Career change from mortgage sales to technology sales

Matt Youngquist, an Executive Career Coach & Outplacement Consultant from Seattle, WA asks: As a career coach, I'm currently in the process of working with a mortgage sales professional who is intending to make a career shift into the field of technology sales. I'm therefore wondering whether anybody out there has any tips, advice, or insights on the specific skills or courses of study that a highly motivated individual might acquire to make himself as marketable as possible to technology product/service companies - or whether there are certain technology sectors that would be easier to penetrate for an individual with a proven sales background, but no direct high-tech experience. Any great ideas?

In answer:
Most people who work in the technology industry have a technology background – most often a degree - or at least proven enthusiasm for it, such as a successful website. Technology and particularly IT is the highest trained sector and most degree orientated measured on a global basis. It is hence easy to tell a non-tech in an interview, as you either love it and will hence understand all the TLA’s, or just don’t get the sector.

The reason for this is that most technology sales are complex sales – long time scales, brought about by much customer customization of the solution at both the product (most likely system integration), financial and program/rollout level. This hence most often results in team working, which is a core competence most technology people don’t recognise they have.

Your client comes from a financial services background, so why is he choosing technology? Most look simply at the money and think “it’s just a sale” – but it is the training and long sales timescales which define the rewards, not simply sales ability. The good news is that like IT and technology, particularly in the telecom sector, financial services is heavily regulated. This knowledge of regulation is a transferable skill which some who may attempt the leap in won’t have.

Unless your client has base degree level training in a technology or science orientated subject, I would look at in-company training versus a return to college – both would take around the same time scale, with one an income and training opportunity, while the other is pure cost. Pick a consumer end or SME level sales position where the need for technological training is minimized, and a successful sales background is more appreciated in the job description. We have recruited for SME business cellphone sales people before, and a couple of well referenced good years in the UK version of Circuit City was good enough to get you a position with most of the major cellphone telecoms companies, or IT and technology business solutions companies. If he is successful there, then he will rise quickly and be given appropriate training.

The bad news at present is that, much as though the IT and technology sector works behind the rest of the economy – it’s those long sales and integration time scales again – the whole sector is heading fast into recession at present, with most companies globally announcing lay off’s and redundancies. No where is now safe from those sub-prime mortgage sales of the past, including IT and technology.

Good Luck!

What are the key buzz terms IT recruiters are looking out for?

Sarah asks: I am interested to understand how recruiters are scanning CV for candidates that have applied for an IT position. What 'key buzz terms' are you looking out for? I work for online recruitment website The IT Job Board and we send out a weekly newsletter to our candidates. I am looking for information about how a candidate can best present their CV and what are most important factors to recruiters when scanning a CV. Thank You!

In answer:
Simple - the "key buzz terms" to use are the ones that I or any other recruiter or HR professional put in the advert that you are looking at, that took us on average 100+hrs to get a position signed off against a job description, which is now summarised in fifty words or less in the advert.

Simply, there are no generic "key buzz terms" - there is focusing your application on the given advert, and showing you have the relevant skills+.

Around 35% of applicants won't write a Cover Letter - Rejected! And another 35% won't focus their skills in their CV on the advert, using something highly generic - Rejected! That leaves me at best with one third who make it to the "could call" pile, of which about another half will be - Rejected! That will be for a combination of reasons, either not enough of the right skills, or too much experience, or just as simple as a difficult to read CV. And yes, there are that many applicants generically that I don't have to worry about the fact that you can't present yourself correctly, unless you are in a new technology niche.

I find with most IT people that they love talking about the skills they have or the projects they have been involved with; but not enough about the role they played, the part they delivered or the business result gained. I realise as an engineer myself this may be irrelevant to the applicant while in the project, but the right business result in the the given time scale is what will get you your next position.

I always suggest to anyone looking for their next position, to think what the last one allows them to add to their CV? If you can't answer that, then you are simply job hopping and not managing your career - and at some point, you will be unemployed: employers like people who can manage themselves as much as the work they are undertaking.

If I can help you further, please - just ask!

Reverting back to an earlier career path, having previously changed jobs for a new market

John asks: I started my career as an electronics engineer developing products and I loved the work mainly because I am a creative person and a problem-solver. I got sucked into the world of IT mainly because of the money, and even though I have been in many areas of IT, including management, I don't find it the least bit enjoyable. I would love to get back into engineering and product development, but I have been out so long I have no idea what is available to someone with my skills. I feel that I have been floundering in my career over the past several years; that is lack of satisfaction, no motivation, and etc. I have spent the most part of the last four years, while at my current job, doing a lot of soul searching and I really need to make a change. If anyone has any ideas on how I could go back, what someone with my background could do in product development, or even if I am too old to go back, I would greatly appreciate any advice you could offer.

In answer:
This is a not uncommon question for many who seek a new job path, but I think you are missing something here in this specific sector which may provide at least a third if not more choices

Let’s take you first. You changed paths logically from one thing to another, you say for money, and you now find that an unenjoyable career. Just using your own thought path here, but reverting back to what you did previously John you are therefore accepting a lower paid but happier (I would question that part of the choice) job – yes? Add in that you accept the knowledge path/skills gap, and you would need to go back in at a lower level than you had before, on even lower pay – yes? This personally seems a large compromise for what on the surface could just be as simple as a “looking for happiness in what I do” driver.

Now let’s take the area of design. A decade plus back, things were designed were they were made. Then along came outsourcing and low cost economies like China, and the production and inline development moved overseas – original design was still held in country. In the last few years, design has moved in two directions – high level design think tanks exist in country, to create successful product concepts: “designers” here are drawn form artistic and psychological backgrounds, with the product line concepts given over to out of country/outsourced design teams; most design is now outsourced to small conceptual teams, who are tasked on fast turnaround and low cost – this means many are heading towards low cost economies. What I am trying to say here is that, the concept you have of in-country product design may not exist, and if it does more and more of it is getting dragged overseas. What does exist draws mainly from non-engineering fields, or exists in bespoke design houses which will take concepts into trial runs, and then hand over to overseas factories. In my mind, your dream old job may either now not exist for your skill set, or now be sat somewhere in Asia.

I think you are missing a trick here though. Singular products in most markets now don’t exist – but systems do, and the hardware is tied together with IT systems solutions and software. Secondly, even if a product exists, there is far more customization of that product both in-life, in-country and well as in-deployment to customer that involves the collection of market/client data, and the customization of product system through use of IT and software to the developing market or specific client requirement. You are a designer with IT skills, right?

I really think you should get yourself in front quickly of a good certified career coach, who has taken someone before through a similar situation. Chat to at least three, check the level of certification (one NLP certificate does not make a career coach), and don’t engage until you have spoken to the reference client they took through the similar transition. You may also want to check what career management services your former colleges/universities have for alumni, while ex-military personnel also have access to great career counseling services. I would also chat to a recruitment company that specializes in design work, and ask for their advice – if they think they can help, then they are accepting you have the skills that their clients want.

It is great that you are asking questions John, and the final answer to the fulfilling career you seek may not be the one you are focused on at present – there may be an even better one that you don’t yet know about, let alone can’t yet see. Keeping asking the questions, writing down what you like/don’t like, and quickly you will find a great and fulfilling answer.

Good Luck, and if I can help you further, please – just ask!