If the work you have spent years getting good at starts to change, who could help you work out what to do next? You might know who would give you a reference.
Finding someone who can help you see where else your experience belongs may take a little more thought.
A former colleague has seen what you can do. Someone in another field understands the problems their organisation needs to solve. A conversation between you could reveal a use for your experience that you would never have thought to look for in a job advertisement.
As AI changes familiar tasks and organisations reconsider how work is done, those relationships give you people to talk to about your options. Building and developing them while work is going well allows time to learn, get to know one another and understand what you each have to offer. LinkedIn® gives you a place to start.
Examine the network you already have
Start by looking across your professional past, present and possible future. Who knows you from earlier roles? Who is part of your working life now? Who works in a field you would like to understand better?
A network concentrated around one employer or profession can contain deep knowledge and strong trust. Looking beyond that circle lets you learn how other organisations deal with problems you recognise.
Before you search for new people, revisit some existing connections. Read their current profiles. A colleague you knew in one role may now be in a very different organisation or industry. You may already have a relationship with someone who can answer questions about a possible next step.
Find the skills behind your job title
A job title or industry label tells part of your story. To understand where your experience could travel, think about the work behind it.
Someone who has spent years in publishing might be skilled at coordinating specialists, resolving competing priorities and meeting fixed deadlines. A person in another field may recognise the same challenge in their own organisation.
Ask someone who has worked closely with you what they remember you doing particularly well. Then talk to people in a field that interests you about the problems they deal with. Those conversations can help you explain your experience in terms another professional community recognises.
Use a current reason to renew contact
Look for something specific when you visit a former colleague’s profile. Perhaps they have moved sectors, taken on a new responsibility or begun working for themselves.
A message can refer to the work you shared and the change that caught your attention. You might say you noticed their move and would like to hear what drew them to it. If they respond, ask which parts of their earlier experience turned out to be useful.
You can also tell them what has changed in your own work. Catching up gives both people a current understanding of the other’s interests and capabilities.
Some time back, a business consultant asked me to update his LinkedIn profile. Earlier in his career he had been a high-profile athlete, and he now used what he had learnt on his way to the Olympics to help his clients. After working together, he referred me to several businesses he worked with.
He had experienced my work and understood where it could help others. Professional relationships can carry that understanding into settings you would not otherwise reach.
Learn from people outside your field
Choose a problem you understand and look at how another sector handles it. If your work involves helping people adjust to a new process, you might explore discussions in education, healthcare or local government.
Useful discussions, webinars and event speakers can introduce you to people working on the subject. Look at their profiles and contributions. Notice the language they use, the questions they ask and the experience they bring.
The next action depends on what you already share. A conversation after a webinar can give you a clear reason to connect. An interesting post may give you a reason to follow someone’s work and learn more. If an exchange develops, you have context for an invitation.
Share what you have learnt from earlier work
Your own career moves may give someone else a useful starting point. Think about what you found difficult, what you misunderstood at first and who helped you understand the work.
Many years ago, I worked at the Baker Street branch of the recruitment company Brook Street Bureau in London. I helped people find permanent roles and recruited people to work for the company itself. Some lessons from that period remain vivid, including what I learnt from mistakes.
When I work with recruiters or help someone seeking a new role, that experience helps me understand the situation from both sides and ask better questions. Experience from an earlier part of your career can still be useful to someone working through a similar situation today.
Give relationships time in your week
A short period each week can create room to reconnect with someone, read about another field or continue a conversation. If you mentioned an article you would send, follow through. If you tried someone’s advice, tell them what happened.
You can focus your attention by choosing one field and learning about it over several weeks. The more you understand, the better your questions become.
Start this week with one former colleague. Read what they do now. If it interests you, ask about it. You may discover that your professional world already reaches further than you thought.
These ideas sit at the heart of Connecting, the first strategy in the forthcoming second edition of Link∙Ability. The chapter explores how to build a network that reflects your professional past, supports your present and gives you routes towards possible futures.
In the next episode of The Visibility Advantage podcast, I explore how to build and develop those relationships over time. You can explore earlier episodes and find the new episode here when it is released.