Three Moves Companies Can Make to Attract and Retain Candidates in Career Transition

Look for self-awareness and be sure to have a little yourself

A career change is often far more than a move from one job to another, with one workplace or set of skills neatly traded in for new ones. Such transitions are often rockier and more emotional even for those making the change with full agency and choice: career changers must retool old identities in addition to their resumes.

But candidates and recruiters can turn this friction into a positive if managed professionally. Candidates who demonstrate awareness and think through the frictions in clear and meaningful ways may reveal a more acute and detailed sense of their own capacities, limitations, and areas for growth in a new field or organization. Recruiters with understanding and guidance for this friction are only enhancing their pitch.

Genuine responses to interview questions and open transparency about the difficulties of a career change can be simple signs of both a self-aware candidate and a self-aware employer. A mutual awareness of such difficulties may attract committed talent with fresh eyes for a company’s rusty habits and processes.

Consider ways candidates can leverage internal networks to achieve early success

A recent HBR article highlighted a “frequently overlooked prerequisite for transition success: the effective use of internal networks.” Individuals transitioning into a new space, it claims, are most “productive, innovative, and engaged” when they quickly establish broad, mutually beneficial connections throughout an organization. These connections enable them to engage with company culture and quickly attain success.

For those making a major career change, such networks are vital for understanding the finer points of an organization’s culture, work-life balance, and definitions of success in ways that a series of interviews and office visits may not reveal.

Even if a candidate is changing careers primarily for increased compensation, they will be looking for a more holistic understanding of the new industry they have entered. While a recruiter cannot provide such access in an interview, developing a loose roadmap to navigate these networks and communicating the benefits of internal networks to candidates can prove an enticing draw and basis for future success.

Have a sense of career paths candidates can take both internally and externally

Strong candidates often look beyond compensation for pathways that a new job or skillset will permit, and this is especially true of the career changer. For someone entering a new field or industry, the question of where they see themselves in 5 years is likely to solicit a more obscure response than that of other candidates. Rather than a reason to grade the candidate down, such obscurity can be an opportunity to define new career plans and industry goals that drive innovation and engagement.

Recruiters can encourage candidates to think through certain trajectories that their organization or career type can offer. Keeping a robust set of trajectories and alumni examples available might encourage candidates to think of the organization as a chance for an informal education, in which a mutually beneficial dedication to development, innovation, and growth are fundamental.

Employers can no longer expect candidates to sign up for a lifetime commitment. But companies can seek to offer dynamic learning experiences that keep employees striving and developing in ways that will leave a lasting mark on the organization and entice new job seekers to their doors.

Anthony Topoleski, Ph.D. is a Project Manager of ECA Partners. He can be reached at [email protected].