Making the change from academia to the world of work
Interview question - February 19, 2008
I have been working for universities most of my life, as a researcher. Now I am 36 and I need to change career.
The problem is I am overqualified for most of the jobs but do not have necessary experience (I am considering administrative jobs). I have only had one interview so far and it did not go very well. First problem was I could not answer very specific questions related to work, although I am a quick learner and I am sure once I have started I would figure it out very quickly.
Second problem - what do I say when asked why I am changing career? The truthful answer is that I am not too good in my current job, and I also need stability (I could continue on fixed-term contracts but I have a family now and I am tired of uncertainty), but I cannot say that.
Could you please give me advise on how to convince employers that despite being an old academic, I will quickly learn new tricks. And how to answer "correctly" why I am changing jobs...
I've come across people like you before. IMHO, it is not a case of you being overqualified; quite the opposite. What I would be concerned about is how you relate to a normal "team" environment. A job is simply not about you being able to learn quickly, it is how you are going to interact within the organisation. I would say this is going to be your biggest weakness, unless you can demonstrate that you have participated in a lot of "team" activities whilst at Universtiy.
On the question of changing jobs, the best thing would be to tell the truth, and that you have to get into the real world because you now have real world responsibilities, so you need a real job and a career to feed your family.
Most importantly, you have to show how you can use the skills set that you possess to earn value for a company. eg. Presentation skills, editing skills (papers etc), organisation skills etc.. this is what employers are interested in - not what you can learn in order to do the job.
It is a very difficult situation that you are in at the moment, trick is to find a market sector where you could fit in - try to locate these and work on presenting yourself in such a way that people won't be too worried about your academic career because you have given them a real insight into your potential - you'll have to work on that. Best of luck
Rasputin - February 26, 2008 9:14 AM