When People Assume that a Person Can Climb Only One Corporate Ladder
Among one's friends, there are often a few oddballs that decide, one day seemingly out of the blue, that the careers that they have been building for years actually do not interest them anymore. They decide to give that all up, go back to school and learn brand-new trades. Upon graduation, they stay once again, in perhaps their late 30s or 40s, at the bottom of the hierarchy in a new industry that they have never been professionally involved before. I, for one, admire the willingness to forego the comfort of the known and enrich one's life by plunging into the unknown even at an age when people avoid risks and instability.
But to actually follow in the footsteps of such career-changers can be quite difficult, with obstacles that are beyond one's immediate control. People in their 30s and 40s often already have a glittering CV full of professional accomplishments, completing comprehensive projects and managing dozens of people. For any employer reading such a CV, they understandably doubt the intention of the person seeking not just another job but a completely different career track. The candidate applying for the job might be enthusiastically talking about seeking new adventures in life, but for recruiters, a career in another industry does not sound promising.
Perhaps my personal example can be illustrative to the difficulty of changing track mid-career. About six years into my career, my CV is shaping up to be one centered on setting up business operations in emerging markets, working on the nitty-gritty of getting businesses started in emerging markets. As all-encompassing as that may sound, in the minds of many people looking at the CV, it is considered a career that at age 30, would be rather definite and worthy of continued pursuit. Such a perception no doubt runs against the desire to seek new knowledge as a part-time intern while doing a Ph.D. in a rather unrelated field.
The incredulity that comes with such a CV comes from several constraints that together raise question marks or even red flags. Full-time students are not mentally capable of being, nor are they legally allowed to be, employed for more than 3 days a week. Lack of availability to full-time position to really dig into the depth of a new field make their attempts to "earn something new" sound half-hearted at best. Such a perception is only aggravated by the candidate attempting to draw flimsy linkages between past work experiences and what s/he would like to get out of the internship as some sort of continuation of the past while experiencing the new.
From the prospect of the employer, to get such an intern makes little sense. Unlike undergraduates with zero work experience, those seeking dramatic career change cannot be taught from a blank slate. Such people may talk the talk when it comes to absorbing new knowledge in new fields, but the business habits carried over from previous industries and workplaces cannot be easily untaught. Even when they do go about learning new things, they will do so using old methods that they are familiar with from past years of use. Such reality points to the half-heartedness of learning.
Moreover, it is simply hard to instill corporate ideals among people who are already quite experienced in the corporate world. Undergraduates will take in without questioning what they are taught about corporate norms, but mid-careers already have their own minds set. Their already-formed ideas can come into conflict with those of the new industries. Some may even think the radical career change is not a good idea after all and abandon the change halfway. For the employers taking in such interns, all the time and energy investments put in then go completely to waste.
Of course, while the reality of becoming the focus of doubt is harsh for people looking to change their careers, getting an internship may still be the most practical way into a new world. Full-time positions require lengthier commitments and/or prior experiences, both of which are lacking for aging mid-careers with experiences only in other fields. If they are still exploring where to switch into for their new careers, internships would be a good place to start experimenting rather than going all-in by committing to an unknown industry through full-time positions.
Hence it is worth those seeking career adventures to continue chasing the elusive internship offers, even if it is rather difficult for them to outcompete those with no work experiences. Some firms can be extremely open-minded, seeing interns not just as future assets that they have to teach now, but also as assets for their own businesses to expand to new industries in the near future. If they can create a win-win situation where they provide new insights from interns and while learning from the interns simultaneously, then the mid-career interns would be much more valuable than any fresh graduate.
But to actually follow in the footsteps of such career-changers can be quite difficult, with obstacles that are beyond one's immediate control. People in their 30s and 40s often already have a glittering CV full of professional accomplishments, completing comprehensive projects and managing dozens of people. For any employer reading such a CV, they understandably doubt the intention of the person seeking not just another job but a completely different career track. The candidate applying for the job might be enthusiastically talking about seeking new adventures in life, but for recruiters, a career in another industry does not sound promising.
Perhaps my personal example can be illustrative to the difficulty of changing track mid-career. About six years into my career, my CV is shaping up to be one centered on setting up business operations in emerging markets, working on the nitty-gritty of getting businesses started in emerging markets. As all-encompassing as that may sound, in the minds of many people looking at the CV, it is considered a career that at age 30, would be rather definite and worthy of continued pursuit. Such a perception no doubt runs against the desire to seek new knowledge as a part-time intern while doing a Ph.D. in a rather unrelated field.
The incredulity that comes with such a CV comes from several constraints that together raise question marks or even red flags. Full-time students are not mentally capable of being, nor are they legally allowed to be, employed for more than 3 days a week. Lack of availability to full-time position to really dig into the depth of a new field make their attempts to "earn something new" sound half-hearted at best. Such a perception is only aggravated by the candidate attempting to draw flimsy linkages between past work experiences and what s/he would like to get out of the internship as some sort of continuation of the past while experiencing the new.
From the prospect of the employer, to get such an intern makes little sense. Unlike undergraduates with zero work experience, those seeking dramatic career change cannot be taught from a blank slate. Such people may talk the talk when it comes to absorbing new knowledge in new fields, but the business habits carried over from previous industries and workplaces cannot be easily untaught. Even when they do go about learning new things, they will do so using old methods that they are familiar with from past years of use. Such reality points to the half-heartedness of learning.
Moreover, it is simply hard to instill corporate ideals among people who are already quite experienced in the corporate world. Undergraduates will take in without questioning what they are taught about corporate norms, but mid-careers already have their own minds set. Their already-formed ideas can come into conflict with those of the new industries. Some may even think the radical career change is not a good idea after all and abandon the change halfway. For the employers taking in such interns, all the time and energy investments put in then go completely to waste.
Of course, while the reality of becoming the focus of doubt is harsh for people looking to change their careers, getting an internship may still be the most practical way into a new world. Full-time positions require lengthier commitments and/or prior experiences, both of which are lacking for aging mid-careers with experiences only in other fields. If they are still exploring where to switch into for their new careers, internships would be a good place to start experimenting rather than going all-in by committing to an unknown industry through full-time positions.
Hence it is worth those seeking career adventures to continue chasing the elusive internship offers, even if it is rather difficult for them to outcompete those with no work experiences. Some firms can be extremely open-minded, seeing interns not just as future assets that they have to teach now, but also as assets for their own businesses to expand to new industries in the near future. If they can create a win-win situation where they provide new insights from interns and while learning from the interns simultaneously, then the mid-career interns would be much more valuable than any fresh graduate.
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