Pondering at the fork

 

            How do you prove your past experience is relevant to the new role you want to apply for?  How do you prove you have done the same kind of work in a different environment, and have learned the skills needed to learn more and perform adequately? It is one of the biggest questions on the road of work we all travel.

            A few of us have been fortunate enough to do the same thing from the start, and have never felt the need or wish to shift into a different career path. A lot of have felt we should make some kind of move outside the field we start in, and it is not easy.

            Unless you have worked as a pastor of a small church you won’t appreciate how much goes into that job. Unless you have been around a farm you won’t really grasp the kind of work ethic it takes to succeed there. The same goes for fast-food employees, retail workers, plumbers, and homemakers. We know our fields, and there is some level of security in sticking to what we know.

            Who wants to take a chance on a guy who has worked outside the industry for a decade when there are a dozen or more college kids with relevant degrees, and just as many jobseekers with a year or two of in-industry experience? We know these people really have the skills specific to our industry.

            The things about skills is that they can be taught. You cannot teach someone to be eager, or dedicated, or a self-starter, or dependable, or a hard-worker. You can not teach character that is forged. What I am pondering as I linger here at the fork in my career path is the true value of character. I wonder what would happen if we found a company worth of motivated, solid character employees and trained them to do whatever? Unless we are performing surgery, or engineering rocket ships, I think the whole things would go pretty well.

            Then again, I am man looking for someone who wants to take chance on me. I have skills, abilities, and talents all honed in positions that did not come with any kind of clout in the broader job-market. I haven’t figured out to prove I have these skills, abilities, and talents; but I can prove my character in one line, I am still trying.