Thinking of Changing Careers? Here are 15 In-Demand Skills, Experience, and Abilities Your Future Employers Will Want

Many of us were raised on the idea that we should go to school, find a good job, stay there for a few decades, then blissfully transition to a leisurely retirement. 

Of course, anyone who’s spent time in the modern workforce knows that’s not how things work anymore.

In today’s world, it’s more common to find someone in their 40s who has completely changed their career than to find someone who’s still working at the first place that hired them after high school. 

So, if you’re thinking about changing careers, you’re in good company. A recent survey from the job site Indeed found that 49 percent of people change careers, most commonly in their late 30s. 

Considering that one-fifth of today’s seniors plan to work past the age of 70, changing careers around 40 doesn’t seem crazy.

But while there’s no rule about how old you need to be to shift gears, there are some skills, experiences, and abilities your future employers will want to see before they hire you. Here’s my take on what you’ll need to move from one career to the next successfully.

Skills

Transferable skills move with you from one job to the next. Depending on your current role, you may need to find ways to improve certain skills before sending out your resume. When you’re thinking about making a career change, focus on building these five skills.

Leadership

Employers need to know you can take charge of a situation, team, or project. However, you don’t necessarily need to hold a leadership position to take on leadership roles. Up to 70 percent of leadership skills come from experience, not training. So, if you don’t have a leadership role now, consider taking the lead on a project or chairing a committee for a volunteer organization. 

Collaboration

While many employers value those who can work autonomously, you also need to be able to work with others to get things done. Employers will want to see examples of how you collaborated with various teams to accomplish a task or complete a project. It’s a bonus if you can productively work with people outside your specialization.

Knowing how to educate yourself

Most fields are fast-paced and constantly evolving. As a result, the most successful people are continually learning and upskilling to stay ahead. The skills required for continual learning include time management, knowing when to ask questions (and what questions to ask), and identifying reliable sources of information as your educational tools.

Distinguishing between quality information and noise

There is a lot of information out there in the world. No matter what career path you choose, you’ll need to know how to separate legitimate sources from everything else and defend the sources you rely upon.

Follow-through

A lot of people have great ideas that get abandoned as soon as the next one comes along. Before hiring you, I would need to know that you can finish one task completely before moving on to the next, even when you’re surrounded by new projects and other distractions. This is particularly true in our current era of busyness and constant multitasking.

Experience

I’ve talked before about how experience can help guide decision-making. While you won’t always make the same decision as you did in the past, your experiences should help you make more informed decisions when faced with new challenges. These are some of the experiences I’d like to see from someone making a career change if I were hiring them.

Trying something new (and succeeding)

I want to believe that you will succeed by making this career change. So, show me an example of a time when you tried something completely new and succeeded. Provide insight into your own self-awareness, what the experience meant to you, and how overcoming challenges along the way contributed to your success.

Trying something new (and failing)

I also want to know how you handle adversity. Everyone fails but every failure is an opportunity to learn and further self-awareness. When did you try something and fail and what led to the failure? Most importantly, what did you learn from that failure, and how did you implement that lesson in a future decision with a better result?

Approaching problems from different perspectives

One thing I often hear when I go into businesses is that they’re following a process because “we’ve always done it that way.” But just because you’ve been using the same solution to solve a problem for years doesn’t mean it’s the best way. So, tell me about a time when you approached a common problem from a new perspective. 

Technical experience

Of course, you’ll need some technical experience in whatever field you’re going into. For instance, if you’re entering the world of finance, you’ll need to demonstrate that you have some real-world experience in the financial industry. If you want to go into FP&A, you’ll want to read more about the skills and traits that will help you stand out.

Solving complex challenges

You’re going to face complex challenges in any career you enter. I want to know that you can get to the root of the problem and bring people in as needed to help you find a solution. It’s just as important to understand how you process complex challenges as it is to understand that you’ll tackle them successfully.

Intellectual Abilities

Your intellectual abilities don’t have anything to do with your IQ. Instead, they refer to how you process information to make decisions. You can train your brain to improve your intellectual capacity by reading, engaging in thoughtful debates, and opening yourself to new opinions and world views. Here are five intellectual abilities to hone as you gear up for your career change.

Facing challenges through ambiguity

We’re still working in a state of flux and uncertainty, which means it’s more important now than ever to get through challenges even when the outcome is unknown. 

Critical thinking

This is one of those abilities everyone thinks they have, yet few have actually mastered. Thinking critically means looking at a problem objectively and analyzing all the available evidence to form a conclusion. It is not opinion-based, and it might mean that sometimes you make a decision that goes against your initial gut reaction. If you can think critically, you will stand out among other job candidates and employees.

Assess smart risks

Sometimes, you need to step outside your comfort zone to get results. Most business decisions involve a degree of risk and uncertainty. Knowing when it’s a good idea to take a calculated risk can help you (and your company) get big rewards. 

Act with empathy (and recognize when others need your help)

We’re all human. We all struggle sometimes, and we all make mistakes. That we need to be cognizant of others’ struggles means that we need to be emotionally available. Know when to give your clients and colleagues some grace and recognize when they need you to step in and offer your help.

Confidence (but not ego)

Finally, you need to be confident that you can achieve this new challenge. However, being confident doesn’t mean having an ego. Instead, having confidence in yourself includes recognizing when someone else is better equipped to tackle a particular task or project rather than always assuming you’re the only one who can do the job. 

There are many talented people out there considering a career change right now. Stand out from the crowd by demonstrating your proficiency in these 15 skills, experiences, and abilities. Your future employer will thank you.