Trying to change careers, but don't have any experience in your target field?
You're not alone!
This is one of the most common obstacles facing career changers in today's market.
The good news is, there's a solution:
It's called The 25 Post Strategy and it's super easy to implement. Even better, it's going to help you accomplish 3 things with one set of actions. When you implement the 25 Post Strategy, you're going to:
- Create real world experience in your target field (even if you don't have any right now!)
- Illustrate value on your terms and in your own voice (instead of using a boring resume)
- Grab the attention of potential employers, hiring managers, and recruiters
Here's how it works.
Context: Want To Change Careers?
If you want to make a career change, you need the right experience.
I hate to break it to you, but in most cases, a certification or course won't do it. Why?
Because anyone can do those things. Anyone can take a course, get certified, or acquire knowledge. But none of those things are real indicators of how well you'll perform in the actual job!
Of course, you need to educate yourself on your new target field.
But if you actually want to win job offers? You need to turn that knowledge into real world results.
How do you do that?
With the 25 Post Strategy. Here's how it works:
1. Choose Your Medium
The first step is to choose the medium that you're going to use to share your content.
The medium that you choose should meet 4 core criteria:
- Allows for longer form content
- Allows for text + media
- Allows for a creative process you enjoy
- Allows for visibility
My personal favorites are LinkedIn and Medium.com.
LinkedIn is great for two reasons. First, we're in this to change jobs and every potential employer is on LinkedIn! Second, LinkedIn is one of the most content friendly platforms for people who are beginning to share their work. It's really easy to get visibility.
Medium is great because it's a super user friendly blogging platform that simply requires an account. Once you're in, you can use your profile as your portfolio website. From there, all you need to do is write and publish! Plus, you can share Medium links far and wide on many other platforms.
2. Choose A Relevant Focus For Your Content
The goal of your content is to illustrate your value and expertise in your new field.
If you want to break into graphic design?
Your content should focus on graphic design.
If you want to optimize marketing funnels?
Your content should focus on optimizing marketing funnels.
You don't have to be an expert yet. Instead, you simply need to share the things you're learning as you learn them.
3. Set A Timeline For Yourself
Timelines create constraints.
Constraints force you to optimize and refine your processes.
They also force you to be creative!
As Tom Kelly put it, “constraints can spur creativity and incite action, as long as you have the confidence to embrace them.”
I personally recommend starting with a 30-60 day timeline for creating your content.
You can adjust based on your schedule, the medium you chose, etc. Just make sure you have a deadline that's near enough to actually create some urgency!
4. Commit To Writing 25 Posts On Your Target Field
Now, the tough part. It's time to take action!
Your goal is to commit to writing 25 posts related to your target field.
Why 25?
Anything less than 10 won't get the job done.
But larger numbers are overwhelming.
25 posts allows you to cover a broad range of subject matter and really hone your skills.
These posts can span any number of topics. You can write about:
- Something you learned about the field recently
- Your opinion on recent industry events / news
- Roundups of the best tools, workflows, and ideas
- What you learned from interviewing an expert in the field
- Updates on the progress you're making as you hone your craft
- And so much more!
The easiest way to get inspired is by looking at the content that other creators produce on these topics on social and on relevant blogs.
5. Start Creating & Sharing!
When you begin, your goal should simply be to take consistent action.
Show up every day and spend 30-60 minutes working on one of your posts. Set a timer if you have to!
It's much easier to be consistent and make progress if you make your focus on showing up vs. achieving a certain output or result early on.
When your first post is done? Share it.
Press publish on whatever platform you chose! Then rinse and repeat. Get into a rhythm of writing every day and publishing 2-3 pieces of content every week.
It's going to feel scary, it's going to be hard, you're going to want to give up.
But if you can stick with it?
You'll have system for education yourself and illustrating value in your new field.
⚡ Pro Tip: I recommend writing 5 posts before you publish anything. That way, you have a backlog of 5 posts to share to keep the momentum going if you run into some writer's block.
Two Examples of “25 Post” Posts
It's one thing to talk about this in the abstract and another to see some real examples! Here are two great ones I found:
1. Joseph Writes 75 Blockchain Articles
I interviewed Joseph Bradley about his transition from microbiology, to finance, and eventually into blockchain. The way he broke into blockchain was by committing to writing 75 posts in a single year.
He said that if he could write 75 posts, he would know the field well enough to be able to land a job. And that's exactly what happened! Not only did he land a job at a blockchain firm called Gem, he eventually got featured in big publications like Coindesk:
2. Daniel Shares His Growth As A Sales Development Representative
Daniel Lantin has been sharing the results of his personal growth journey for years now. He started while he was job searching, and continued after he landed a series of great jobs.
Most recently, he's been sharing his growth as a SDR with updates like this:
I love this example because it proves that you don't need to be an expert in order to do this!
6. Why I Love The 25 Post Strategy
There you have it! A step-by-step breakdown of a strategy that will help you build experience in a new field and make changing careers that much easier. I love this strategy for a few reasons:
1. Writing forces you to truly learn things
2. Time and post limits force you to refine the process
3. By sharing publicly, you open yourself up to new opportunities
4. Worst case, you build real knowledge in the new space
All you have to do now is show up and execute. Good luck out there!
