How To Make A Career Switch In 7 Steps

A detailed guide on making your next move.

There’s no getting around it — switching careers is scary. I’ve done it a few times now: from lecturing to advertising to content marketing and all the side quests in between.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

Part of your career anxiety stems from trying to fit into one label: "Developer" "Doctor" "Chef" Career coaches want you to believe you won't succeed until you niche down, but human personalities don't work like that. Here's a better solution: 👇🏽

Whether you’re moving jobs for higher pay, greater job satisfaction, or to own more of your time, a career switch means leaving predictable pay at a safe job to wade into uncertainty.

The key to making the switch is fairly simple — but as with all advice, it’s easier said than done:

1. Find a transferable skill you can get paid for

2. Add new skills to your skillset

3. Massage your CV to match your new career

4. Create a portfolio around your next role

5. Ask your network for referrals

6. Improve your online presence

7. Apply for jobs in your new career

#1 Find a transferable skill you can get paid for

Your first step is to comb through your career history and look for practical transferable skills — ones you can apply to any job.

Most online guides list communication, dependability, and teamwork as transferable skills (and they’re not wrong), but these skills are a hard sell when transitioning from, say, HR to engineering.

Companies need something more practical to justify hiring someone from an unrelated career path.

Examples of practical transferable skills include project management, sales, coding, speaking, writing, and design. Master these skills and you can work anywhere.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

Transferable skills accelerate your career. You can apply them anywhere and you'll always be in demand. Learn one or more of these: - Anything "data" - Communications - Sales & marketing - Customer support - Project management - Training & facilitation - Accounting & financials

Examples:

1. You worked in telecoms managing implementation projects. Apply those project management skills to campaign planning at an ad agency.

2. You ran a photography business (like I did). You can take your image-capturing and editing skills into marketing and work as a social media professional (like I did).

3. You worked in waste management. Polish up your community advocacy and project management skills and seek work in the sustainability departments of companies like Coke and Pepsi.

4. You were a teacher or lecturer. Reinvent yourself as a corporate trainer to earn more money teaching professional skills.

5. You’re a journalist. Your writing skills would be useful for tech executives in marketing, PR, or even ghostwriting.

6. You’re a club promoter. Since that job is about image management and event coordination, you can transition to PR, broadcasting, social media marketing, or even a speaking career.

Transferable skills are everywhere. Think of your skills as library books: which bestsellers can you gift your next employer?

#2 Add new skills to your skillset

To improve the success of your career switch, add one or two new skills to your skill set:

1. If you’re good with social media, take a short writing course to transition to content marketing.

2. If you’re a whiz with cameras, learn how to use Illustrator to transition to graphic or UI design, or copywriting to make you a better social media manager.

3. If you work in finance, polish your coding or project management skills to land lucrative jobs in fintech (a $115 billion market).

You can learn new skills from Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, or Codecademy (coding). Give yourself three months, practice every night after work, and create simple works — a drawing, speech, blog post, or browser app — and post them online to attract new opportunities.

#3 Massage your CV to match your new career path

Your CV will need a makeover to match your new career aspirations. Carefully review past roles and rewrite them to reflect your new aspirations. Don’t lie about your roles — reframe the work you did.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

If there are parts of your professional background you feel are irrelevant, now's the time to integrate them into your career. E.g., That call center job you left out of your CV actually taught you how to speak to customers — which is perfect when launching your own business.

Example #1: You handled social media management at an ad agency.

1. If you’re switching to a data science career, emphasize the analytics you gathered — audience insights, ROI, and revenue growth. 

2. If you’re switching to a career in design, emphasize your creative work — images, posters, and other campaign assets.

3. If you’re switching to the writing track, emphasize the copywriting you did.

One job — different faces.

Example #2: You worked as an engineer at a plant.

1. If you’re switching to a coding career, talk about the hardware and software systems you worked on.

2. If you’re moving into project management, bring up all the internal projects you led — goals, milestones, challenges, and results.

3. If you’re moving into a people management role, talk about the team(s) you worked with or led.

Same job — multiple roles.

Massage your existing CV to suit the new career you want.

#4 Create a portfolio around your next role

You’re coming from an unrelated field, so you must work harder to prove yourself.

As you learn new skills, one way to improve your chances of switching careers is to create a small body of work around the new path you’re considering. This body of work will consist of content and case studies.

Create content

Content is everything you’ll write or say about the new career you’re aiming for. If you’re transitioning to coding, you wanna talk about software best practices, your favorite IDE, popular apps on the market, and the programming language you’re currently learning on Codecademy.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

You can always go deeper on any topic. Take makeup, for example. Sure, you can paint your face in front of a ring light like everyone else - but what about career tips for makeup artists? Technical tips for professional MUAs? Styling tips for different facebeats? Go deeper.

Create case studies

Case studies are everything you’ve done in your previous career(s) — projects you’ve managed, content you’ve written, and roles you’ve hired for (if you worked in HR).

These case studies are brief write-ups (under 250 words) that live on your website (use Carrd or Wix) and improve your credibility, making employers and customers more likely to trust you.

Nobody knows what you’ve done till you tell ‘em — so tell ‘em.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

Switching careers is a function of immersion — diving so deep into the new career path that your old professional identity fades away. You feel like a kid again, finding joy in new knowledge and willing to make mistakes to level up quickly. Take the leap — it's exhilarating.

