I earned my master’s degree in speech pathology specializing in acquired communication disorders in adults. I worked primarily in hospitals and rehabilitation centers. Later, I became an itinerant dysphagia diagnostics specialist, which meant I rode around in a van with an assistant and a doctor to rehabilitation and nursing centers performing modified barium swallow (MBS) studies on residents. I loved my job. Late in the 1990’s, however, my career abruptly ended when Medicare capped speech therapy costs and for a time mobile MBS studies became nonbillable procedures. My work hours plummeted to 10 hours or fewer per week, and the company announced that our health benefits were in jeopardy. As a single, independent woman, I could see that I was going to need a different career soon.
How does one transition to another career?
I had no idea how to do it, or how much effort and luck would be required. My first thought was to list out the work skills I already had that were transferable to another job. Things like word processing, computation skills, task analysis, report writing, attention to detail, and teaching. I also kept in mind soft skills, such as social skills and my personality. The lists helped reminded me that I had valuable skills even though people might not see them in the positions I held in the past. It was my job to educate them about what I could do—this is easier said than done.
What jobs that I might like are available?
Next, I searched online for descriptions of different careers (https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/statistics/occupations) and asked my friends about their jobs. Some recommended I stay in the same field and work in the schools—but I didn’t get a teaching credential, so that wasn’t an option. One friend told me about her job as an editor. She encouraged me to check out editing and writing as a career. Technical writing seemed like a good fit with mobility across industries, so I thought that might be a way to start over.
Knowing what I might want to do was only one part of the puzzle. I also had to learn more and that meant a return to school. So, I also took computer networking and business classes at a local community college. In the meantime, to throttle the financial bleed, I took on a part-time job as a home health speech therapist and worked through a registry on-call on the weekends. I also started reading more about high tech areas and web design, which fascinated me.
Getting others to see you as competent in the new role or industry
The main problem with changing careers was that my past work experience wasn’t a good match for the new target career or industry. Most people saw “speech pathologist” and assumed I worked with children, so I received no responses from most positions I applied for. Although I tailored the highlights of my job experience heavily on the writing and instructional components, most people didn’t see the fit. Agencies passed me over even when I passed the MS Word, Excel, and HTML 1.0 tests they required. In four months, one agency got me a one-day gig at $8 per hour to create a spreadsheet for a client. The agency method alone wasn’t enough to get a job.
I had better luck with in-person career fairs and got verbal feedback about my resume from several recruiters. After each encounter I revised my resume from the helpful parts of the feedback. The conflicting feedback I received was difficult to process and incorporate. For example, one recruiter told me not to include foreign language skills; another said to leave it in. One liked that I had a graphic on the first page; others said it was unprofessional unless I was applying for a design position.
In January 1999, after five months of part-time and on-call work, and near the point I was running out of savings, I attended a Brass Ring career fair in Santa Clara where I met Sherry Pulvers. That day I handed out my resume to very few people and was surprised that some recruiters refused my resume because of my educational background or direct experience. I needed an entry to a field closed to me because others couldn’t see the transferability of my skills.
And that’s when I met Sherry Pulvers. She said “hi” and asked what I was looking for. I told her I was looking for a technical writing position. She said she didn’t have one of those, but she looked at my resume and saw I listed Japanese language as a skill. She told me her company was looking for an executive assistant and the Japanese skills would be a plus. Also, the job required a master’s degree, which I had. I hadn’t considered that kind of position before. And it turned out to be a great match to a career in high tech. We connected about a week later and one long interview later, I had my first tech job as an executive assistant at Internet Devices, a promising start-up. Although it was a step down in many ways, it was my best option and a way “in”, and that’s what mattered most.
My new salary wasn’t enough to be able to rent a room let alone purchase anything in San Jose, so I sold my house and moved back home with my parents. I also took on an on-call weekend position at a local hospital. A few months later, after settling into my new position, I began night school to get my technical writing certificate. I was now on a new path in a different industry.
I am grateful to have had the health to persist, the ability to make some income leveraging my previous career, the good luck of meeting a great human resources specialist, and the support I received from friends and family during that huge transition. About two years later, I was able to benefit from an internal transfer to become a technical writer, and then I put a down payment on a small fixer-upper condo. I was independent again. If you are thinking about a career change, my recommendation is that you take inventory of everything you have to work with during your transition (skills, ability for interim income from other sources, educational paths, and community support). From that list, determine the tactics you’ll use to reach your goal and stay on course as much as possible. I wish you determination, support, and the best of luck.