How did you *actually* change career?

[CareerChanger1]

As title really! I’m looking for a career change but am finding it really difficult. I keep getting shot down for not having the “right” experience - even though I do have great experience and am confident I would pick a new job up quickly. I’m just not sure where to go from here tbh so would love to know how others did it!

I think changing career often means taking a pay cut to get into your chosen career path and learn the trade as it were. At entry level you're not expected to have experience, further up the ladder/paid more you are. It might also be that you need qualifications you don't have.

It would help if you tell us what you're trying to change from and to?

It depends entirely on the specifics.

If you have great confidence and experience as a brain surgeon, I'm still not going to recruit you as a solicitor. If you have great confidence and experience as a computer programmer, I'm still not going to recruit you to coach the olympic cycling team.

What careers are you trying to change from and to?

I studied for a qualification, then started back at the bottom. I've progressed faster than others who were fresh graduates, so the previous skills and experience do count for something.

I changed at 34 and started gain at the bottom. Never made up the Lost salary or, more importantly, the lost pension contributions.

I work in procurement for our local hospital.

I started at the bottom... 18 months literally stacking shelves on band 2.
Then moved to an office based job within the department, basically order processing and chasing up missing items. Done this for the last 8 months. I have now landed a job as junior buyer with relevant CIPS, NVQ Level 3 training.

I did try like you to get a different job moving industry, but like you, I wasn't successful.

You need to take the paycut and start at the bottom in order to move up. Most (not all) more senior jobs or jobs with training opportunities will go to staff already known or working for a company...

I didnt manage it and glad I stuck on original pathway tbh; I think you have to be able to go entry level. Ime 'transferable skills' is not a thing.

All the people I’ve known who’ve changed careers have either had to give up their job to go to university and get a qualification in that subject and then start again, or they’ve got a job in a related (in some way) field which meant a big pay cut in order to start at the bottom. Without having savings, another source of income or means of support I don’t know how people manage to do it.

Gradually.

I went from IT tech support to IT product marketing, to IT general marketing to higher education general marketing.

I do think people overestimate the significance of their transferable skills tbh. Direct experience is something tangible for employers, whereas "transferable skills" are more of a gamble.

I'm currently working with someone who on paper had great experience in a loosely related sector and they are really struggling to get up to speed. I have every confidence that they'll get there in the long run, but it would have been a hell of a lot easier if they'd had experience in our specific sector, and they wouldn't have got the job if we hadn't really struggled to recruit.

Anyway, both myself and dh changed career, me in my 30s, him in his 40s, and we both started from the bottom with academic retraining and then entry level positions. I got a small inheritance which let me go part time to retrain, I then supported dh financially 10 years later when he took a year out of the workplace to do the same.

Thanks all. It is very frustrating!

For context I have a degree in Economics and I’m currently a tax adviser (chartered) and have worked in private client tax for about 10 years. I’m applying for various finance-y roles but none that you would need a specific degree or qualification for.

I have interviews coming up for in house tax roles but they have both already commented on my lack of corporate tax experience so I’m not sure what the outcome will be. The jobs would be stepping stones to something else at the very least.

I’d love a total career change to pharmacy but I’m a one income household so I can’t really afford to go back to uni for 4 years then on to a graduate salary. I’ve thought about teaching business studies too but the logistics wouldn’t work!

What you're trying to do is a very big leap. Realistically you might need to find an extra stepping stone or two between private client and in-house - eg private client to mixed tax to corporate tax to in-house.

Or a general practice role that would enable you to pick up indirect tax or corporate tax experience. But you need a stepping stone because you're currently specialised in the wrong tax for what you want to do and you wouldn't be an "experienced" hire in a different tax.

Private client straight into in-house corporate tax or indirect tax with potentially tax provisioning, quarterly instalments, setting up CT processes, giving advice on M&A, transfer pricing, SAO, country by country reporting, pillar 2... Easy to see why employers are not persuaded. The risk to the business of taking on someone with responsibility for those complex areas when they have no prior experience is far too high.

Have you had any exposure to any of that kind of work? Done any training or CPD in those areas? If not I think you need a plan to develop those expertise first and find some smaller stepping stones like pp's example of their transition from tech support to marketing.

Would you be able to pass a corporate tax technical test at interview? If so, great. If not, how would you propose to do the role anyway (especially considering PCRT)?

Which exams did you take for your CTA? You could consider doing an ADIT paper on a standalone basis to develop and demonstrate your larger corporate knowledge (eg the UK paper).

Thanks - yea I am aware of all this and I am happy to do more exams if I need to and I’ve told everyone that. I’m not aiming for an in house role, it’s just there’s not much available for me where I live (without having to completely retrain) so it makes the most sense. Like I said I’ve got the two interviews coming up so we’ll see how they go!

Ideally I’d like to work for the civil service but there aren’t jobs here that often.

Also both the in house roles were referrals from local recruitment agencies, I’d never have considered them otherwise. I’m fed up of tax 🤣

Is there any possibility of doing something else where you are now? It’s often easier to persuade an employer that you can bridge into a different area (operations for example) if you have a good track record in your company, than persuading a potential new employer to give it a go.

Understandable

If you can find a way to swing it, in-house probably is the best way into a large firm where you can then switch to a different department.

School business manager?

Or the other extreme throw everything into climbing the tax ladder for a few years so you can earn and therefore save enough to take the hit retraining in pharmacy?

There are occasionally threads on accountingweb about how to get out of tax. But the main suggestions are usually to become a tax recruiter or a tax lecturer!

I don't blame you!

It's something I've successfully managed to avoid so far.

I thought I’d jump in since I’ve recently been exploring a change myself. I’m transitioning from a retail background into healthcare, specifically looking into sterile processing. It’s a fascinating field I hadn’t even heard of until a friend mentioned it. The Certified Registered Central Service Technician (CRCST) is offered by the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA), seems like a solid starting point. What’s cool is that while it’s very specialized, it doesn’t require a medical degree. It’s more about focus, precision, and a desire to contribute to patient safety—skills I realized I already have from my current role!

By having a skill (writing) and some relevant field knowledge (real estate/ facilities management) from being an editor in that area when there is a lot of demand for the career (bid writing)