The most rewarding part of my job is hearing success stories, especially when they are hard-earned. Early this week I received an email from a former student detailing his own job search - which involved a career change - and offered some practical advice to current Kelley students. I asked him if I could share it with you. I think you'll be as impressed as I was. Here it is:
Dear JR,
About two years ago I came and made an appointment with you to discuss career options for my extremely unusual situation. I don't expect you to remember this meeting, as it was only about 45 minutes and we only met on one occasion. However, I wanted to update you and let you know my personal experience so you may share with anyone who has "unusual" circumstances such as mine.
I was a returning adult student (I am 33) in the Kelley School of Business.
I had just returned to college full-time after working in retail management for 13 years. The odd thing about my situation was that I was not returning to study management - I was doing a complete 180 degree turn in my career and studying Computer Information Systems (with absolutely no real-world experience in the field). The reason I had come to you was to discuss what you thought I could do to get myself ready for the job search process (I came to you about a year before my expected graduation of December 2007). In a nutshell, from that 45 minute talk, I deduced I would need to do a LOT of legwork on my end to get a job - the implication was the field I was looking to enter was not very "cookie cutter" and I would need to develop some specific skills to market in order to succeed . . . You prepared me for the cold fact that my career path was going to require a lot of legwork on my part.
With your advice in tow, I talked to professors and business professionals to try to determine what sort of IT positions my management experience would benefit. One specific example, during a project with Pratt Corporation, I took an opportunity to pull the Vice President of IT aside and get his opinion on my skills and the sort of position he thought I would be suited for. I also scoured the internet to try to find common denominators among IT jobs on skills that I could attempt to hone. This information led me to begin self-studying for a project management certification (which I received in November 2007). In addition, I began to do a lot of work on my own developing small/useful programs in Visual Basic.net that I could put into a portfolio to show potential employers (as an example, I created an eBay sales invoicing program I used to track my sales in an Access database and generate invoices).
I graduated "with distinction" from Kelley in December 2007 and began the job-hunt full force. My personal goal was to have a job by the middle/end of February. I had numerous phone interviews but the thing that was getting in the way was I had zero experience in the IT field. I worked with two separate placement firms - both of which were telling me I was only suited for a level I technical support position (answering phones).
While working with the placement firms . . . both were telling me to kind of sit back and let them do the searching - not a good idea. Frustration was mounting because I knew that if I could just get into a company for a face-to-face interview I could convince them I was the person for ANY job. I soon abandoned the placement firms and resumed the search on my own. I re-worked my resume (because obviously something wasn't drawing interest) and plastered it everywhere.
I also sent off copies to all major companies in the area. Then it happened....
One day I received a call to interview as a Technical Assistant for Frank DeLisle and Associates (a contractor at Eli Lilly who found my resume on Kelley Careers). When the job was described to me I was interested, but not to the point I was overly excited. I met with the owner, Frank, and he was impressed with me. I showed him my portfolio of programs and explained in depth my computing knowledge and project management abilities. After that long interview (at Starbucks near IUPUI) I was called back a few days later. He told me he wanted to bring me into Eli Lilly for half a day of interviews - but not as a technical assistant - as a Data Systems Analyst!
I cannot begin to explain how excited I was - this is job I went back to school for. Shortly after, I went through a series of four interviews at Lilly with various levels of management and was hired on as a Data Systems Analyst making [a very competitive salary].
My story is one that many good things can be learned from:
1) Drastic career changes are possible and can have excellent outcomes. I was making $38,000 after 13 years in retail - after getting my degree I just started my new job in March making [significantly more].
2) I probably studied harder on learning the job market and what I needed to do to bolster my resume than I did in any college course. I recommend spending a LOT of time looking at job postings for your projected career well before you start looking for a job. This way you can see what skills are commonly requested in your field and do your best to gain those skills or learn as much as you can about them. A lot of IT jobs want project management skills - so I got a certification in project management.
3) You don't have to know a specific skill they need - but show you can learn it! My job requires SAS programming experience. I have ZERO experience but did a lot of research on it. In the interviews I explained that I knew what it was, had viewed sample code, and would have no problem applying standard programming concepts to the language. I also explained that I realized how easy it is to learn a language - what is harder is learning how to properly program...which is what I was taught at IUPUI.
4) Know who is interviewing you! I was being interviewed by the head of the Epidemiology department. I had NO IDEA what this was so I researched it. Sure enough, one of the first questions he asked me was what I knew about Epidemiology. I was able to blow him away with my knowledge of epidemiology because I prepared ahead of time.
5) Interview yourself over and over! I used to interview myself all the time in the car - asking myself questions I thought could be asked. I was amazed at how many times I caught myself saying things that would definitely not help in an interview. By hearing it out loud it gave me that opportunity to learn how to answer commonly asked questions without shooting myself in the foot. "What are your weaknesses?" I definitely learned how to answer this question in a very positive way that helped my interview.
I am sure you hear stories like this all the time. However, I am extremely proud of how my situation turned out and wanted to share with someone at the school that helped make it all possible. Thank you for reading this...and I hope knowing of my experience may be able to help you with someone else in the future in a similar situation.
