Q&A round-up: Moving from the public to private sector

Simon North is co-founder of Position Ignition, a career consulting business for individuals and organisations. Simon is a career transition expert with over 30 years of experience in the field Pick your target The key to making this type of shift is to be clear about who and what you are targeting. There's no use creating a CV for anyone and everyone. Try to be as specific as possible before even looking at your CV: what position you want, in what company, at what level, in what location. The more specific you can be, the more targeted your application and the greater chance of success you will have. Do your homework Start from being completely clear about the value of your experience (your qualifications, work experience, mistakes … everything). You are then in a strong position to define where you go to research and how you can best market yourself, so you are not playing a game of lottery. Spend more time at the front end planning what you want and you deserve a higher success rate based on that approach. Michael Buchan is content and solutions director for MyWorkSearch — a resource website for job seekers and outplacement specialist for employers Look forward, not back The phrase I hear most often is "I've only ever worked for the public sector. The private sector won't want me." This is a limiting mindset (though people who had only ever worked in banks were saying the same not long ago). It suggests your focus (and in all likelihood your CV) is on where you are/were, which immediately makes job hunting difficult as it tends to be backward looking. Focus on what new jobs need and what you can offer them. Avoid public sector jargon The language often used to describe various public bodies/funding bodies/projects, including acronyms, can be meaningful to those inside the sector but confusing to someone outside. Assume the person reading your CV has no idea what these descriptions mean and make sure that there is no room for misinterpretation, or worse, simply ignoring your CV because it is confusing. Redundancy: don't ask, don't tell Being made redundant is not usually a requirement to work in a company (it never appears in job adverts) so why mention it? If you are asked the question (in an application or at interview) you need to tell the truth but I would recommend simply stating what happened in context (e.g. a large reorganisation resulting in many people losing their jobs) and quickly getting back to the important part - what you have to offer them. Forget the competition There might be more competition for jobs but the reality is that if there are two or 20 applicants, you are still competing so worrying about what the rest will say/write will do nothing to make you better. Elizabeth Bacchus is a career coach, change management consultant and founder of The Successful CV Company, a CV and cover letters provider Tailor your approach While headhunters and recruiters provide an important route to vacancies, I can't stress enough how critical it is to have a career development campaign that includes targeted speculative approaches to organisations you would really like to work for. Tailoring each approach so it is clear you have undertaken core research and fully understand that organisation and their aims is critical. Phone a friend If possible find yourself a job search buddy, perhaps a colleague who is in the same position. You can support, motivate and encourage each other in the job search process, checking in on progress so you know you are maintaining the momentum. Review your progress regularly: what's worked, what hasn't, how you can adapt your approach. Remember if you keep on doing the same thing, you can expect the same results! Age isn't everything But does your current CV draw attention to it? You may wish to consider using a functional CV where you list your achievements under the skills you have, rather than by company (the 'standard' way of presenting them). This puts the focus on your skills and achievements, not companies and dates. Emma Bowers is an advisor with Next Step, the adult careers service Research is vital You need to familiarise yourself with the language used within the private sector and mirror this in your applications. Read job adverts. Keep up to date with sector information using sector-specific journals, magazines and online information, e.g. the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Then use this knowledge to translate your skills, achievements and experience into a language the employer will be able to identify with. Numbers count Sit down with a pen and paper and break your work history down into skills, achievements and experience. When communicating your achievements, include the numbers. How many staff? What was your budget? How much did you save the company by implementing a particular project? Quote percentage increases in efficiency/good feedback. David Winter is a careers adviser at The Careers Group of the University of London and is a major contributor to the Careers in Theory blog Identify your cross-sector skills Almost every sub-sector within the privateThink about customers sector has a 'silo' mentality. They tend to assume the problems associated with their sector are unique and the talents needed to deal with them can only be gained through direct experience in that area. What these lazy employers are doing is conflating sector knowledge with success skills. In selling to a new sector, make a separate case for your skills and your awareness. Show you understand the challenges of the sector and then show you have the skills to deal with them. Think about customers In the public sector, these may not be the same as service users. The customers are where the money comes from, whether they are individuals or organisations. You may have more commercial awareness than you realise if you think this way. Network intelligently It's not really about finding people who can offer you jobs, it's about intelligence gathering. Make contact with people who have private sector experience and get them to tell you stories. Ask how your specialism works within a particular sector? What typical problems do they have to deal with? How is success measured? All of this is to gain an understanding of the people you are selling to. Think of it as market research. Be succinct Your CV should show people that you can do the specific tasks they want you to do: that you can fulfil briefs on time, in budget, to the required quality. It should show you can add value. Do this by succinctly describing when you have done this in the past and add details about time, budgets, and quality. Don't confuse them with information that doesn't add to this. Don't panic, but don't be complacent If you don't have a job it can be tempting to take the first one that's offered even when you know it's not right. If you're desperate for the money, it's probably worth considering temp work while you look for something permanent. Conversley, some people get a redundancy payout, decide to have a break and then try to cram their career activity into the last few weeks as the money runs out. If you don't want to go back to the market just yet, fine. But don't stop exploring and and networking. Successful job hunting in the current market means a lot of groundwork and a lot of follow-through. It's a job in itself!