Super-charge your career pivot into tech by following this two-step process
This is Part 3 of a multi-part series focused on how to navigate your career transition. Using this approach, I landed interviews with 15 companies, and received four offers to pivot out of o&g into tech.
When pivoting into tech, your resume can’t look like someone trying to be a product manager, UX designer, or data scientist. Your resume needs to read like you were born for the job. You have only six seconds to convince someone you don’t belong in the reject pile.
Networking can get you to the top of the resume pile, but if you can’t communicate your relevant experience, the referral may not lead to an interview.
Experience is tough to compete against, so it’s critical to put in the hard work of translating your skills and accomplishments in an easily digestible format. This is the hardest part of a job transition that requires the most effort. In fact, I don’t think most readers will get through this post, but unfortunately, this is where the rubber meets the road.
Understand the gist of the job.
I literally typed “product manager” in LinkedIn Jobs and compiled 3–5 job descriptions that resonated with me. I also Google’ed “what is product management” to read up on key skills required to succeed in the job. Based on that research, I complied the table below. In the left column, I listed the most common recurring skills. In the column to the right, I categorized and grouped those skills.
This was a critical step in helping me understand the “gist” of product management. I quickly realized that I was already a product manager (PdM). My product was wells that produce hydrocarbons, rather than software. This was a powerful realization; I had a legitimate path into tech without having to become the dreaded full stack developer (ugh). Skills gaps such as customer development and intimacy could easily be closed through on-the-job training or through my volunteer experience.
You will know you have succeeded at translating your experience when peers in your current industry are at a loss when they read your resume.
Any major skills gaps that you notice can be addressed through online or in-person training. I focused on taking Product Management courses to learn the lingo and understand basic PdM concepts, so I could use the right language in my resume and interviews. I also talked to several industry contacts to assess if I would be a good fit for those role (I was).
Translate your work experience.
The goal of this step is to highlight your industry-specific work experience, but through the lens of the skills categories from step 1. The rule of thumb is to focus on work experiences in the preceding decade. Anything older is likely not relevant and you risk dating yourself.
Build a table as outlined below for every job you have held. List out 3–5 major accomplishments under the Tasks column relevant to the job description. For each Task, list top Skills relevant to your target job. In the proceeding columns, list out the Actions, Accomplishments, Challenges, and Lessons. The last two columns are optional, but useful for interview prep.
You will likely have to build a table like this for every job type. IE, if you are interested in product and consulting paths, then you need to create this table for both types of roles.
Mapping out your transferable skills isn’t complicated, but is time consuming. You have to research industry lingo and translate your experience into appropriate industry speak, which takes multiple iterations. I would say it took me at least three months to translate my experience into “tech speak”. You will know you have succeeded at translating your experience when peers in your current industry are at a loss when they read your resume.
Pivoting industries is never an easy journey. Use this process to take stock of your experience and feel proud of your accomplishments. Figure out what doesn’t interest you anymore and what you want to do less of. Personally, I had an amazing 13-year run as an engineer, but it was time to hang up the engineering gloves and move on to the next phase of my career.
If you made it to the end, the congratulations. You are ahead of most people. In the next post, I will provide practical tips to create high impact resumes and pass the six second test.
