Good morning. I’m Rachel Schnalzer, the L.A. Times business section’s audience engagement editor. Last week, we discussed career transitions and how workers can. Experts shared tactics for identifying your strengths and researching what skills are required when making a career pivot. Now it’s time for the next step.
For example, if you’re hoping to get into product management, “the best thing to do is to stay at the company and try to talk to the people in product management,” advises Louis Song, co-founder and chief executive of, a company that connects employers with job candidates. “The relationships you’re typically going to have are better in the company than outside the company.”
This is a particularly promising path if you work for a large company or organization with many kinds of workers. If you don’t have colleagues who do the kind of job you want, you’ll have to look externally.Hoping to launch a career in graphic design or public relations? Take on some personal projects — perhaps to help a friend or family member’s business — that will enable you to gain experience and showcase your abilities to potential employers.
The potential downsides? Although internships can help you get your foot in the door with an employer, Stoddard notes that they usually don’t come with the guarantee of a full-time job upon completion, and they are often low-paying. In general, “the ability to change careers is somewhat limited by your financial situation,” Song says. “Typically, I see that most people will take somewhere in the neighborhood of two to three years minimum before you get back to the same [salary] level.”