Been an engineer for 7 years now and wanting to make a career move. Currently doing postgrad commerce in finance and accounting. Should I start from the bottom as a graduate or is it possible to move over laterally. Looking at professional services firm to start my move. Help?
Career Move: Graduate or Lateral Hire?
xyee on 25/02/2017 - 13:26
Comments
Start at the bottom. Both unrelated fields.
but you may be able to apply your experience and move up the ladder quicker.Lateral movement is attainable in executive management roles.
ie Ahmed Fahour could go from Bank exec to Post Exec to Sanitation Exec.
He goes from moving Money, to moving post, to moving shit.
his knowledge and experience would apply laterally.More importantly, what is your true motive for this career move?
Not learning anything new at the moment. Looking to use/expand my skills elsewhere with a long term career in mind
ie: not enough money?
Actually, contrary to that. I'm currently making pretty decent money and going to a grad role will mean approximately a 2/3 pay cut. However, I'm looking at the long term and earning potential in the commercial space.
Not learning anything new makes no sense. That would usually mean switching to another role or moving to another company to learn something new. I highly doubt you are 100% experienced in all engineering fields. Engineering is a long term career, so saying you want a long term career makes no sense as well.
If you are set on it, then keep going. But i think you need to ask yourself why you are doing it really.
Your best bet IMHO is to try to move into finance/accounting related roles in an engineering firm. Since you have an engineering background, that gives you a major advantage compared to fresh graduates. Infact, if you go back to your previous company in a different role, you would have an even bigger advantage…since you have already worked there before as an engineer.
But you need to be prepared to give a sastifactory answer to the inevitable "Why did you stop being an engineer" questions that interviewers will ask. If in doubt, say something along the lines of "wanted to try something new/change my focus".
Depends what experience you have and what area of work you want to do - professional services firms do a lot more than just accounting these days (including employing engineers)!
What sort of experience do you have? It is (possibly) more relevant than you think.
A big learning curve for graduates is the ability to interact with clients and realising the "real world" is a lot different to academia! If you've been working already and can demonstrate some of these skills you *may be able to enter at a slightly more senior level than a grad - but as a previous poster mentioned your ability to apply your experience may allow you to move up the ladder quicker.
Based on your experience you will be older than the typical graduate. It's fair to say that a question the interviewers will consider is how you will cope reporting to people who could be 5-7 years younger than you. If it's not a problem for you, you will be fine - but I've interviewed some people where that would have been a problem!
I'm mostly considering management consulting or advisory roles. My career has been in engineering and construction and project managing scope of works. Whilst I'm making a move to a totally different industry, the experience, exposure and skills I have gained in delivering projects are invaluable and transferable. I am aware that I have the potential of moving up the ladder quicker compared to other graduates, but most of the professional services firm emphasise on their people's potential and I am wondering if they would be making the most out of my experience as a grad.
In terms of reporting to people younger than me, I don't have a problem with that. There are areas where others are better than me and vice versa and I am keen to learn from those who know their stuff as part of my growth and development. Got to start somewhere.
My main concern is, I know what I am worth having delivered multi million dollar projects and how quick can I climb the ladder. As I've mentioned in the previous post, it is painful taking a massive pay cut and I will deal with it for a short period of time, but hopefully, not for too long.
I think it depends on the role you want to take. You might want to consider something like Project Management, given your background and what you are looking into. There are a number of certificates, rather than new degrees, and the employers are likely to take into account your experience. The downsides are that it is a pretty thankless job and you often have to work weekends; particularly in the IT industry. Just a thought.
Funny you say that, I am actually doing two master programs; Project Management and Commerce. I am aware that the IT industry does a lot of long hours and thankfully, that's not my cup of tea. But in saying that, I've done massive hours in construction; 12 hour normal days and up to 14 hour days during EOM.
Call 131901. They'll help you out.