes, not to mention office politics.

You need to start managing your career before the worst happens; you need to be prepared, not just in terms of a network of contacts but with up to the minute information about what is possible and what is available. The Internet is a superb source of knowledge, better than anything that has ever existed - and you can always ask me for a second opinion about what is possible and where to start looking...

Many people want to change for better reward, a change of scene, a chance of promotion or the opportunity to use more of their skills. If this is what’s on your mind you should put a plan in place, assess the issues, start taking steps that might lead somewhere. Waiting to make a rushed application at the last minute for a job you don’t know enough about is a recipe for disappointment, just as bad as casually scattering CV’s around employment agencies in case someone one days picks out your message in a bottle.

Getting organised:

you could spend a great deal of money on registering with a career change agency. They are likely to provide you with a couple of interviews by a young consultant in a sharp suit, a psychometric test which in effect is a glorified horoscope, a video of yourself at interview with some inadequate advice on how to do better and some general guidelines but no practical assistance on writing your CV and letters of application.

APTITUDE: by this time of life you have a general idea of what you are good at and what other parts of yourself could start being expressed. If not, make a map and brainstorm the process, then compare what you would like to do in an ideal world with what role that would fit in real employment terms.

CHOICE: the first thing to remember is that you test your own maturity against reality every day. Young people usually have big ideas and unrealistic expectations but older people often simply do not know what is possible and how they can make a jump from one career path to another. Usually there is a set of issues such as these:

Do I need to re-train and what would be the best choice of course to take? Are there alternative routes to consider.

What themes in my professional life would be valuable in the change I would like to make? Am I able to coherently sell my new intentions to a new employer?

Is it possible to export my skills to another industry or another country? How would this be achieved in application terms and what would I have to do in terms of contacts and work permits?

What do other people do? What do they say about themselves? How do people make successful career changes and where do they learn how to do that?

You need to think about the pattern of your career in the longer term. Would a period as an Interim Manager be of interest? Could you join a consultancy? Can you establish and promote yourself as a service provider? Do you have space and funds available for strategic re-training? Is your knowledge sufficiently valuable that a competitor organisation might be interested in poaching you? Are you valuable enough to your present employer to leverage a better role by telling them you are unhappy enough to leave?

Once you begin to think creatively about your position you may come to realise that there are more opportunities than you thought and some of them are capable of being tested in confidence without the risk of giving up your job.

I have created CVs for people going to and coming from places as far afield as Japan, Korea, South Africa, New Zealand, the USA, all of Europe and Papua New Guinea!

You may want to move but before you get carried away (especially US citizens) bear in mind that you may need a work permit for the country of your choice, which may be hard to obtain. Also (US, Far East, Eastern Europe and South African residents) be aware that Europe in general and the UK in particular have very challenging and aggressive economies where good jobs demand exceptional abilities, the cost of living is very high and the competition for employment is tremendous. Please contact me for basic advice before you start living in a fantasy world... Some transitions are possible, others are almost impossible and conditions have already changed since the story that inspired you was first told...

Many British people have heard fabulous tales of luxury villas and tax-free salaries in the Far East, but expat salaries and conditions have taken a dramatic downturn and where you once could send a scrap of paper typed by your mum you now need to be really professional in your application. You are competing against well qualified people from all over the world and where the main contractor is Korean why should they favour a Brit over an engineer from Sri Lanka who has experience in Vietnam, or an application developer from China who expects less in salary terms... We live in one world now, thanks to this Internet, and everyone gets a chance to prosper.

The prime emigration targets, the USA, New Zealand, Australia and Canada all have fairly elaborate immigration rules which will require careful investigation.

Millions of people make a good living from working abroad; usually they have prior experience and in-demand skills at more senior professional levels. So make sure that your CV and professional statement/application letter are clear enough for a national in your target country to understand who you are and what you want. Your material must show an understanding of the country and industry or sector within that country so that people feel that you can contribute immediately.

Maybe you should visit your target country for a holiday, taking a CV with you, making contacts, bringing back the relevant Yellow Pages and information from professional organisations to mount a concerted campaign of speculative approaches. You can search the Internet. You can contact embassies and trade organisations.

You may have to prove yourself to begin with and it may take patient networking to find the right people. Put yourself in their place, taking you on trust; think of yourself as an explorer in the adventure of foreign contacts and forget any idea that it will be easy and somebody can arrange it all for you.

These topics are covered in greater depth in CV Sage with examples and exercises. Take a look!