Changing careers? Start with the experience you already have

When you consider a career change, the first thing you notice may be everything you haven’t done.

You haven’t held the title. You haven’t worked in the industry. You don’t know the software mentioned in the job description.

Those gaps matter. But they’re only part of the picture.

Your existing experience may give you a useful starting point—if you can explain how it connects to the work you want to do.

Describe your work without your job title

Job titles can hide what someone actually contributes.

An account manager might negotiate difficult agreements, spot commercial opportunities and coordinate delivery across several teams. An operations coordinator might improve processes, analyse recurring problems and keep projects moving.

Write down what you do using verbs: analyse, negotiate, organise, investigate, explain, design, resolve.

Then add a concrete example to each one. What was the situation? What did you do? What changed?

This gives you evidence to work with, rather than a list of qualities such as “adaptable” or “a good communicator.”

Find where that experience meets the new role

Choose a specific role to explore. Read several descriptions and identify the responsibilities that appear repeatedly.

For each responsibility, ask:

• Have I done something similar?
• Can I show a relevant result?
• What would be different in this context?
• What would I need to learn?

For example, someone moving from account management into customer success may have useful experience managing relationships and resolving problems. They may still need to understand the product, customer onboarding and the measures that team uses.

Both things can be true: they bring relevant experience, and they have something to learn.

Identify the gap that matters most

Some careers require formal qualifications, licences or substantial training. Others offer more room to move through adjacent experience.

Before buying a course, speak with people who hire for the role. Ask which gaps would prevent them considering you and which could reasonably be learned on the job.

That conversation can help you focus your time and money.

A certificate may help. So might a small project, experience in your current organisation or a stronger example of work you’ve already completed.

Test the direction

A career change is easier to assess when you have experienced some of the work.

You could contribute to a project in another team, shadow someone, volunteer for a relevant task or complete a small independent project.

Keep the scope realistic. The purpose is to learn whether you enjoy the work and to build evidence of your ability.

You may discover that the new direction fits. You may also discover that you prefer an adjacent move with less disruption.

Either result is useful.

Explain the move clearly

A strong career-change story connects three things:

What you’ve done → what you want to do → why the connection makes sense.

For example:

“I’ve spent four years working with customers and identifying recurring problems. I’d like to move into product operations, where I can use that experience to improve how customer feedback reaches the product team. I’ve started testing that direction by helping organise our internal feedback process.”

That is more useful than saying you’re ready for a new challenge.

At Seat At The Table, we want to understand the experience and ambitions that a job title can miss. A conversation gives you room to explain both what you bring and where you want to go.

Explore your next move with Seat At The Table.