Hiring is Stacked Against Career Transitioners: 4 Tips to Overcome Obstacles

Many career transitioners have highly transferable skills, but getting your foot in the door proves to be a huge challenge. It can be hard to even have your resume seen by an actual human, let alone one that will recognize transferable skills that may not fit their preconceived notions. If you’ve been applying but it feels like you aren’t getting anywhere, you might be facing these challenges without even knowing it. After advising hundreds of career transitioners, these battle tested tips may help you get through the hiring gauntlet to find your dream job!

Challenge 1:

In demand employers are inundated with hundreds of applications for a single job posting. Even lesser known companies can easily get overwhelmed when they don’t have a lot of resources to comb through online applications, often from fully irrelevant candidates. To combat this problem, companies implement Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)’ which do a first level of filtering before a human sees in-bound online applications. You know those systems that make you upload a resume, and then copy and paste all the same information into little boxes? Those are ATS’. These systems are programmed to screen for keyword matches like job titles. If you have highly transferable experience, but not the title to go along with it, a human may understand that. However, you will likely never get to make your case because the ATS will filter the application out of the candidate pool.

Tip 1:

Avoid applying through the ATS alone. Tap into your network, use LinkedIn and Google searches to research your contacts, or even contacts of contacts that can help connect you. Ideally your connection will send your resume directly to the hiring manager. Employee referrals are highly prized by employers. So even if your contact is from another department with no idea who the hiring manager is, if they send you through the formal application process with an employee referral name attached, you can typically bypass the automated screening.

Challenge 2:

According to Indeed, the average amount of time employers spend reviewing a resume is 6–7 seconds. If you follow the traditional resume templates, this means they are looking at titles, dates, formatting, and education. For a career transitioner, the story line about how your experience applies and why you are a great fit will probably get overlooked.

Tip 2:

Don’t use the traditional resume template. Lead the eye where you want it to go. Use formatting and colors to make sure to highlight the items from the job description that you bring to the table. This could be from an education program you completed, volunteer experience, or a prior job. Lead with a short narrative that explains why you are a great fit. Remove information that will distract from what you want them to see. The goal is not to give all the information, it’s to give enough information to pique their interest and move you to the next round.

Challenge 3:

Great recruiters know the job and the company well and can assess skills and experience as effectively as the hiring team. Unfortunately, for many companies recruiters are entry level hires themselves. @Patty McCord explains the challenges unqualified and undersersourced recruiters face in this HBR article. They are sourcing a high volume of candidates for a broad range of roles, to do work they know very little about. Or companies may even outsource recruiting all-together using a 3rd party Search and Staffing company. These recruiters are often given just a job description and a short company description, and that’s all they know about the role. They serve at the gate-keeper, to decide who is qualified to move onto the next round with the actual hiring team.

Tip 3:

In a screening call, often they are asking yes/no questions to minimum qualification requirements as they go down their checklist. Avoid giving yes/no answers. If you have equivalent experience, you will need to educate them about why the employer was looking for that skill or experience. Help them to understand the nuance of how your background accomplishes the same outcome.

Recruiter: Have you used Salesforce before?

Candidate: Different industries use different software to manage client contact information, track interactions, and plan communication. The interface of the EHR I used as a front office manager for a Doctors office and CRMs like SalesForce that a Customer Success Manager at a tech company uses are different. But the underlying concepts and technical skills to use the systems are very similar. I’m confident I could apply my technical expertise to quickly adapt to mastering SalesForce.

Providing that kind of insight can help a recruiter with minimal knowledge about the role they are filling feel confident to keep you in the running for the next round of interviews. Even if on the surface you didn’t check all the boxes.

Challenge 4:

Competency Projects are a popular interview tactic. This is typically the final round of interviews with the top couple of candidates to inform a final decision. These can be challenging for career transitioners who may not have access to templates and examples of similar work products.

Tip 4:

This is another time when your network is very important. If you know people who are doing similar roles, ask if they are willing to show you examples of their work on similar projects to get a feel for the industry norm. These projects are subjective, so it can be nerve wrecking trying to guess what hiring panels are looking for. Don’t be afraid to ask the interviewer clarifying questions as far ahead of time as possible. This shows engagement, a growth mindset, and a desire to do a great job. These are all great traits in a new-hire. This will also help you have a finished project better aligned to their expectations, that may lead to an offer for your dream job!

Where do you see people getting stuck in the interview process? Please add your insights to the comments for more tips.

RecastSuccess offers a 10-week bootcamp for mid-career professionals transitioning into Customer Success roles. Graduates gain access to a deep network within the industry, mentor matching, career coaching including resume building, and template libraries to help career transitioners secure their dream job, and excel once they are in their new role.