How to explain a professional retraining?
“Retraining is frowned upon.” “Changing your course is running away from something.” “Multiple professional changes means that I am unstable”…
When considering a career change, these fears are understandable. Until a few years ago, our grandparents and parents had linear careers, most of them working in the same trade and for the same company all their lives. Today, the situation has changed: the desire to exercise a job that makes sense to you, even a dream job can materialize. There are many paths to career change. Younger generations prioritize their professional development and seek a varied career path. Companies have understood this and are adapting to it by emphasizing internal professional mobility to engage their employees. Moreover, more and more of them are open and attracted by “atypical profiles”, no longer seeing retraining as a form of instability. On the contrary, the ability to change and evolve can be appreciated because it is synonymous with adaptability and resilience.
We still understand your fear of being misunderstood by your loved ones, future recruiters or partners in your change of path, by choosing another profession, by joining a new company or by starting your own account. So how can you best communicate about your job change?
See your retraining as a strength
Leverage your desire to change paths to talk about it more effectively
Before explaining to others your new professional path, it is important that you don't view your desire for change as a weakness; instead, see it as a strength. How can you convince someone of the legitimacy of your choice or the consistency of your career path if you yourself are not convinced? Indeed, you can choose to change your professional life to be more aligned with what you like, your values, your motivations or your relationship to work. Your retraining is your personal choice, which brings you or will surely bring you benefits and you are the best person to talk about it.
Companies are paying more attention to retraining programs
Doing a retraining is quite recurrent today and companies are more open to atypical profiles, considering the soft skills and personality of the candidate. Some even welcome employees in retraining. This is the case, within the On Purpose training program, which allows candidates to discover a profession via two 6-month immersions on fixed-term contracts in the structure of their choice.
…and make the possibilities of internal retraining accessible
To engage their employees, companies have set up training courses and systems to promote career development and internal mobility of talent. In some structures, HR supports the career development of employees seeking to progress in their roles.
What arguments can I use to explain my career change?
Changing jobs once or undertaking several career changes is something that may concern you or will concern you in the future. How do you explain these changes in an interview to your future employer?
The common thread on your CV
Finding a red thread in your various activities can be a way of giving coherence to your journey. You can explain the stages of a professional change by showing the continuity, the link between these different experiences.
An example with Louis Delon
After a career in scientific research, he decided to pursue a new direction: video games. He then transitioned to freelance web development, before taking a complete turn towards permaculture. These careers have little to do with each other, and yet, Louis recounts the stages of his journey with remarkable ease.
His scientific background directly led to his first profession. "I've always been driven by the challenge," he explains, "by learning and experimentation." This same drive pushed him to practice professionally in the web and start his own business.
However as a freelancer, caught up in the daily grind of entrepreneurship, he began to question his lifestyle. "I was so focused on my own thing." he admits. During a two-year break, he delved into books about the ecological crisis. "It was a wake-up call," he says. "I knew there was a problem, but I wasn't truly engaged." This realization led him to consider permaculture. The financial security from his previous ventures allowed him to pursue this career shift, undergoing professional training to learn the trade.
👉 Find the full interview with Louis on Les Colibris Français
Considering health is a valid reason to change careers
Burnout, brownout, and boredom, all working conditions that no longer suit you are also an argument that you can put forward to explain your career shift. Prioritizing your health and well-being isn't being selfish - recruiters understand this, as shown by labels like "Great Place to Work" or "Top Employer."
Live your values through your work
Changing careers to align with your lifestyle can help you explain your retraining.
For example, my boss was a nurse and started zero-waste practices, eventually integrating them into her daily life. This passion led her to open a zero-waste grocery store. To build trust with customers and first partners of her shop and support her legitimacy in the field, she highlighted her commitment to sustainable consumption habits.
Find your way in impact
A growing trend sees people aligning their careers with the challenges of ecological and social transition. Working to change our ways of consuming, housing, moving around, collaborating together to stick to transition issues is also a good way to justify your desire for a career change.
How can I support my application as part of a retraining?
Enhance your skills
Whatever your background, you have acquired valuable and transferable experience from one job to another. Look back on each of your professional experiences and highlight the skills you had to deploy in connection with your new job.
- Does your retraining project involve building partnerships? Talk about your ability to create bonds, long-term relationships and trust. Highlight your ability to listen and your ability to negotiate.
- Do you want to manage in your future job? Highlight the professional or personal experiences where you managed a team or led a group.
- Do you want to start a technical job in which you have not studied? Perhaps you have already started to train yourself through books, as an autodidact. Perhaps you have served friends, colleagues or companies for services in which you have mobilized these skills?
Start with a skills assessment
To succeed in your career change, you sometimes have to go through several stages. To begin with, a skills assessment can allow you to take stock, to understand how to find your professional path aligning your personality, values, and goals with a new career or turning a passion into a profession. During this assessment, you are accompanied individually and often collectively surrounded by people who are also looking to retrain. You are guided to talk about your past experiences, highlight your strengths and unfold the common thread of your career.
Retraining is even a skill!
Today, there is a “professional agility” certification recognized by the state that you can highlight on your CV.
Strengthen your profile by training...
To start a new professional life, you can do training to find another path or improve your skills in a professional field. There are several, adapted to your situation.
As a student, if you want to reorient yourself in the field of impact, you will find, for example, various specialized Masters to develop your skills in this sector of activity on jobs that makesense.
If you are an employee, you can find formats for a few days, face-to-face or online to complete your current skills in your job or even prepare for your change of orientation. You can finance training with your CPF or your company's OPCO.
For job seekers, training can be financed by the CPF and as part of your retraining, it is possible to request a matching contribution from your CPF account with Pôle Emploi to follow the training in connection with your retraining project.
...or by joining a structure aligned with your retraining project
As a student, you can already, as part of your training, reshape your professional project through internships in structures aligned with your desires. If you want to move into the field of impact and continue to train, there are internship offers in various sectors on jobs that makesense.
👉 Find out internship offers
Whatever your professional situation, to find a new path, you can test jobs by volunteering.
👉 Find out volunteer offers
If you are an employee, you can also ask your employer to put your skills at the service of a structure via skills sponsorship. As part of the CSR strategy, employers can be open to this request, if it is directed towards an SSE association or company.
👉 Find out sponsorship offers