Courage for non-linear career paths

The pilot becomes a manager, the HR officer becomes a bank advisor. We hear similar stories again and again. But, despite the shortage of skilled workers, it is still difficult to change jobs. Progressive employers have recognised this trend and deliberately focus on employees who want to give their career a new direction. The benefit is clear: employees are more motivated and bring experience from completely different fields into the company.

How do you select your new employees?

What criteria do you use to select new employees? Is a complete curriculum vitae central, with various stations in well-known companies within your industry? Or is education at a prestigious university or college the deciding factor? Do you look for very specific skills in the references and CV? Without a doubt, CVs, motivation letters and work references give important clues about a person applying for a specific position. This is beyond question.

But what are the most important criteria that make a team successful? It often becomes apparent in everyday working life that the mindset and attitude of a single person within a team can have an extraordinarily positive effect (and in bad cases, unfortunately, also a very negative one). So, are attitude and mindset the main criteria for employment in your company or are these two dimensions a “nice-to-have” alongside many others?

Of course, a certain degree of specific skills is important in a new job for a concrete field of requirement. For example, as a communication specialist, it is not possible to adapt the specific skills of a surgeon and – without medical studies and years of experience – be successful. However, there are skills that can be transferred from one sector to another.

Transferable skills

For example, a hotel specialist shows a very high service orientation in all his actions and for him customer satisfaction is the very first priority.

Service orientation and a constant striving for customer satisfaction are also of central importance in sales talks, for example in the insurance industry. In addition to a large portion of love and care, successfully raising children also requires skills such as stakeholder and time management and often also particularly skilled project management. Three skills that are needed one-to-one in many industries today to master the challenges of the future and to develop innovative solutions.

“Must-have” and “nice-to-have” criteria

No one can predict with absolute certainty today which specific skills will be important to be successful in the future. The central question is therefore: What precautions can we already take today to recruit the best employees for the future? One way to do this is to define the criteria for recruitment very carefully and divide them into mandatory “must have” and “nice to have” criteria. In addition, non-linear CVs require special scrutiny within the application process, because a break in the CV does not necessarily mean that no new skills were acquired during this time. Rather, in non-linear CVs it is important to find out which specific skills are available and in which function within the company they can best be used.

In doing so, it is always necessary to consider the attitudes and dispositions of the individual and which of his or her personal abilities can be transferred to new fields of activity. If we succeed in this, people with the most diverse perspectives and abilities will work together in the individual teams and, with the right attitudes and mindsets, will be particularly successful in mastering the challenges of the future.

You can see how MasonBreese, for example, recruits and what they pay particular attention to.

Career Relaunch

The Career Empowerment Label is awarded by the University of St.Gallen and the Avenir Group to companies that recruit people with non-linear CVs and are committed to the topic of “Career Relaunch” with special measures. Applications are possible at any time. More information about the Career Empowerment Label.