What industries are currently hiring?
Go on, why don't you ask an IMPOSSIBLE question?
I asked ChatGPT what the first 10 questions are that career changers ask. Number three on the list: What industries are currently hiring?
I’m currently in a pivot in my business. This is why my inspiration for these posts comes squarely from ChatGPT.
UNLESS - of course - YOU tell me what YOUR burning questions are about career change!
Next week: How can I effectively network in a new field?
What questions would YOU like me to talk about in this newsletter?
Who IS hiring?
Let me start with a spoiler alert: I’m NOT going to answer this EXACT question in today’s newsletter.
Not because I’m a stubborn c*w, don’t WANT to answer that question or don’t think it’s important.
It IS important. It clearly is if this is one of the Top 10 questions career changers - YOU! - type into ChatGPT, anyway.
The reasons I’m not answering this question
You know how sometimes you give yourself a task - and halfway through the task you’re starting to regret it, but now you’ve committed to it and you’re sure it’ll get better later on, but for now you’re not enjoying it?
Yeah. I’m on question #3 in the Top 10 questions career changers ask ChatGPT, and that’s where I find myself.
Last week I answered the question: How do I identify my transferable skills. I had a slight mini-rant. Because - quite frankly - on first reading I couldn’t understand why that is one of the FIRST questions you’d ask when considering changing your career.
(If you want to read it, go here: How to identify your transferable skills)
This week? Same.
You see, my philosophy is this:
When you and I talk you’ve been in your career for a long time. Ten, fifteen, twenty years (and onwards). You’ve made decisions on ‘what’s next’ in your career, or have rolled from one thing into another.
NOW though?
You want to make your next career move based on what YOU want, building on YOUR strengths, doing what you LOVE doing, for something that’s IMPORTANT to you.
So asking THIS question? Which industries are hiring? Honestly?
Ok, so yes, it IS important, to ensure you don’t end up in a dead end job or a dying industry. To ensure you can get PAID for what you love doing.
But it’s not your FIRST question. Or even your THIRD, right? Right?
It’s part of TESTING your career ideas, which - in my Career Freedom programme - comes in step 4. AFTER you’ve figured out what you WANT and have created ideas which you can then - yes - TEST out in the real world.
The OTHER reason I’m not answering the question?
Let me ask YOU a question:
Where are you based? The UK? The US? Europe? India, South Africa? Australia, New Zealand?
Yeah, trying to answer this question would be IMPOSSIBLE without knowing more about where you’re living or if you want to work locally or remotely. As a VERY FIRST starting point.
So let me approach this question differently.
How to FIND OUT which industries are hiring
In an amazing bout of foresight I posted a poll on LinkedIn this week (it’s still going - come and play!). In it I asked ‘How do YOU research who is hiring?’
INCLUDING the results of the poll, THESE are some of the ways you can go about it.
Google
Yes, that’s what we all do, right? Google it!
You will find a whole list of articles - from publications to recruitment firms - who will tell you EXACTLY what you’re looking for.
Make sure you enter your more detailed requirements to get the best results.
Recruiters
Recruiters and recruiting firms have a whole HEAP of experience and have the finger on the pulse of the industry they deal with. They are - in other words - a GREAT source of information about their industry.
Having said that, recruiters often have specialisations, which means that they are highly knowledgeable about ‘their’ industry, but perhaps not so much on others. They also work for companies (not for you) AND are BUSY, so you *might* not get all the answers you want.
Establishing a great relationship with relevant recruiters is a key element of any successful job search strategy.
Which you’ll do - in case you wondered - AFTER you’ve established what you want to do. But we talked about that already.
Job boards
Over half of respondents to my little poll, said that this is how they check out the market - by looking for jobs. On job boards.
The LAST thing I want you to do is to start your career change journey by browsing job boards. It’s distracting, time-consuming and can be downright depressing. ESPECIALLY if you don’t know what you want.
But if you want to look quickly at the availability of jobs in your chosen industry or field (without getting distracted and spending hours down the job advert rabbit hole) then yes, job boards are a good source of information too.
LinkedIn - and other social media - but mainly LinkedIn
I haven’t done it, but I BET you that if you search LinkedIn for hiring trends in 2024, you’ll find an article - from somewhere in the beginning of the year - that tells you all about it!
As the go-to place for professionals, recruiters and businesses, LinkedIn would always be one of the key resources I’d recommend.
Also check out other social media for real-life conversations about who’s hiring and who’s not in relevant Facebook groups.
Industry publications
You can find relevant industry publications via LinkedIn or Google. For 16% of my poll respondents this was the go-to place for information on hiring.
AI
Now THIS was an interesting response. One of the respondents answered ‘AI’ to my poll.
Which is EXACTLY why it ended up so high on the list of questions ChatGPT got asked, of course.
