How To Position Yourself For Career Changes

By Anna Johnson

Thinking of a career change... but worried that you're not qualified for the new career?

Well, your worry may well be justified - you may need a specific qualification, credential or body of experience to be qualified for the job.

On the other hand... your lack of credentials may all be in your head!

I call this condition "credentialitis". It's where, despite having all the talent, skills and knowledge you need, you still feel as though you must acquire a new qualification or credential in order to progress in your business, get a promotion or change careers.

I just don't get it.

Qualifications and credentials are supposed to be a short-hand way of proving you have skills and knowledge in a certain area. But if you can easily DEMONSTRATE those skills and knowledge... why do you need a degree, diploma, certificate or some other piece of paper to prove it?

For example, imagine you're an entrepreneurial high-school drop out who's just sold a small business and wants a career change. Let's say you want to become the marketing manager of a large corporation.

If you suffered from credentialitis you may think that you don't have what it takes to be the marketing manager.

You may even be prompted to go to business school and spend thousands of dollars and two years of your life to get an MBA in marketing...

Now, you may well learn and benefit a great deal from doing this... but was it really necessary to get that marketing job? Did you really lack the core skills for that role?

Could you not have reframed the many relevant skills, knowledge and talents you developed as an entrepreneur into "real-world" qualifications for the marketing job?

Again, I'm not questioning going to college or doing a course when you want or need to acquire certain skills or knowledge. Some career changes - like becoming a lawyer or doctor - justifiably require you to do that.

But for other career changes you just don't need to spend hundreds or thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of dollars on doing courses... Not when you ALREADY have the essential skills and knowledge to do something. Or when you could learn what you need by spending a few bucks on a book... or attending a half-day workshop... or just learning on the job.

Of course, we seem to live in a society that suffers from wholesale "credentialitis" - where more weight is given to credentials and qualifications than REAL skills, knowledge and experience.

But it's up to you and I to change this.

So, firstly, even if you're changing careers, I urge you to develop your self-confidence, and in particular, your confidence in what you truly know and can do.

And if you're thinking about doing some kind of program or course... ask yourself this first:

Are you doing it to learn something new... or to prove to yourself or others what you already know?

If you can get over your credentialitis you'll save a lot of money, time and energy (just think of those late nights studying you WON'T have to endure!) and also become a happier, more fulfilled person in the process.

And if you're ever confronted with your "lack of qualifications" just emphasize and reframe your actual knowledge and experiences so that no-one can argue with your real-life abilities.

For example, I remember being asked why I didn't have an MBA. I simply said that that I had a "real-world" MBA, and explained all the business skills I developed through working in advertising, marketing, law and most importantly, my own business...

And my interviewer was perfectly satisfied with my answer.

Not that every job interviewer will be satisfied of course!

But if you find that a potential employer just doesn't "get it"... look for a career change elsewhere - with people and companies that aren't so superficial and who can see past the surface to true value.

And when YOU hire and manage others - try not to be too pre-occupied by qualifications and credentials.

In some cases, not only are these often a poor indicator of true on-the-job talent (just ask the partners at my old law firm who tended NOT to hire the academically brightest law school grads), but they don't tell you what you really want to know:

...whether, and HOW, someone will do the work you want done (including working with other people and having the psychological make-up for the job).