Does anyone in real life actually manage to change to totally different job without retraining?

[Echobelly]

I seem to read quite a lot about 'transferrable skills' and how some people manage to change from one field to a totally different one with no or minimal training and I wonder if this ever really happens? Surely for most things employers can find someone with directly relevant experience and wouldn't even look at someone in a totally different field who says they have great transferrable skills?

I've done it by moving roles in the same company.

With my current company I started as customer service manager for the call centre operations and am now in governance, compliance & risk as part of the cyber security department.

I've not done any formal training just learnt on the job and used transferable knowledge and skills.

I did. I learned a trade, say electrician (because mine is potentially outing), I did get a job for an online company describing products for Amazon, Ebay,...
I am now working in ecommerce for a different company head of my own department.

I’ve done it too by moving in the same
Company. IT to HR

I moved from being a project manager to working in data protection with no previous experience. Project skills were actually very useful to my new role because it involved having to consult on projects and offer suggestions and insight into the potential data privacy implications, amongst other things. When I was hired my manager explained that she felt the knowledge was the easy bit to acquire, but the skills to do the job are very much down to the individual, so she chose to hire me over some (on paper) more qualified candidates 🤷🏼‍♀️

*I also moved roles within the same company

My friend has been, in a couple of years...
A waitress, a school cook, a barista, a secretary, a PA, a bus driver and now a cafe owner.
The only job-hop that required training was the bus driving and they provided that.

I think it's easier in the same company. I work in the civil service and its definitely possible. Very easy to get seconded into an area for a short time then progress to a permanent position in that area.

I often hire out of our call centre as they have broad institutional knowledge that I need for one of the roles on my team.

I did but I started right at the bottom again, going from a salary of £40k (10 years ago, so quite good) to less than £15k for a while.

My transferable skills enabled my to progress quickly once in the role though and I have done a lot of CPD and a professional qualification whilst working, which has enabled me to match my old salary with a much better work life balance, although still a lower income in real terms.

I moved from healthcare to IT. There were a couple of jobs (Not that common, but have seen them) that advertised for people without software/engineering/maths degree. I did need to hobby code for a few years before, and DH helped me as he is in the industry. In terms of actual skills, I think people can do it, but it requires the company to think outside the box. DH thinks they should do it more.

I moved from the entertainment industry to a charity. No retraining needed. But I did have to take a pay hit.

Dh went from IT to a creative field. He’s self employed, so perhaps not quite the same as he didn’t have to convince anyone to hire him with pretty much no training or experience. He taught himself and is just naturally creative. Earns about 5-6x his old salary in IT.

Pre Covid/redundancy DP was a pilot. He’s now a plumber’s mate.

I have too; retraining provided on the job in my new role - totally different areas of work but the skills and experience I had built up have brought a lot to the table in my new role, I have just had to adapt the relevant ones to fit. I have taken a large pay cut, but am hoping to move up fairly quickly as long as I keep working hard and pushing myself.

Yes, but it was 22 years ago. I left home (was kicked out, whole other thread!) at 16, excellent O’levels as was, but no A’levels and couldn’t afford to stay in school, had to get a job. So got on a train to the City and went to the first employment agency I found outside the station, got an interview the same day (this was 1987, probably wouldn’t happen that way now). I worked in banking, in import/export documentary credits. I worked my way up, through supervision and management positions til 1998 when, being made redundant for the second time, I was headhunted for a tech company. They wanted to write software for the imp/exp business but, though having loads of techies, they had no imp/exp business experience. So, despite being barely able to switch a PC on in 98, I was recruited as a Product Manager because business knowledge was in short supply. They taught me all I needed to know on the tech side and I’ve never looked back. At that time you could learn the tech, you couldn’t ‘learn’ years of experience in the business. Couldn’t say if that translates to 2020 though.

Thanks - interesting to hear. I do wonder what options would be open to me if I were made redundant (no sign of it at the moment, but not convinced my job is safe in the next year) - fortunately we have recently, had to pick up digital skills, which does open up a lot more jobs than if I had to be 'on the market' without them.