I left the recruiting industry for awhile in the middle of my career. It was the end of the dot com bubble. I was tired of always being scared for my job when the latest jobs report came out. Guessing why people are getting visits from HR was causing a little too much stress.
As the people around me found themselves in the unlucky position of looking for a gig, I saw them looking across so many industries. The goal? Make a career, don't just get a job. I didn't realize just how important that would be until I participated in hiring conversations. Industry experience was often the advantage that got people in the door.
However, with fewer jobs opening up in many categories - we're seeing talented people looking to make the change. But how do you pick a new industry after so many focused in one area? It's not just a few good job postings, that's for sure.
How Do I Figure Out What Industries Are Hiring?
If you work in recruiting, you've probably felt the squeeze over the last few years. I will join the army of writers who have stated the obvious over the last 6 months: there are fewer recruiting jobs in tech than ever. Every time I see someone posting some other impression, I can't help but ask where they're getting data.
If you're looking for industries that are growing as far as open jobs, there are great places to get pretty real time data about what's happening in that market. I found this option just last week - Federal Reserve Bank. Search job posts and click on random industries to see how jobs in that area are trending. Here are a few of the charts you'll see:
These can be helpful when you want to apply skills like recruiting, HR, marketing, or administration to another industry. Dig into those to find new job posts that might fit your skills and help you transition into a field with demand.
Job Post Red Flags: Job Search Advice
Once you find that great job post, there are a few things you need to read between the lines for. Things those job description graders and resume writers can't tell you because they didn't spend 5 years training and talking to people who were writing those job postings you look at every day. Here's my job search advice when it comes to the posting - no matter what industry.
- Be flexible about job titles - when you search and take a job. All job titles are made up. Don't chase them. Chase the work you want to spend your days doing and the money you get paid for doing it.
- If they give an oddly specific requirements, assume that the last person massively failed on that topic. Don't apply if you don't meet that - even if it's listed as a preferred requirement.
- Speaking of preferred requirements - please remember that recruiters actually think of those as preferences, not actual requirements. Don't talk yourself out of a job. Apply.
- If the posting seems super generic, make sure you ask a *lot* of questions about what that person does every day on the phone screen. That's one of the top reasons people quit their jobs in the first 60 days: expectations do not align with reality. Make sure you know reality.
- Don't get intimidated by new industries. Apply anyway. I'm hearing more managers than ever that are open to people from different backgrounds.
- If you get a sneaking suspicion they are jerks just from reading their posting, they are *definitely* jerks in real life.
Seriously though, trust your gut. I've never read a post and thought, "oh, they seem like real assholes," then met a nice, well-meaning person who just didn't know any better. They know.
Good luck out there. If you want to update your LinkedIn profile, here's my free webinar teaching you exactly how from pic to profile: https://www.threeearsmedia.com/linkedinprofilerewrite.html
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