Tips and Scripts That Sell a Switch: Leveraging Crossover Skills for Change
In mid-career, Roger (or so I'm calling our hero in this true story) woke up one morning asking himself, "Is this all there is?" Successful but unhappily employed, Roger wanted to find a new way to work, produce, self-actualize, earn a living, and be happy.
Pulling the plug on his job as a controller of a division of a big Midwestern corporation, Roger worked with an experienced career coach on self-analysis; a big part of the analysis focused on identifying Roger's crossover skills. Using judgment born of maturity, Roger realized that what he really wanted to do was work outdoors with boats. After leaving his land-locked state and moving to Florida, Roger's transferable skills, including boating and financial management, built his crossover bridge into a marina business that he liked so much he ended up buying it two years later.
Using crossover skills as a bridge from one career (or job) to another is your most important persuasion tool to gain acceptance in job interviews. So what exactly are crossover skills? In a nutshell, crossover skills are those you've gathered through jobs, classes, volunteer work, hobbies, sports, projects, parenting, or any other life experience that can be valuable in your new career.
Blogging, for example, is a crossover skill. Surprised? Don't be. Blogging is more than going online and telling the world about your day or what you think. For starters, blogging requires more than writing skills. As a blogger, you build a loyal readership and study visitor statistics to see what works and what doesn't. You meet self-announced deadlines for new material. You make intelligent responses to comments including those that insult your own intelligence. As an extension of social networking, blogging can benefit many businesses (such as financial services) or causes (such as politics) that depend on large numbers of customers and supporters. Any entity seeking to establish or maintain a blog needs people who can make it work correctly.
A few better known examples of crossover skills include the following
- Decision-making
- Oral and written communication
- Organization
- Problem-solving
- Technology
Crossovers are portable skills that you can use in many work settings. They go straight to the heart of an employer's question of "Can you do the job?" Considering the importance of been-there, done-that experience to the success of your career change, be ready to identify your crossover skills to an interviewer, and to translate how they make you immediately productive.
There's a hitch. Even brilliant people have trouble correctly and comprehensively identifying their portable skills. Searching online for "crossover skills" or "transferable skills" is the cheapest and quickest way to get started on identifying yours. Additionally, look for books that contain multipage listings of portable skills, including my own Cover Letters For Dummies, 2nd Edition. When big fat holes remain in your inventory of crossover skills, it's time to return to your college's career center for help or engage a career coach well versed in identifying skills and competencies.
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