To think I can change careers?

[Strawberries86]

I am late 30’s and work in the public sector, manage a 3- 4 million budget, 50 staff, experience with service delivery, use of data, meeting targets. For this responsibility I’m taking 65k pre tax.

Aibu to think I could transfer these skills to the private sector and earn more? I know I’m a good leader, I’m strategic and can manage people and a service. Surely there is potential but I don’t know where to start. Or is this a pipe dream from a public sector lifer.

Any idea’s, hints of personal experience of something like this, please share.

All you can do is try. I would say 2 things.

Firstly, there's no guarantee you will earn more. The salary differential between public and private has reduced to some extent and, when you factor in things like pension, flexible working holidays etc, the package as a whole may not be better even if the basic salary is.

Secondly, you need to prepare yourself to prove that you have the levels of sophistication (in terms of working processes, tech etc) as well as pace. It depends on what you're moving from and to. For example, the NHS is painfully slow, it would be a learning curve to move to any private sector company but if you go into certain sectors that curve would be enormous.

An option would be to look at private companies that work directly with the public sector as your experience may be beneficial to them in understanding the customer base and the pace and business processes may be more closely aligned.

It can be tricky (particularly in this economic climate) but its not impossible. Good luck!