Hi, I’m Kat. At 27 years of age, I fall bang-smack in the middle of the “millennial” generation, and as such – I’m predicted to have had at least four job changes by the age of 32 as part of a phenomenon referred to as “job pivoting“.
Job pivoting is the idea that you can take the skills you have in an entirely new direction without negatively affecting yourself or your prospective employer.
If it weren’t for the bane of the millennial bank account – avocado toast, I’d own a house by now. Apparently.
Since graduating in 2013 I have been:
- a market research assistant
- a web content administrator (fancy term for professional copy and paste-er)
- a software developer
- a waitress
- a barista
- an assistant manager
- a manager of a restaurant, and finally
- a client services coordinator
So, I’ve more than made my four. But, how does one go from running a restaurant to client service at Mogul? How do the two compare?!
You’d be surprised.
The trick lies in recognising, honing and marketing “transferable skills”.
Part of my role as client services coordinator at Mogul is account management. There’s not as much difference between account managing and restaurant managing as the disparate industry labels would lead you to believe.
Here, I will show you four ways my most recent past and current roles are remarkably related.
1. It’s all about the client.
Both Mogul and the restaurant are service businesses. At the end of the day, my job is to ensure that you, the client, are happy with the service we have provided.
The specific tasks involved may differ, but both have the broader goal of “client satisfaction” in common.
In any job, it’s always a good sign if your client has a grin like this one when it’s time to hand over the credit card.
2. Nigh omnipotent awareness
When running a restaurant, it’s important for a manager to have a general idea of where all the tables are in their service (waiting on drinks, mains, dessert etc). Although you don’t need to know all the minute details, having that general overview means you should always be able to see where someone has been waiting for their next course too long and step in with an ETA before the hunger turns to hanger. Especially if the staff member looking after the table is too busy to notice themselves.
So too at Mogul, I need to be able to keep an eye on where all my clients are in their projects and when to ask the team member for an update to provide to my client before they need to ask. It’s easy for a team member to be completely immersed in the task at hand and to lose sight of the wider picture. My role involves always having that wider picture in mind.
3. The buck stops here
What about when I don’t catch a table waiting too long for their dessert? Or a client who was promised an update yesterday, but now it’s today?
We’re human. It happens.
As a manager of a restaurant or an account – it’s my job to front up to the client with an apology, an explanation of what went wrong and, most importantly, how I’m going to fix it. Stepping up when the proverbial hits the fan is an important part of managing a team.
Although our dev and design teams aren’t quite this cute, it’s still my responsibility to look out for them as if they were!
4. Keeping on my toes
Multitasking is a major part of many jobs! Especially so for a manager.
I rarely get the opportunity to deep delve into a single task without interruption. There are emails to answer, colleagues to check in with and client concerns to troubleshoot.
Sure, the tasks themselves are different, but the act of doing a million things at once to make my team and my clients’ lives easier is still the same!
Not shown is the “to do” list a mile long and the eight cups of tea powering me through each day.
Job pivoting – is it worth it to the employer?
All in all, despite the vastly different sounding industries and job titles, the roles themselves are fairly similar.
Despite the bad rep job pivoting may have, it’s amazing how transferrable so many skills can be if you look at them in the right light.
From an employer’s perspective, don’t discount an applicant just because the job titles they’ve held in the past don’t match your expectations.
Look deeper into the applicant’s personality, ability to learn and the kinds of skills they’ve had to employ in past positions.
What next?
For me, I’ve met my “quota” – I’ve no intention of leaving the fabulous team at Mogul anytime soon. 🙂
I’m making the most of this latest opportunity to use the skills I’ve gained over the past 5 years and 7 job titles.
Besides, now I can wear cute heels and not have to worry about my feet falling off by the end of the day!
For you, the next time you’re looking to employ someone, either to work directly for your business or outsourcing digital marketing talent – consider the wider talents of the people you’re talking to as well as their specific experiences.
