Given below are a few tips from those who have gone through a lateral career change and have been on both sides of these challenging interviews.
Selling Transferable Skills
Some candidates meet the challenge by thoroughly preparing for showing how their skills will translate to the new role, if selected for the job. What will really get the attention of the interviewer is if you do your homework well, learn more about the organization and the challenges they face and explain how your skills will help them solve some of these challenges.
Be prepared to explain how you plan to fill up the gaps
Regardless of how much experience and knowledge you have in your current career, when you consider a career change you will have to show your interviewer how you plan to fill in some of the unavoidable knowledge gaps that are required for the job you apply for.
Be thoroughly prepared for showing your understanding about the target industry, some of the common technologies used and your comfort level in learning what you don't know. While employers today have a long list of job qualifications they need, they will eventually be flexible.
Show how your professional network will be helpful
In several career changes, some of your professional connections would still be valuable so don't hesitate to point this out to the interviewer. Quite a lot of industries benefit largely from the networks of their employees so having a strong network, even from a different industry may prove to be very helpful in your target industry.
Show your understanding of the culture and environment
When you fail to make a smooth transition to the new company, it is mainly because of lack of skills necessary for the domain as well as cultural mismatch. A professional who has worked mainly for larger companies would not be likely to thrive in a new startup. On the other hand, those with a deeper experience would be more welcome at some of the traditional companies rather than the new generation of firms since some people think of them to be high maintenance.
Show that you are ready to change
Telling the interviewer that you are adaptable is not enough you will also have to show them how you have continued to adapt throughout your professional career.
Don't live in your past
Regardless of the tendency you have for defending your decision to depart from your current career field, you should avoid mentioning things that you don't really like about your past positions and jobs.
