Summary: There is always a valued niche over there for you, just the way you currently are. While you can’t fly planes or perform surgery without mandatory training, most fields are not that way. You can lead a process to move yourself over to a well-paid role that requires your proven pattern of success. If you let popular misconceptions drive your career change, you never start or success takes too long.
I am a technical writer. I would like to break into the copywriting field without having to take a lot of expensive courses or accept low starting salaries/rates.
How did you do it?
How did you break into your new field?
Where are some great places to network without having to pay an arm and a leg for events?
I look forward to hearing the groups’ ideas.
G
Here’s how Career EquityTM brings a quantum leap in career value and stability, and a new relationship to your career. With G’s particular career change as our example, here’s an overview.
Yes, anyone can switch careers, and it may be well more advantageous than staying. Your talent pattern is good for many things. Always steer towards doing more and more of what you love and less of what you don’t love. You are safer and more valuable there than at duties you don’t really care for any more.
Now, what’s the trick to successful career change?
Retraining to improve their career is an assumption people often make, yet the training itself usually isn’t the factor responsible for actually landing work they want. Thousands have training and still don’t capitalize on their natural talents or create relationships, so they still don’t get interviewed or promoted quickly enough.
In short, clients here have found building and tapping their Career EquityTM is a factor equally important to education or training, and often more important.
Anything can be achieved if you make a plan that leverages best practices. The rare best practices I specialize in are how to manage your career so you control the quality of the work opportunities that are offered to you. Do these things and you will get picked before other candidates. Being another ignored resume-sender will be a thing of the past..
So your question is great, it’s really – “what process do I need to run, so I get this work”?
Training being ‘expensive’? Training when you can’t be sure it will work out is expensive. I recommend, don’t invest time and money for training without carrying out a systematic plan to claim all the career-easing, value-building Career EquityTM you have and can form.
Take training, but first leverage this active process so you can access and land new writing work that’s great for you.
Training needs can be shortened or refined if you find some things out first.
I know what some people mean by copywriter, but what’s important is what you mean by it. Is copywriting what you think it is/will it fit your needs? What do copywriters do and write, and where are they working today and is jobs, contract jobs or freelance?
Is copywriting ‘it’ for you?
Are there other writing roles that involve the activities and skills have and you like to do, such as web writer, direct marketing writer, radio station promotions manager, employee communications manager?
To save time in the long run, find all this out. Go ask around extensively. Reading up is not much help, you need to go interview people, so you get real and up to date nuanced information, and you get relationships underway.
Do this first, not after you start to train. Let time incubate opportunities for you, while you study.
Do this 1:1 pre-research in an organized way. Schedule 10 conversations with copywriters and people copywriters report to, and gain this perspective in, say, 30 days or less. If your questions are good, what you find out will put you ahead of other writers, permanently.
Get their input to figure out what you already know how to do that is valued.
To get their ear, you will need to prepare an introduction on yourself so they’ll take your interest seriously and see what you already know. So jot down your understanding or assumptions what good copywriters know and do. With 10 years of tech writing under your belt, which aspects are you already good at? Why do you think you like copywriting? Mention that too.
From this input, you can evaluate what writing work exists that is the most like copywriting that you can begin doing with the least delay.
Certainly you will need to be able to write good copy to get the good projects or jobs. What are your options for becoming good at writing copy?
-read some books on it
-assign yourself projects. Take 3 ads and rewrite them as practice.
-correspondence course such as www.AWAIonline.com
-community college, commercial college or industry course
-ask a top creative director to comment on your stuff or meet with you a few times
Pick one mode of training. Get started. You may get hired before you finish it up.
However, work up your career move while you’re training. The training isn’t what gets a person selected anymore. Career EquityTM does. Some aspects of career EquityTM
-determining what’s valued and how you already match at least some of it
-communicating that you can do what matters, not communicating anything else
-cultivating meaningful ties to people
-knowing how to negotiate for your worth
Yes, follow industry websites and blogs and read the trade press and volunteer at industry events too. Almost everybody does those things. But to build the power to control what happens for you, your Career EquityTM, you need to connect 1:1 rather than act like an applicant who’s submitting resumes, and waiting to get in. Just Be In. Picture what you want to happen, and that it’s already so. Athletes do this every day.
Act like you’re a member of the industry, and then which firm you will work for is a detail that will resolve itself soon. In your mind, pretend it’s a few months later and you are busily, happily working in the field. Because you ARE in the industry, you know about the field, people know you, you’re active - -don’t think like a newbie who hasn’t shown they have any value yet. Because you have tested yours out.
