Leaving the Public Sector and don't know where to start is becoming a more common concern as this question illustrates.

I'm 41 and currently hold a Senior Management position within a Local Authority. I've always worked in the public sector, but feel the time is right to change professions.

I am very hardwoking and am willing to take a qualification if this will accelerate progression for me in a new field. However, I am concerned that my age or lack of experience in the private sector will count against me in lots of professions.

I earn 50k at the moment and am willing to take a drop if it means there are higher rewards after 1-2 years experience.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Reply by Peter Fisher - www.you-career-change.com


Unfortunately, this new economic era means that more people like you with your professional background and qualifications, are feeling the same cold wind of unemployment and whilst you may be able to weather the immediate financial effects, you will need to replace that lost income before too long.

I base all my jobsearch for professionals ideas on my long experience of working as career counselor and outplacement consultant to public and private organizations and the ideas are my way of helping you to deal with the consequences of unexpected unemployment.

First of all: do not spend all your time scouring the papers and signing up for online email alerts for advertised vacancies. My own experience confirms that less than one third of appropriate vacancies for you will be advertised in the press or online. So sign up for one or two such as www.executivesontheweb.com and take a couple of hours once a week with the best newspaper i.e. the Guardian or the Telegraph for public sector or private companies jobs.

Second: do not spend lots of time trying to find all the different recruitment consultants and employment agencies that may be able to help; you could easily spend days when it is more cost effective to invest in a targeted mailing to all the relevant headhunters by using a service such as CVtrumpet, which is the leader in professional, targeted executive and management CV distribution.


With this professional service you can distribute your CV to up to 3,200+ recruiters in the UK, targeted by job function, salary level, employment level, industry and location.

Thirdly: although you are a professional with your own field of expertise, you will still have to demonstrate to a potential new employer that you will add value to the new organization, which means that you cannot sit back and expect your qualifications to impress, or your past work to speak for itself sufficiently to secure a new position. What makes it more difficult is the move from public to private sector, means you have to work harder to convince a commercial organisation of your relevant experience.

Fourth: Although not as prevalent in the public sector, more jobs are filled by personal contacts than through any other means and in these times, companies would much prefer to save on recruitment fees and act on recommendations from people they trust, so whether you like it or not your jobsearch will inevitably involve networking with known and newly-introduced contacts in person. My own guide to networking and finding unadvertised jobs will give you step by step instructions in how to to do this effectively.

Fifth: the most important facet of any jobsearch for professionals is to remember that organizations hire people.

That means that you have to create the right impression of you both as a person and as a professional, and the first impression is most often created by how you appear on paper. Which simply put means that your CV and your covering letters have to be the very best possible.

I would also add that neither one is more important than the other.

Go on now from Leaving the Public Sector to read my jobsearch for professionals page for more insight and helpful links.