Tag: transferrable skills

How To Have A Career After Sports

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

A sporting career is a dream for a lot of people. However, a career in sports doesn’t last forever, and at some point, you will have to consider what to do after your sporting days are over. Athletes often have to retire at a young age, sometimes just because they’re getting older or have been injured badly enough to prevent them from competing at a professional level. Sports come with a lot of risks, so it’s important to be prepared.

If you’ve had to retire due to an injury, you may be able to get a compensation payout, which will give you time to decide what to do. Contact a lawyer who knows how to deal with this, such as NFL disability lawyers. 

If you’re ready to find a new career path, you will need a few skills to make a successful transition. It’s important to have resilience, relationships, and education if you’re going to make a change. 

Anyone who has made a career out of professional sports already has resilience, optimism, and confidence. You already have a strong internal drive, which will help you to make a career after sports. You can develop these traits with coaching and support. 

To have a career after sport, you’re going to need formal education and some marketable skills. Those who continued their studies before going into sports will have a better chance of transitioning, than those who dropped them in favor of playing. You can also market the skills you learned in sport, such as leadership and team building, both of which can be easily transferred to another industry.  

You’ll also fare better if you have a strong network of personal and professional relationships. You’ll find it easier to make a big change if you have a strong social network to help you find new opportunities and experiment with a new role outside of the world of sport. Your professional connections can help too; this is why sports stars often move into positions in coaching, sports management, or sports agencies. 

It can be hard to know where to go after your dream career ends, but retiring from professional sport doesn’t have to be the end of your career altogether. You have skills that you can transfer to another industry. You already know you’re determined and driven, which will serve you well as you move to a new career direction. Use the skills you learned during your professional sports career to help you forge a new path. It can be a good idea to stay in formal education as long as you can, so you have some professional qualifications to fall back on after your time playing sports is over. If you have already left education, you could consider taking some courses or classes outside of your sports career to make progress outside of sports easier. Take a course in management if you’d like to be a sports manager or study something that interests you if you want to change to something completely different.

What do Employers Really Want in a Candidate?

Scott AsaiLeave a comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

Are you looking to gain a promotion or change career completely? If so, it’s essential to make yourself as attractive as possible to potential employers; with so much competition for job roles, you need to stand out from the crowd. Here are just a few ways you can go about it. 

Transferable skills

Having the right skills and education that are relevant to the job is crucial and something that will likely be the deciding factor in you getting a job. For example some jobs might require a masters or a doctorate degree. If the job is in an office, then knowledge of running an office, using compatible software, and using the skills that office workers need daily is crucial. But there are other skills that employers will look for which can be transferable. Writing, for example, is a great skill to have and will come in handy in just about all workplaces. Being a skilled writer will help you in just about any job role. Whether it’s creating content or just communicating with other employees, it’s a necessary skill and being able in this area can make life much easier for you at work. IT is another; pretty much everything we do these days is online, and even businesses that don’t sell online still need to have a presence on the internet. For this reason there’s no escaping it, and in almost any job you do, having some knowledge and understanding of IT is going to be advantageous. Marketing is another great skill to have. It’s something that every single company needs and relies on for their success. A marketing qualification could go hand in hand with content creation or graphic design for example, it gives you the edge if you have a background understanding of what angle will be best received by an audience. 

A driver’s license with access to a vehicle

Even if the job you’re applying for has nothing to do with driving, having a license with access to a car is always going to be a good thing for employers. This is especially true if you live a little further out, or if you’re required to work very early or late- even on some days. There are occasions when public transport won’t be running or will be delayed, and being able to drive generally means you tend to me more reliable as an employee when it comes to getting to work. If the job you’re applying for requires you to drive with your own car (for example, courier work or community care work) then without this you’ll be completely ruled out. 

Relevant or interesting hobbies 

It might seem a little unusual as to why employers are interested in your hobbies. After all, most of us are very different in our regular lives outside work- so why do they need to know? But actually, hobbies can give a massive insight as to who you are as a person, the kinds of skills you’re likely to have and even how well you work with others. If the job is very team focused for example, then having a team sport on your resume is going to help you stand out. But be wary, as sometimes hobbies could put employers off. For example, if the job you want requires you to be very level headed and make rational decisions, having a high impact sport on your resume might suggest you’re a bit of a risk taker. While you won’t want to lie, it’s essential to tailor your resume to what employers are looking for. Decode the job ad, try and work out the kinds of skills and personality they want for the role and then present yourself as this person.

Good communication and body language

The things we say only communicate a small message– the rest comes across in our non verbal cues such as body language, expression and more. When interviewing, most employers will be looking for candidates who are confident, open and comfortable and so be sure to stand (and sit) up straight. Control your nerves and go in with a relaxed peace of mind, and your expression and body language should convey this. 

Voluntary work or other experience

If you’re hoping to work in a brand new sector and have no experience at all, finding a job can be very difficult. The way you can get around this is by doing some voluntary work. If, for example, you want to work in the criminal justice sector, you could look for voluntary positions with the police, courts or probation. If you wanted to work in healthcare, you could volunteer at a hospital or clinic. Voluntary work shows that you’re serious about getting the skills you need to move up in your career, something employers will appreciate.

How To Get Started With A Career Change

Scott Asai1 Comment

Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

In the past it was the norm to go to college, get a degree and then work in the same career for the rest of your life until you wanted to retire. However, we’re now in a different economy and culture shift where more and more people are deciding against going to college for their education, and even if they do, they’re not necessarily staying in the same career for the long term because they want to move around and get experience in different fields and also do something that they’re truly passionate about, so if you’re currently considering a career change, then in this post we’re going to share with you how to get started with that.

Think about what you want:

As children we’re often asked what we want to be when we grow up, but as adults it’s just assumed that once we settle in a career that’s what we’re going to do forever and that it’s what we really want, but more and more we’re seeing that this isn’t the case, so instead of just settling in a job because that’s what life circumstances forced upon you or because other people said that’s what you should do, then before making any further changes, it’s time to decide what it really is that you want.

Identify your skills:

Nowdays we have greater skill sets than ever before, and the reason for this is because we’re exposed to so many different things through technology, so for example, maybe you’ve been working in the legal field your whole life, but are finding that you’d like to use your skills in marketing and SEO to work with an Search Engine Optimization agency like SEOEXPLODE instead. The thing is, moving careers may seem like a drastic thing to do, but in actual fact it could be great – especially if you have transferrable skills that could allow you to really position yourself in a niche area and focus on that.

Decide how much money you need to live on:

Whilst money may not have anything to do with your reasons for wanting to change careers, it’s just a part of life and your job, so if you’re going to be switching jobs, then make sure it’s not going to leave you worse off financially. The best way to do this is by understanding the value you bring to a company and also being able to sit down and crunch some numbers to work out how much you actually need to live on per year and then determine what you can accept as a minimum salary based on this.

Take action:

Of course, all of this is great, but if you’re not actually taking any action to find a new job and get things moving, then it’s going to just remain a good idea, so it’s really important that you know what your plan is and start moving towards it by taking the required daily actions, such as updating your CV, contacting companies, and looking for jobs, etc.