So I did a little experiment. I typed this into ChatGPT:
The FIVE industries that came up were healthcare, technology and AI, education, finance and hospitality. That’s fairly broad. When digging a little bit deeper - for instance in the IT sector - the answers did become more specific:
… with answers coming from articles written by recruiting firms and in industry publications. Which are mentioned in the response. Which may be a little bit out of date seeing as we are at the end of 2024 and we’ve all seen the hiring trends in IT. So there is that.
What I’m saying is: use AI as a tool, but do your own research too. Which brings me to …
Talking to people
I’m a big fan of talking to people. I encourage it from the early stages of our work together.
Other people can give you information to help you:
Discover things about yourself - AND give you a confidence boost (ask them about your strengths - Step 2 of the Career Freedom programme),
Feed your curiosity about certain career paths (generating ideas - Step 4),
‘Test’ ideas you will have generated for YOUR career path against the reality of the world (testing ideas - Step 4) AND
Provide information about real-life jobs going in your chosen industry or profession (making it happen - Step 5).
Which means that - in my opinion - the BEST information comes from people IN the industry. People doing the job, on the ground, who know what’s going on .
As it happens it was also what a quarter of the respondents said they’d do (first).
Conclusion
Have I answered your question? Probably not. But what I HAVE tried to do is to point you in the direction of where you might FIND this information.
Most importantly though - and yes, I’m ramming this message home until the end of my days - I want to say this to you:
Please please please.
DON’T. Let. This. Be. The. Question. That. Starts. Your. Career. Change. Journey!
There are questions to answer WAY before we get to the ‘testing’ of your career ideas.
Much more important questions that will allow you to build a career that suits YOU and the lifestyle YOU want.
Like:
What are you GREAT at? What do you LOVE doing? What is IMPORTANT to you? If you had your IDEAL life, what would that look like?
All questions we’ll be answering FIRST. Before we (you) go out to ‘test’ your career dreams against reality.
Because it’s career HAPPINESS we’re after here. And happiness takes place in the sweet spot of your STRENGTHS, what you LOVE doing and - yes - what you can get paid for.
Which we’ll get to. But not straight away. Not as the very first thing.
Because the last thing I want you to do is to shoehorn yourself into a job, a career, an industry, only because you’ve been told they’re hiring. Without knowing if it is a fit. Following the money only. Again.
Because THAT’s not what this career change thing is all about. Not as far as I’m concerned. Not this time around.
Deal?
Tineke X
P.S. Are you on a crossroads in your career? Do YOU want to get clear on your career direction? Be supported in making THAT a reality? Dream AND reality test?
With my Career Freedom coaching programme that’s EXACTLY what we’ll be doing!
Want to know more? Book a free call in which we can discuss YOUR specific situation and you can ask me all your questions:
P.S.2 As I write this it has become clear that Donald Trump is elected as the 47th president of the United States. I wrote exactly how I felt about it here. My question to you, a couple of days later, when you read this: how are YOU feeling?
And now for some (desperately needed) FUN!
Doodle YOUR Journey - for joyful confidence
Have you EVER had trouble telling someone your career story? Do you feel that talking about your accomplishments is like bragging? Do you just not feel confident talking about yourself?
You're not alone. Even the most accomplished, successful women I talk to in my Visual Coaching sessions stumble when I ask them about the things they feel PROUD of or they're GREAT at.
THAT's what we'll be changing with my Doodle YOUR Journey workshop!
In one FUN afternoon you will:
Learn to draw some basic icons that you can use in YOUR 'Visual Bio'
Practise talking about your strengths and achievements, without feeling 'icky' about it
Use a fun template to chart YOUR career journey
Meet like-minded, creative women
Have FUN
AND take away a GREAT reminder of a GREAT career (so far)!
Come and join us in a joyful celebration of YOUR career for this truly one-off opportunity at this price.
Saturday 30 November 2024 from 2 to 4.30 pm UK time
Coming?
🔴🟡🟠
Tineke Tammes is a Career & Creativity Coach and supports professional women in making successful transitions to careers of Freedom, Flexibility and Fulfilment! Besides that she is also a lifelong feminist, part-time portrait artist, never-only-read-one-book-at-any-time reader, and obsessive doodler.
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This is really interesting because I am (was) a bit of a job search addict. I was always on the lookout for what was happening in my industry (healthcare) even when I wasn't actively looking for a change. However I was looking with a checklist of criteria and when I wanted to consider a career change, that strategy didn't work. I found myself frustrated as all I found was opportunities that looked very similar to what I was already doing. I like my employer so why would I move to do the same thing in an unknown organisation? I needed a different approach and thank goodness for Tineke and The Artist's Way! It was a shift in my thinking I needed which has enabled a rebalancing in my 'work'. So a career change that isn't 😆