Create Your Own Success Story Overcoming Challenges

How to create opportunities for career change

When I started my career change journey, I applied to jobs hoping that people would see I was someone who would work really hard to learn the job and would go above and beyond my responsibilities.

The problem?

I needed to get past the resume stage to convince hiring managers of my potential.

The challenge?

I was a teacher looking to make a BIG change and step outside of the world of education. My experience was very specific and as hard as I tried to showcase my transferrable skills, it was tough to get them to see I was capable.

This is when I realized that it isn’t about getting my foot in the door. It’s about taking a chance on me. I needed to lean into my interests and create my own opportunities to show employers that they too should take a chance on me.

Now, are you wondering how to take a chance on yourself and create your own opportunities? I got you! Just read on.

Take the time to explore your interests and create opportunities to build the skills and gain the experiences you need to create your own success story.

1. Seek out courses and certifications

As a career changer, it’s important to show yourself and future employers that you take initiative, value learning, and are dedicated to putting in the time.

How?

One way is to take online courses and pursue certifications. By investing in learning experiences, you:

give yourself the opportunity to experiment with new pathways and decide if you want to continue in this direction.
develop new knowledge that makes breaking into a new field that much easier.
build confidence in your decisions, in your knowledge, in your skills, and in your abilities.

My create your own success story

So what do I love learning? And what skills or knowledge will help me create opportunities for a career change?

If you’ve read my earlier post, you may remember that I wanted to enter the creative world. And yes, as a teacher, you definitely are a creative. But I wanted something different. I wanted to bring it back to my school newspaper and yearbook days. The days back in high school when I happily spent hours on Adobe InDesign and Photoshop designing layouts and creating content.

I looked for jobs that connected back to these experiences like graphic design, marketing, or social media management, and I realized that earning certificates in Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator would be the perfect start for me.

I explored courses and found ones taught by Daniel Scott, an Adobe Certified Instructor. Since joining my first course with him, I’ve gained confidence in my skills, completed projects, and started creating my own portfolio.

Getting Started

The possibilities are truly endless. Create your own career success by exploring different courses and certificates.

If you’re unsure of your career direction, then lean into your interests. What are the things you never get tired of doing? What are the things you can do that make you lose track of time? Or what are the things that never really feel like work? Focus on finding a course that fits your interests. This may be exactly what you need in order to uncover your next career move.

If you have an idea of the career you’d like to pursue, then search for some job postings. Scroll down to the qualifications and responsibilities and determine which skills would be most useful in this field. Be sure to check a handful so that you can see what continues to come up. Then find courses or certifications that will help you develop and strengthen these skills.

Sites like LinkedIn Learning and Coursera offer certifications for less than $60 per month and offer free trials to give you time to decide if their courses are right for you. Sites like Udemy (where I found Daniel Scott) has a sale on their courses and is offering them for as low as $13. So, you can take courses from the comfort of your home without breaking the bank.

But remember, the key is to get started and be consistent.

2. Create your own projects

Have you ever experienced the Catch-22 of looking for a job? The one where you need experience to get the job AND you need the job to get experience?

It can feel so frustrating. And for the people looking to change careers…it can feel impossible.

This is why I think it’s so powerful to create your own project. Take matters into your own hands. Instead of waiting for someone to give you a chance, take a chance on yourself. Create your own success story by creating opportunities to learn and succeed.

My create your own success story

You may be wondering…what do you mean by create your own project? Let me explain.

For the past 5 years, I’ve been wanting to create a blog, but was too afraid to start. There was so much that I didn’t know how to do and I was worried about what others would think.

Fast forward to this year. After looking at many different job postings in the careers that interested me, I saw that employers were looking for candidates with graphic design, social media, website design and management, marketing, and SEO experience.

And that’s when I realized that starting my blog would allow me to develop the majority of skills and knowledge they are all looking for in their next hire.

Since starting my blog, I continue to learn something new daily, I’m constantly improving, and now have the experience to show what I’m capable of doing.

Your Turn

You can read, plan, and talk about doing the thing all you want, but in the end, you’ll learn more by doing the dang thing.

Choose the skills that you’d like to grow. Maybe they’re the things you always wanted to be able to do. Or maybe they’re the ones that you realized would be good to develop after combing through different job applications.

Think of a project that will help you to learn, develop, and showcase these skills. If you have similar interests to me, you can consider building your own site and social media or creating marketing material for your favorite brands. If you’re interested in photography, ask your community if anyone would be willing to be your model, take beautiful images of them, and create a portfolio of your work. And if you’d like to break into a marketing position, then create a comprehensive marketing plan for a small business.

Start messy. Make mistakes. It’s all a part of the learning process. You’ll be proud of yourself for taking the initiative and amazed by your own grit.

3. Find support from your network

People always say, “it’s all about who you know.”

I’ve come to realize, they aren’t wrong. This isn’t to say that people can’t succeed with hard work and determination. Not at all. But it definitely doesn’t hurt to know people.

It can be the difference between you and another candidate for the job you so badly want or it can be your ticket to having a conversation with the person with whom you’d love to work.

My create your own success story

One day, my friend showed me her boss’s friend’s reels on Instagram. Her boss had shared many of these reels to provide inspiration for activities that my friend could do with her kids. At the time, I hadn’t thought much of it, other than, “wow, these ideas are adorable!”

A few days later, as I was searching for jobs, I came across a job posting for the friend. She wanted help with her socials, videos, and website – crazy coincidence or fate?

I reached out to my friend who immediately texted her boss, and within minutes they connected us. I honestly couldn’t be more grateful. And it couldn’t have been at a more perfect time. Because of the project I had been working on, I had the experience to share and felt more confident in my ability to do the job well.

Ask for support from your people

I bet you that most, if not all, of the people in your circle want to see you succeed. Share your hopes and dreams with others. You never know when an opportunity may arise. If they know you’re looking, then they may think of you the next time they hear of something.