Take that Leap: Jumping from One Industry to Another

 



Turning 25 in a few days brought me sudden thoughts about family, life, career, amongst a bunch of other things. Oh well—this must be quarter life crisis, and I really am getting older!

Putting drama aside, I have realized that one of my major reflection points is how I managed to job-hop like a kangaroo in the past 4 years. And I am not speaking about mere transfers from one company to another, but rather big leaps from entirely different industries.

Of course I had to make risks, gamble, put security on the line for promises of growth, burn a few bridges in exchange for a bigger network, and forget all theories learned in college to make room for awesome real learnings.



SOURCE: www.lukedockery.com

How did I manage to survive? Simple – I took what I should and left what I shouldn’t.

Using corporate world lingo, I meant focusing on transferable skills. Yes, there are such. Working as a trainer in an insurance company can make you equally useful as an account manager in a hotel. Serving as a flight attendant won’t limit you to that path as you can be in sales or marketing later on. And even the oddest switches like becoming a beauty consultant from being a police officer is indeed possible.

Transferable skills are not definite and may vary from one individual to another, but let me give you three that helped with my own survival.

·       Customer Service

In every organization under whatever industry, providing excellent customer service is key. Those who are working in the backend are not excused as you still have internal clients to cater to. The basic rule? Respond as soon as possible to answer certain queries or requests – or to acknowledge at the least. And always put yourself on the position of the customer you are attending to. Always listen, refrain from assuming, and keep communication open.

·       Account Ownership

Every role is an account management of some sort. You will be assigned with a specific group of clients, or be given a specific set of tasks. In any way, be sure to take ownership and be accountable on how you can maintain or further improve the work processes or standards of the “account” given to you. There is nothing wrong in thinking out of the box and sharing ideas on how the steady now can even be better.

·       Research

Technical knowledge is not exactly something that you need to take from one industry to the next. Except probably for specialists (like IT experts) who may be taking the industry leap but will remain doing the same function. Nonetheless, it is important to keep research skills intact as every move translates to endless learning. You will always have new computer systems to work on, protocols to memorize, people or vendors to connect to, and client cultures to familiarize with. Inability to do research is like constantly working in a passive way where you just chew whatever is given.

So who said industry leaps are always a bad thing? At the end of the day, you always take charge of your own wheel and you can survive any new environment with a solid will.