Stuck In The Catch-22 Of Career Transition? Try These 3 Tips

While teaching product management certificate, I met lots of bright students looking to transition into PM career and got the following question from a lot of them. How to navigate through the catch-22 during the career transition, e.g., engineer->PM, IC->manager (that’s right, this is a career transition instead of promotion)?

• To take on a new role, you need the relevant experience.
• To gain the relevant experience, you need to take on that role.

When there is a big difference between the current role and the future role, your experience on the current role could even potentially work against you when you apply for the new role, because unlearning some skills that are not good for the new role takes extra time if it is achievable at all. There are 3 tips for getting out of the vicious loop.

#1: Take on volunteering work

Every role requires a unique set of talents and skills. Bringing someone onto a role without previous experience is a big risk from hiring manager’s point of view. Within your current org, if your target role is understaffed, it is a perfect opportunity for you to take on volunteering work of your targeted role. For example, as an engineer, you can also take on project management or proposal pitch presentation tasks without taking on the formal PM role. Because this is usually short term unofficial setup and there is minimum risk on both sides, you will more likely get the opportunity. Once you get it, you can gain hands on experience on a real-world project while showcasing your capabilities. Hiring managers within your org could spot your great work and offer you the official role when there is an opening.

#2: Get relevant educational credential

Taking some evening classes, certificates, or even degree programs could enrich you with systematic learning of the domain knowledge of your targeted role. The fact that you take the initiative and make big efforts to learn about your targeted role gives your future hiring manager the confidence you are truly invested in the career path. One caveat is that you need to truly put in the work to learn deeply and internalize the learning. I have seen some people taking extra curriculum learning just to get the paper credential and put on the resume. It will not help and folks will find out the hard way during the job interview.

#3: Show your work

Getting educational credential is a one time big learning event. To complement that is the ongoing consistent learning that is relevant to the role. Showing your work and learnings along the way has several benefits. While showing your work (e.g., writing, demoing, etc.), you will discover more knowledge holes to fill or new ideas to pursue. You will get feedback from your audience, which helps you strengthen the learning. Your future hiring manager might get lots of positive signals of your skills and the growth mindset too. These exercises will provide you with more confidence and fluency during the job interview and on the new role.

Conclusion

Taking the initiative and focusing on readiness is the essence of breaking the catch-22 and landing the first job of the role you’d like to switch to.

(source of the featured image)