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Pitfalls for career changer

ElGato127

Greetings all, Are there any unique issues for people making a career change into IT from other fields? I have worked in healthcare and education in the past. While gaining an advanced degree in healthcare, I gained a lot of transferable soft skills but realized the actual medical work was not for me. I have already identified a few things in my resume (not bad things) that would cause most HR reps to throw away my resume without a serious look. 1. The degree. Advanced degree not directly related to IT. 2. Prior positions that have paid slightly more. HR at least would assume I am going to grab a higher-pay position the next day. Do most hiring managers have the same prejudices? 3. Looking too smart for the job. While a smart hiring manager would see the value of a quick-learning and hard-working team member, not so sure the HR reps would see it that way. In your experience, are hiring managers more willing to give newcomers a chance? I keep hearing about HR reps who simply toss out all resumes received. I may just be making too much of this and over-analyzing. I am also willing to clarify any questions as needed. Thanks

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Comments

ElGato127

Sorry about the paragraph formatting. It had paragraph breaks when I typed it and when I edited it.

scaredoftests

For me, it was because of a job layoff. Instead of just limiting myself to just a single job skill, I was able to gain experience wearing different hats. Such as DBA, systems admin, help/desk support or administrative admin. Sometimes, managers do see..if you ask questions and bring a notebook they love that.

ElGato127

I may not have been entirely clear. I am actually making a career change from medicine into IT and wanted to gauge how hard it would be to find a hiring manager willing to take a chance on me. My cover letter emphasizes the soft skills I learned during my training and my technical knowledge, but my job history does not look a whole lot like IT. Was that how you understood my earlier post?

scaredoftests

Do you have computer experience?

ElGato127

A+ certification, built several computers, installed operating systems in all three major desktop families, tons of troubleshooting...

scaredoftests

That is very helpful in your search. Send out some resumes, emphasizing those skills.

ElGato127

scaredoftests wrote: »

That is very helpful in your search. Send out some resumes, emphasizing those skills.

Are people still doing resume evaluations here? I got it just about where I want it, but would like a little feedback.

techfiend

Keep showing progression on your certs to show you're serious about the field, don't hesitate to put a cert you are working on as in progress on your resume, it's only helped me. Your degree unrelated to IT should still hold a lot of weight, it shows you are willing to persist. IT is a very fluid field, employers are lucky to get 2 years from ambitous employees. There are plenty of employers, mainly SMB, that underpay to hire greener people and allow them to get great experience to move on, that's pretty typical.

joemc3

I went from Education into IT. I started out at a helpdesk taking phone calls and moved up in 6 months. I studied and evaluated every move. In my opinion why not leverage your current experience and degree and work in IT healthcare. You might be able to find a position to work as a tech through your current network. Have you thought about IT healthcare Management?

capwap

If you believe the advanced degree is going to hurt you in the transition, just leave it off your resume entirely.

techfiend

How could say a masters in medicine make the resume worse? If I was hiring I'd look at it as a positive that you were willing to go through years of education to get where you are.