A CAREER CHANGE QUESTION FROM A READER

I received this question from a reader not long ago.  It typifies some of the frustration that I know many of you feel in trying to change industries.  Perhaps my answer will be helpful in those situations.

Hi Gordon,

I have 30 years progressive operations management experience in the pulp and paper industry, including the last 14 years as a General Manager/Mill Manager over progressively larger paper mill operations for 2 different major industry corporations.

While I have always considered my technical background (BS and MS in Pulp and Paper Tech - a specialization of Chem Eng) and leadership experience to be easily transferable, I am becoming frustrated in my attempts to target and apply for operations management positions in the chemical industry.

I am getting little or no response at all to my inquiries in that direction, and I feel it may be due to a feeling that my experience is not transferable to either specialty or commodity chemical production. Almost all of the processes used are common between the paper and chemical industries, and the typical operating schemes of the respective facilities are nearly identical.

Also, the paper industry is a huge consumer of both specialty and commodity grade chemicals.

As such, I am at a loss as to why I am not generating any interest at all with the chemical producers. Do you have any thoughts on why this is, and how I can convince them of the value of my paper industry experience as it pertains to their operations?

RH

RH,

I would suggest a three-fold approach:

1) Take the focus off your Pulp and Paper industry experience, and put it on your management in a chemical-related industry. Do this with a summary at the beginning of your resume. It need only be 3-4 sentences...not long.

2) In bullet points under each job, highlight accomplishments and involvements that are directly chemical related. Be as detailed as you can, giving results and effects you had on the organization or operations.

3) Apply directly to chemical companies you are interested in working for. DO NOT send your resume to HR. Send it to such people as the Operations Manager, Director of Operations, VP of Manufacturing or President...you get the idea, I think. They will see the value in your skills and how they relate to chemical operations better than HR.

I hope this helps...watch my blog. I will go into this in more detail soon in a future post.

Gordon