#5 Ask your network for referrals

Your network is the first (and easiest) place to start searching for jobs in a new field. Tell friends, colleagues, and customers about your career intentions and ask them to keep you in mind for any new opportunities.

1. That marketer you sold software to can help you transition into content marketing

2. That derivatives trader whose house you designed can point you to finance or fintech jobs

3. That chef whose child you taught can show you where to find hospitality jobs

Ask and ye shall receive. When you know what you want, people conspire to help you.

#6 Improve your online presence

If they can’t find you online, you don’t exist. If you want to break out of your current career and expand your pool of options, you’ll need a LinkedIn presence. 

LinkedIn is the easiest platform to start with for the following reasons:

1. It’s your online CV, so you can send your LinkedIn URL instead of PDFs

2. All the recruiters and hiring managers in your new field are already on LinkedIn

3. LinkedIn has a jobs section you can use to find new opportunities

4. Most LinkedIn users don’t post regularly, so it’s easy to stand out

Here are the basics of starting on LinkedIn:

1. Sign up for a LinkedIn account

2. Upload a nice headshot (a smiling selfie against a white wall will do)

3. Add a headline in this format: “[x] looking for opportunities in [y].” (E.g., “Social media manager looking for opportunities in sales”)

4. Add a short bio of who you are, what you’ve accomplished, what you’re learning, and where you’re headed next (E.g., “I’m a social media manager who has grown audiences for Coke and Fanta 30% each year through organic and paid marketing. Currently completing a sales certification and looking for sales and account management roles in SaaS.”)

5. Add your previous job titles and duties (massage them accordingly — see above)

6. Add a few related skills to your profile and ask for endorsements and recommendations from your network

7. Add the right keywords to ensure you get found in Search results

8. Connect with a few people in your target field to start building your new network

Once your profile is up (reach out to me for LinkedIn profile revamps), start creating content around your current role and future path.

Add at least 20 people daily to ensure you have enough people to engage with — otherwise, you’re just shouting into the void.

See my LinkedIn playbook for insider secrets on how to win on LinkedIn.

The 14 Hidden Rules Of LinkedIn: How To Stand Out, Get Hired, And Win New Customers

#7 Apply for jobs in your new career

Getting a job is a numbers game — the more jobs you apply for, the higher your chances of landing a great one. So don’t despair — keep applying. 

You can find job vacancies in your local newspaper (yes, still relevant), on LinkedIn Jobs, and on job boards like PNet (for SA) and Indeed (global).

If you’re looking for a remote job, I wrote an extremely detailed guide on that. If you’d rather sit back and let me handle that long process for you, apply to work with me.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

@JacquieMchunu Most people don't realize you can build an entire career from the comfort of your home without ever meeting your colleagues or employers face-to-face. Remote work is a massive economic unlock; more people need to think outside their borders.

Track every application in a document like this one — it’ll help you stay up to date on application statuses and let you determine if you’re applying enough (because finding a new job is a full-time job).

A few things to keep in mind

As you make the leap, you have a career advantage. You’re coming in with skills and experiences your future colleagues don’t have, which gives you a unique perspective on solving problems in your new domain.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

People who transition from one career to another always begin their new career with an unfair advantage: an outsider's perspective + unique job experience your new peers lack. Never be afraid to switch careers. It puts you ahead of the competition.

Secondly, you may take a small income hit as you switch careers. This is normal — you’re coming in from an unrelated field.

Unless you’re starting your own business, you’re most likely competing with people who’ve been doing your desired job longer (and better) than you have.

You may have to compromise on income — but look at it as pulling a bow back to launch an arrow forward. A small step (back) income-wise becomes a huge step forward for your career.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

Sometimes you have to take the Arrow Step. 🏹 A salary cut to enter your dream field. Limiting dates to focus on your career. Starting over in a new country to pursue your dreams. Yes, it'll be hard - just like pulling an arrow back takes energy. But the flight is worth it. 🏹

It’s best to switch careers after you’ve saved up cash to cushion your move. Finding a new job is easier when you’re not drowning in bills or worrying about cash flow.

Thirdly, you’re leaving your current career for a reason. The last thing you want is to dive into a new career that doesn’t address your reasons for switching in the first place.

If you left for more pay, don’t wade into a career with historically low earnings. Avoid careers that suck up all your free time if you want more time.

Don’t go work for a company that requires you to use time trackers or with lots of bureaucracy if freedom is your priority.

In short: don’t make the same mistake twice.

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

As you get older you learn to see through the BS. Workplace priorities: Career development, interesting work, co-workers you'll learn from, fairness, recognition, company vision, and functioning management. Non-priorities: Pool tables and "free" lunches you can buy yourself.

In summary:

1. Find a transferable skill you can get paid for

2. Add new skills to your skillset

3. Massage your CV to match your new career

4. Create a portfolio around your next role

5. Ask your network for referrals

6. Improve your online presence

7. Apply for jobs in your new career

Dr Mo @ShehuPHD

You'll soon discover your ideal career has been staring you in the face all along. It has little to do with what you studied, and everything to do with who you are. Hint: Think back to your childhood.

That’s it — a straightforward guide to switching careers. Connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know how it goes. Good luck!

Need more help?

Book a coaching call with me to grow your personal brand, and get my 30-day content strategy template to help you create epic content on LinkedIn.