What are the most effective ways to develop a career plan for an industry you're not familiar with?

To start planning a career in a new industry, first, think about what you're good at. Use your strengths to get into the new field you like. Then, learn a lot about that field by reading reports, news, articles and gathering important information. Connect with relevant people in that field through networking. Work on improving the skills you need to be successful. It's also important to make your profile (like your resume and LinkedIn) fit what the industry wants. Make sure your career goals match what the industry needs. Finally, create a plan with all the steps to reach your goals.

I agree, we should identify our transferable skills. However, after we complete this exercise, we should target roles and companies that need these skills to succeed. “Peter, how can you find these out?” For public companies, finding multiple job descriptions and financial reports are key information to utilize business needs. For private companies, this gets more complicated and you’ll have to rely on social media (company and/or employees) for information. Ideally, these skills are rare in their employees and need others to adopt. In a harsh job market, it’s paramount to be contrarian and be different and value; instead of just like everyone else.

This is an excellent starting point. My entire career has hinged on using my transferable skills across different industries. Even some of our knowledge and experience is transferable. 1. List your strengths you could use strength finder or similar assessment to find these 2. Review your performance feedback from over the years or 360 feedback to list your top skills. 3. Look at your qualifications which of these are transferable?

1. Begin by conducting extensive research on the industry of interest. Familiarize yourself with its trends, key players, job roles, and required skills. Look for reputable industry publications, websites, and forums to gather insights and stay updated on industry developments. 2. Reach out to professionals already working in the industry and request informational interviews. 3. Build a strong professional network within the industry. Networking can provide valuable mentorship, job leads, and industry-specific knowledge. 4. Identify and leverage your transferable skills that are applicable to the industry. Assess your skill set and determine how they align with the requirements of the desired industry. Highlight these skills in your resume.

This is something that is vital. Whilst you may not be coming from the direct competition and doing the same role, try and look at synergies between your current industry and role and where you are looking to move to and using specific examples of when you have displayed the key competencies that the role you are looking to move into are looking for

In hard markets, like we are in today, focus on what the market is offering - not what you want to do. This is a huge problem I see students make right now. Without going into my research too much, I tell students today to focus on industries that grow during inflationary/recessionary pressure. Simply put, if you are broke which products would you still buy? After knowing this, which companies in those industries have pricing power? Then we go after what we want!

In our Age of AI, employers are harder to impress, and fields are evolving at an ever more rapid pace. It is critical to dig deeper into that field by understanding where that field is going, not just tomorrow but in 3-5 years. If you can come to an interview with a few insights about the future of the field you are interviewing within, then you stand a chance of standing out among a crowded group of applicants. But this is not easy. It takes a lot of beating the pavement, as detectives say, where you interview expert insiders. But gaining access to them is hard, so you must look at what they are saying right now, go to conferences, listen to podcast interviews of those thought leaders. With patience comes knowledge, and then power.

Taking time to reflect on personal and professional values is crucial. There is nothing worst than following career path against yourself. Think about what is really important to you, what type of career would you like to have, how much organisation culture is important to you and in what environment do you feel the best. Write down all your values and start from there. It will make easier taking your next professional career decision.

I agree, it’s about answering ‘what do I/my team/department/orgabization stand for and work towards?’ In my experience this can be done at a few levels 1. Awareness of Personal goals and values - Coaching can help with this. 2. Alignment to Team Goals and value - Conversations with the Team Leader and the entire team will help 3. Alignment to Department Goals and Value - In large tech organizations each department may have its own un-written values and hidden goals. 4. Alignment to Orgs Values - What are the written, published and unsaid values and goals?

Aligning your skills to the industry or job role you are considering, is very important. Portray your transferable skills in such a way that, it can match with the job role and show your fitment to the position. Spend some time to reflect deep and identify such skills in you. Get help of experts or coaches or internet, if you find it difficult to identify such skills by self.

Gaps and learning opportunities are important to identify and can be turned into your super power. Maybe you are looking to step into a management role but haven’t had traditional management experience. This can be turned around by discussing how you have coached and mentored staff or even coached a sporting team. Or maybe you haven’t used a specific software however you have used one that is very similar. The best advice is being armed and means you can think of ways in which you can overcome these obstacles

Step back for a moment, and try to assess yourself, identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). You can also use the Johari window theory to find out which areas you can improve. Then fill in the gaps to catch up.

Understand and assess yourself, gather information and insights, try internships, ask your mentor, try job shadowing, move laterally first, analyze the gap, learn and analyze again, if you see progress..re-do

Focusing on our strengths is important, but identifying gaps is important as well. It is actually the first step to improve, we have to know where exactly is a need of development, additional trainings, coaching or certifications. It is always uncomfortable to do something we are not feeling the best at, but there is no progress when staying only in the comfort zone.

Interviewing insider experts, for that industry, you are not familiar with is critical. That way you can see where the puck is going, and you can find out what are the most future proofing skills you can develop. This can allow you to sidestep overly expensive higher education, and instead find up skilling credentials that will give you the sharpest competitive edge.

Action plan is absolutely necessary. It should be very specific, SMART method might be helpful, indeed. The more details your action plan will be, the more motivation you will have. It helps to navigate all the actions, track progress, see where are gaps and how do you follow your own deadlines.

Yes! Everything that is written and planned can be more measurable. Write down your plan and include a timeframe. Write it down and post it somewhere you can see it, so you'll be encouraged to do it every time you see it.

The world is changing too fast to build a career plan. Your career might not even exist in 5 years. Have clear goals in mind, be honest about what you're good at and what you hate doing. Fail fast and be flexible on *how* you achieve your goals.

Part of such a plan would be to identify people in the industry you can meet with to help inform yourself further. Great way to gain information and to expand your professional network.

With many students and professionals having a hard time finding jobs, I go back to basics. Which industry, city or role can you go after where there is scarcity in the market? Note: yes, research is needed! If there is scarcity, you have competitive advantage. Sadly, many of us put ourselves in situations similar to perfect competition and wonder why the job search isn’t working.

El networking es de las estrategias más importante al desarrollar nuestra carrera profesional, especialmente si estás considerando un cambio de industria. El verdadero valor de las relaciones profesionales radica en construirlas con autenticidad y a largo plazo. Inicia desde el día uno; nunca sabes qué puertas puede abrir una conexión bien cultivada.

Don't give up too fast! It will be challenging to find a job in an industry you're not familiar with, but it is not impossible. The most important is the first step and consistency. It might take time, but not be too hard on yourself. Keep going!