Mission impossible — career switch.
Tags: Data, Careers, Change Your Life

Mission impossible — career switch.

This isn’t a coaching or a guidance article, it’s just a personal story of my experience. I hope some of you, especially the ones who are facing similar choices, will find this story useful and maybe even inspiring. Gruzdevasvetlana Apr 13·6 min read

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

My way to realization that I want to change my career path wasn’t straight forward. For more than ten years I’ve been working in accounting and corporate finance and I was happy with the choice I’d made in high school. I always knew I wanted to work with numbers. I never had special talent for math as a science but I was always very assiduous, meticulous and focused on every detail. That place, that time it sounded that accounting is the perfect match for me. And it was indeed for many years.

But about two years ago I discovered for myself the whole new world of Data. Of course I was working with data my whole career, but I never thought of it as of a separate profession. It started from the project of implementing the data warehouse at the company I was working at that time. I was very happy and excited to participate in it, it was literally my dream job — bringing an order into the chaos. My role was basically Business Analyst, I was architecting the structure, creating maps, reviewing the result but I didn’t develop anything by myself, although I was working very closely with our developers. And it took me a year to realize that this is exactly what I want to do for a living, and not just give instructions but also do the development part with my own hands.

Once the goal became clear, the next question came up — how exactly can I achieve it? I started from self education but it didn’t work for me. I know that for many people it’s a perfect way to become professionals but I get lost without a clear study track. So eventually I decided to do a Data Analytics Bootcamp. I believe it really boosted my skills and knowledge. It was only 9 weeks long but it was super intense and it gave me the solid base to move forward on my chosen path.

So, I had a defined aim in my head, I learned skills to achieve it, the next step was to actually start working as a Data Specialist.

Job hunting

When I realized that I really want to switch career, I accepted all downsides that were coming with it:

starting as a Junior again, and with Junior’s salary of course;

I would have to convince people that I’m changing my career because I know what I’m doing, not just because I don’t know what to do with my life or because I think salaries are better in Data;

there would be always a story to tell — how come I decided to change my career now? Why did I work for ten years in a completely different area?

On the other hand, I had a clear understanding of what job I want, what team I want and what company I want. I didn’t see it even five years ago but now I understand that it’s very important — to know what sort of company you’re looking for, what team would you like to join. Of course sometimes you have to compromise, especially if you’re looking for the first job in the new field, but these compromises should be conscious and the benefit should be clear.

The pleasant surprise was that recruiters and hiring managers appreciated my prior experience and soft skills I developed during my prior career. I was prepared to convince them of its value but I never had to.

Unpleasant but expected fact was that many, really many, companies are looking for Juniors with 1–2 years of experience. No one was able to explain to me how this experience was supposed to be gained, even though I’ve asked directly. Another unanswered question — why would somebody with 2 years of experience would agree on a Junior position?

On the other hand, few companies rejected me because they found me over experienced 😁

Now, when everything is over, I look back and I must admit it turned out much better than I expected. After less than two months of active job hunting I got an amazing offer: it’s exactly the role I was dreaming of, the company is encouraging employees to constantly develop their skills, I ended up in an awesome supportive team.

Funny enough I got my first job offer after only three weeks of job hunting, right before the Christmas holidays. But this just didn’t feel like a right place. My biggest fear when I was rejecting that offer was that I would be looking for a job for months and I would regret I lost this opportunity. But even after getting rejected on the roles where I was sure I’m the best candidate I didn’t regret I hadn’t accepted that offer. It just was not right for me.

Numbers

Even before I started actively applying I’ve decided I will collect some data to show some stats. I don’t say it’s 100% representative but I think it’s nice to see an example of the job hunting process.

Exact time passed between my first application and a job offer I accepted was 57 days.

Out of 96 applications I received 58 responses (60%). So almost half of employers didn’t bother to reply anything, even rejection.

Out of these 58 responses only 10 were positive (which is 10% of total number of applications or 17% of total number of responses received).

One company asked to do a technical assignment before any calls. I must say if I wasn’t applying for a Junior position I would feel offended. Especially taking into account that tasks were very basic, not sure what they tried to filter out this way, in my opinion it’s just a dismissive attitude to the applicants.

I also wanted to see if there is any relation between chances to get a response and the week day you apply. Of course I have a very small population but I don’t really see any strong correlations:

Relation of number of responses to the week day of application

Relation of number of positive responses to the week day of application

Takeaways

Know your assets. You might not see it like this but any professional experience — it’s an asset already. It means you know how to communicate on professional level, how to make things done collaborating with other colleagues, you know deadlines, you know prioritization.

Don’t desperately take any job related to the desired field. It’s very tempting, especially after weeks of the fruitless search, but if you’re not excited about a job description, if you don’t feel a connection with your future teammates, if you don’t share values of your future employer, you most probably will not be happy. And how can you perform 100% if you’re unhappy? It might turn out dissatisfying for both parties and you might end up looking for a job again after a few months. I strongly believe that it’s worth waiting for the offer that will make you dance.

There is probably some structure and logic behind the job market, but for me it felt like looking for a Love Of My Life on Tinder — everything is at the mercy of fate😁 So don’t give up. Remember, it’s a process, and might take some time, but eventually you will find the perfect job in your dream team.