So do a final round of meetings. Strut your emerging persuasive writing skills and industry knowledge in an email or phone call, asking to meet. Introduce yourself in terms of what you know how to do that copywriters actually do. Leave out the old aspects of your history that don’t match. Go see bosses who have copywriters working for them and some senior copywriters and an industry recruiter too. Interview them on what they feel makes good copy and what pockets of the industry are busy. Since you're already a technical writer, focus first on your core technical knowledge as the attraction. Corporations, and their ad agencies and interactive studios wlll always value the writer that understands the actual product and its users exceptionally well and can write knowledgeably and well.
Do bring a few samples you rewrote, or exercises from class, but concentrate on getting them talking about what they find important, and responding with what you do well that is relevant. This fast-tracks you knowledge of excellent writing, helps you know how to show you ‘get’ the industry and what bosses need – and forms all-important personal ties. None of this works with HR – they aren’t the decision makers.
Strangers seldom get selected so refuse to be one. You can’t land a job head-on, you have to get your credibility and visibility to them started so you are the known, feasible, trusted option - -someone great they know -- when the need comes up.
Now they know you, they can’t help but start thinking of you for their next requirements - -a project or opening. Ask when that may be. And keep in touch (send them your blog or ezine or occasional sample), Other graduates of advertising programs, who didn’t meet anyone while they were in school, won’t have built this Career EquityTM, so aren’t true members of the industry yet, and will have to accept internships or even give up.
The best training is looking at ads and drafting a lot of bad ones till you get good - -and having someone who talks to you about it. Also known as intern positions. Accept one of these only, once. Let your Career EquityTM work for you in the background so you are impacting what’s just around the corner for you – an offer of a good job. New grads with no Career EquityTM have to take 3 and 4 internships in a row. Not remunerative, not steady, not a career launch where they are in charge.
If you are going to work for free, pick the place you decide to volunteer your valuable time to. Pick the smartest shops in town. Pitch them.
Companies have money, so just saying ‘try me no charge’ – doesn’t compel them to value you. Yes, select an excellent company and offer this to them, but first figure out your value to any company in the field by doing the above person-to-person research -- and be able to compellingly explain yourself. And have those other good external ties so this company isn’t your only option. That’s gambling. Bad for your confidence.
There are many reasons that just getting more training to move ahead without getting your valuable Career EquityTM rolling at the same time, can be a waste:
• Reactive job search habits – applying, where credentials are the only way to appraise you, -and another candidate will always have more training. Training never ends.
• Being the generic applicant who states qualifications – but doesn’t put themselves in the industry’s and company’s and boss’ shoes, and figure out and communicating what result you can supply that matters
• Leaving out the relationship-building element. Not letting conversations and asking questions -- inside and outside of companies you are with --build trust that you are a familiar person and know the work.
• Short term thinking on career improvement – can’t see how, so won’t do it, i.e. overstaying a bad job or environment out of fear of the unknown and not leveraging expert knowledge on how to systematically, safely make change happen..
If everyone did this, they would save years of job stress staying in and fearing leaving careers that don’t fit them! People generally stay in jobs they have outgrown because of enjoyable friendships at work. Yet — surprise – creating friendships is an important way to secure your career elsewhere! People everywhere are nice. It’s change we fear. But you can ask the questions that form the common bond that gives you the confidence, relevance and reputation that brings you the offers. You really can manufacture your next job and career opportunities.
Getting your Career EquityTM rolling may look large. Why invest all that attention and effort? It’s enjoyable, for one thing, and it accelerates your way to more choice, freedom and better money. You will probably work a long time. If you don’t look after your career, job hunting and major progress income and satisfaction never becomes any easier, and re
main
s a stressful, chance thing every time you need a new job or career. So doing the things I am recommending will save you time, energy and frustration both this time and for all your future moves. You’ll have Career EquityTM to draw on - - relationships, reputation, trust, a high value, and peace.
So there’s the basic advice. It applies to all fields. There is always a valued niche there for you, just the way you currently are. While you can’t fly a plane or perform surgery without mandatory training, most fields are not that way and you can run a process to move yourself over to a well-paid role that requries your proven success pattern.
Realizing career change is feasible as I’ve expalined is one huge leap forward. But advice and progress to goal completion are two different things. The gap is where people lose months or years on their own. If you would like to explore getting changing careers ASAP and profitably with a complete step by step process to keep you moving sure-footedly through the actual situations that come up and then expertly negotiate your salary, contact me in confidence at mffox@workcreatively.ca 416 922 4476.
• You are invited to forward this article to people in your address book who value their careers, if you include this contact information: mffox@workcreatively.ca 416 922 4476.
• If you feel that members of the associations or training institutions you attend would value hearing more about systematic Career EquityTM in a speech, contact me to share their name, at mffox@workcreatively.ca 416 922 4476.
• This article originally appeared on my Facebook group, The Career Equity Network
Please feel free to join me there if you are registered in Facebook’s Toronto Region.
©
Mary
-Frances Fox, 2008
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