Changing employment sector

[craigjm]

A friend of mine has recently been made redundant from the public sector as a senior HR / Organisational Development specialist. He has started to apply for other roles but is coming up against the "must have x years of financial services experience" "must have international experience" type requirements on job descriptions. He is very much not a public sector stereotype and has some huge successes behind him in moving organisations forward in a very non-traditional public sector stereotype way.

So....

How would he go about appealing to other sectors such as finance, professional services etc? He is under the impression (and i firmly believe him) that he is being discounted before they even see him because of his background.

Personally, i believe the incesterous requirement a lot of these companies have is self defeating. I am open when I recruit to people with experience from all sectors and very much believe in recruit for attitude and train for skills. Am i the only one who wants to see the whites of the eyes of people from diverse backgrounds to choose the best rather than being closed minded?

[shirt]

i'd look for smaller [in staff numbers, not profitability] companies and aim to get my CV on the hiring managers desk to avoid being culled by some HR numpty.

[rog007]

Not a new phenomenon sadly. Whilst he should continue to investigate potential openings; has he maximised his competencies on his CV, and why not consider undergoing some additional finance training if that would add value from the feedback he is receiving?

[edc]

As an HR person myself I can tell you that HR people can be amongst the worst at looking at transferable skills and crossing sectors. Without prior experience in or at least in a similar sector you have nearly no chance of getting into financial services or professional services. If you have worked in retail you might get into retail banking. If you have worked in software you might get into IT consulting etc.

I have worked in software, security services, building/facilities/technical services/installation and now engineering/manufacturing. I can't get a look in to financial services or professional services. Early on in my career I found it hard to get interviews for the legal sector despite having good grades a Law degree and a Masters and a couple of years relevant experience.

If you read the profiles of some of the senior HR people featured in the CIPD magazine you'll find HR Director types who have done it. Ex public services organizations which have Union membership might be easier, transport, outsourcers, etc.