Deciding
to go back to school to advance your career may seem daunting especially if you
are working full time but imagine making a career change and going back to
school full time? Yikes! That is scary for many people. You are giving up your
way of life to pursue a passion. You are living on virtually no income and
hoping to do well enough to get a job after you graduate. I noticed that as I make this career change, I
need experience to get a job but need a job to get the experience. The
following are tips to get you started and get the experience you need to become
desirable not just hirable to potential employers.
1)
Schooling:
Do well and take it is seriously! Yes, this is a no brainer but you may be
amazed on how many students do the bare minimum. Contribute and participate
often. Provide additional thoughts, questions, research, and links to the
discussion to make it more meaningful. This
is graduate school and your homework assignments should reflect that level. Read
the directions carefully and read what is expected to get an A then exceed
those expectations. For example, you are writing a paper on a coaching theory,
add examples on how you would apply it, any cons to the theory, do some
research to see how other experts are applying it, and find research that is
breaking new ground by applying that theory. The extra work will pay off in
your grades and for the next three tips.
2)
References
from Professors: If you exceed expectations, professors are more than willing
to let you use them as references. Most will require two class minimum before
they allow you to use them for references. If you just do the bare minimum,
they are less likely to speak well of you. Employers want employees that will
exceed expectations on the job not just do enough to keep the job.
3)
Network
with fellow students: If you contribute thoughts, ideas, and links and they
learn from you, you become more valuable to them. They will seek you opinion
for feedback on their papers in peer review assignments and they will seek out
your paper as a guideline on what they should include in theirs. Most of them
are working and may have opportunities at their employers. Get connected with
them so that you can network once the class is over.
4)
Mentors:
Find a mentor that you can work with to help guide you in the right direction
or ask questions that you didn’t think of. Make sure the mentor wants to work
with you, has the time to make the commitment to mentor, has mentored in the
past, and knows that value of mentorship. You may also want to have a few key people
that you can go to so you can bounce ideas off of.
5)
Graduate
Assistantships: If you exceed expectations and your professors will recommend
you, apply for the department’s graduate assistantship especially if you are thinking
about going into a doctoral program afterwards and teach at the college level. This
will provide experience to add on your resume as well.
6)
Join
Industry Organizations: Join the local chapters such as Chicago Chapter of
American Society of Training and Development, Organizational Development Network
in Chicago, International Society of Performance Improvement, Chicago
organizational Development Institute Chapter, and the Chicago Coaching Federation.
Attend couple meetings before joining to see if there is fit. Also, choose one
or two organizations that you feel you would benefit the most from. The
following is a link to The Chicago Alliance that posts information on these organizations’
upcoming events. http://thechicagoalliance.wordpress.com/
7)
Internships:
Internships are a great to get the needed experience to break into this field.
You may need to be creative in finding them as well as tap into your network of
student peers and references from professors. The professors may have had prior
students that work the employer you are trying to secure an internship with. Also,
you may need to volunteer your services to a charity or your church. Many
internships will be at minimum wage or unpaid. The paid internships are harder
to find and get but look at all avenues. If are working at a part time job, ask
if you can do an internship with them. They may not have a department or a
training program in place but you can help them develop one. Remember to ask
permission to use the work that you created in your portfolio and get it in
writing. This will show to other employers that you went through the proper
channels to get permission.
8)
Create
a Portfolio: Use your school work as way to showcase what you have learned and
the skills that you will bring to your new employer. In one interview that I
had with a major corporation, they asked for samples. Bring them with you to
the interview! I didn’t but I emailed the work to them managers the next day
along with a thank you email. This worked for me, I got the job, but you really
should be prepared with copies of your work or keep them on a flash drive to
hand out at the interview. Another idea is to use a website where you create an
account to post your work on such as LinkedIn, Google +, or even sites that
graphic designers use to house flash and video projects as behance.net. There are
several sites where you can post your work for free. Just research to find the
right fit and professional look you want.
9)
Blog:
Create an account and write about topics that interest you and topics that are
becoming trends. Will the trends become fads or will they evolve and become mainstays
within the field. Be on the forefront of the research and eventually you will
develop a professional presence and reputation.
10)
LinkedIn:
Create or update your LinkedIn profile to reflect your career change, and what
you are learning in the school. You can also post your assignments here as
well. You can use the website Scribd.com to publish you work and share it to
LinkedIn or Google + accounts. Just make sure you do not publish any work from
employers without their permission and mark your work as private so the world
will not have access your work. Protect any material that is copyrighted. LinkedIn also offers, groups to join within
our field, network with peers in our field, ask you current network for any
leads in job opportunities, post your resume, and look for jobs. This site
provides the professional with several tools to network and build a
professional presence.
11) Update your Resume:
Include any training experiences such as assisting in new employee training. Do you teach religious education at your
church? I am a sailing instructor for the past four years and I include this experience
on my resume as well. Use action verbs such as educate, instruct, train, etc.
Be creative but don’t mislead or lie. Also, I used ASTD’s Infoline Series such
as Career Management (February 2007),
Building Career Success Skills (June 2005), Build Your Training Portfolio (May
2009), Tune up Your Resume (January 2009), and Jumpstart Your Career and Get
Hired Faster (September 2011). You can purchase these at astd.org. It is
worth the price to get what our industry is looking for on our resume.
I
hope these tips will help you as you transition into the training and
development field and advance your career. Best of Luck!
