2. Take note of your skills
Acquiring new skills is part and parcel of switching careers. It can be a rewarding process as you learn these, helping your self-development. And you might already have more skills than you give yourself credit for. You may have learned these in your previous job, or you might just naturally have them – not all skills can be easily taught.
For example, do you:
- Feel like you tend to naturally hit it off with people? That’s a skill.
- Usually spot errors that others might have missed? That’s a skill.
- Good at articulating yourself? That’s a skill.
The point is that skills aren’t necessarily just knowing how to use computing programs or being quick with numbers, sometimes they’re less obvious but equally important. So have a good think about what you consider yourself good at, and what skills support this.
Take professional sports people for example – they tend to be self-motivators, great at goal setting and have positive mental attitudes. These skills can also be applied to financial advice, where they can go a long way in building client relationships. Sometimes it might not be immediately obvious how a skill can transfer over to a new career, but with time it can present itself.