You are more than your CV

There are some special challenges that come with being a career changer or immigrant. The approaches you’ve used so far may not work in your new context. If you’re doing self study or working on side gigs, if you’ve moved country (and sometimes even if you’ve moved towns!) you may not have the network of people to suggest potential employers. It’s hard to get employers to give you a chance.

This feels hard when most of what you see is employers asking for a precise list of skills or qualifications on your CV. So, find non-CV ways for them to get to know you beyond their list.

Your goals

• Be able to describe the value you bring in a way that employers understand.

• Gain confidence while you navigate your next steps, and find folks who’ll encourage and support you.

• Find ways to sidestep the narrow, CV-based approaches. You’ll still need a CV but the process should be more about you as a human with lots of things to contribute, not just a list of skills on a piece of paper.

A bunch of ideas

It’s very important that you only decide on 2 things you want to try. Give those a go and see where your journey takes you.

Join the tech community. Find groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack or other social media. Join meetups (they can be in person, online or international), go to a hackathon, volunteer. Find where people are hanging out in the areas you're interested in and join them. Tell them why you're interested in their type of work, ask for their guidance. People in the community can vouch for & recommend you, especially if they see your enthusiasm. 

Your existing community. Who do you already know in Aotearoa? Even if they don’t work in tech, reach out to your personal community of friends and extended family - and other immigrants! - and let them know the kind of work you’re looking for. They may be able to suggest people you can connect with, or have insights to share from their own experience.

Hear from real people. Find others in the roles you want and ask how they got there and what and where they'd suggest for upskilling yourself. Some online courses have more value to employers than others.

Do the job while you're looking for the job. It's less about lots of up front research and study and more about finding ways to get practical experience and human connection. Whatever your situation, try to do practical things that use similar skills to the job you want. Interested in testing? Review someone’s website. Keen to get into cyber security? Join a group where you can practice this.   

Find companies that are welcoming of non-traditional pathways. Ask around for how other career changers and immigrants found their roles. Follow the company’s social media profiles, get to know their context and their people. What are the things they post about? What matters to them? Which aptitudes and experience do they highlight? This helps you focus on developing those skills.

Document your journey. Do a blog, make a portfolio, post stuff on socials, write/video your own learning journey. There are many ways to do it and it’s so useful for other learners. It also gives you credibility because people see you care and it's obvious you're putting the work in.   

Take stock. Whether you’re a career changer with prior experience, or an immigrant bringing your own context, it can help to reflect on your skills and experience and do it more broadly than a regular CV. Something like this which looks at the many ways that people bring value to their work. 

Think about the overlapping areas between what you bring and what your potential employers want and make sure your CV & LinkedIn highlights this.

Be specific. Based on your stocktake, make a list of companies you might have overlaps with. 

Then think of your interests and the things you care about? Maybe it’s the environment, sport, movies, culture or technology ... what are your things? Start with companies that do work in those areas.

. . .

If you’re following a non-traditional career pathway it helps to take non-traditional approaches. Don’t just send your CV to all the job ads. Instead, make connections with others who share your interests, try to be part of the community rather than study/apply by yourself, help potential employers to see your enthusiasm.

I know it’s hard to be a career changer or immigrant or to take a non-traditional career path but you’ve definitely done lots of hard things before. You got this, and I believe in you.