GET OUT! - transitioning careers

Do you have any suggestions or advice for someone trying to get out of sales and into exec asst or similar while finishing a degree?

 Yeah! Transitioning careers is all about mapping cross over skills. Cross over skills are skills that are portable,  that someone can take \ from one job to the next. Usually, cross over skills have mass appeal. Everyone needs to know how to maneuver in Microsoft Office, right? That’s something that anyone can put on their resume.

                The real question is what skills are needed in the direction you are headed in? Here is an executive assistant job description from OfficeTeam :

 Executive Assistant – Performs administrative duties for executive management. Responsibilities may include screening calls, making travel and meeting arrangements, preparing reports and financial data, training and supervising other support staff, and customer relations. Requires strong computer and internet research skills. Also calls for flexibility, excellent interpersonal skills, project coordination experience, and the ability to work well with all levels of internal management and staff, as well as outside clients and vendors.  

                 I’ve highlighted key words that will be important to you as you uncover your cross over skills. First, let’s deconstruct this job description so we can reflect on what the company is looking for in their terms.  Yellow highlighted items are actual job skills and green highlighted items are more interpersonal skills.

                I’m going to make some broad generalizations about someone in sales, so feel free to yell at me if I’ve pegged you wrong.  I can assume someone in sales has been on a telephone at some point, and that a salesperson can separate someone interested in the sales pitch? and someone that isn’t going to buy something. That’s screening calls. 

                I think it’s also safe to assume that most salespeople have to be accountable to someone, or that a salesperson has to show some accountability for how much, or little, s/he sells, right? So you, as a salesperson, have on some level prepared reports or financial data. I’ve never met a successful salesperson with poor interpersonal skills, but I’m sure there are exceptions.

What I’m doing here is locating the necessary cross over skills for the job description. Using this line of thinking is going to help out when writing a resume and the interview. Remember,  the only purpose of the resume is to get the interview, that is where a person makes or breaks getting the job.

                If you have an idea what industry you would like to work in after getting your degree, then I start by looking at executive assistant jobs in that field. That way you can start fluffing out your resume and work experience, not to mention give the industry a trial run to see if you actually will like working in it. Hopefully that helps! If not, let me know and we can dive in deeper!