Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

You can do anything you choose to do; there is nothing stopping you. Just be aware that for many HR people, evidence of lots of job hopping on a resume raises serious red flags.

Applying for and attending additional courses and qualifications may seem like a good idea, but they can get you into more debt and confuse the issues even more.

Lastly, and from my own experience of having screwed up several job applications and interviews over the years, take the time to review your statement about written communication: "I am more better in written communication than in oral or verbal."

More better?

Sadly, and again based on my own experience, this kind of error instantly discounts you as a qualified or serious candidate.

You need to identify the important skills and strengths you've picked up and present those as the reason you can bring high value to a prospective new employer. It will require that you step back from your employment history and think more about why you might be an attractive employee for your next employer. You may not be ideal for many companies. You need to seek out the ones for whom you are a great match and just focus on those.

You can't change the past, so your only real option is to focus on the future and your skill-set.

sorry to be harsh, but think about this for a moment.

It would be better to move from a successful sales career to a business analyst position.

Otherwise, if you consider yourself unsuccessful in sales, your message becomes:
"I couldn't figure out how to do my job, let me tell you how to run your business."

you will have the same problem with a marketing position. If you have no history of sales success, you will have difficulty working with the sales people in your organization.

I would encourage you to try to find a better sales job. look for direct outside sales, not inside sales. Study and learn: read one sales book monthly. Apply your marketing tactics and business analysis tools and become successful.

Agree with all the above - input from the finest marketing industry experts you'll ever find on this forum, by the way!

Nilesh, I don't know what your primary language is in your work, but I suspect English is your second language. Am I right? And I don't mean to denigrate your English speaking or writing abilities because your English is surely way better than my Hindi or Nepali or whatever your first language is.

However, if your work is dependent upon your ability to communicate precisely and accurately in English, based on the way you have written your question, then you need to do some more work to improve it. And that may be the root cause of the problem you perceive you have.

I'm also not clear what you mean when you say: "I have been switching jobs here and there due to inconvenience in high pressure sales jobs.". What inconvenience are you talking about? Why is the job "high-pressure sales"? Companies operating a high-pressure sales model rarely succeed over the long-term. Whose idea is it to use a high-pressure sales model? Can you change the model to a customer benefit-centric selling model? So you sell solutions to customer's problems,, rather than products?

What exactly IS you current job title, and why don't you like what you are doing?

The reason I am asking these questions is because to jump around from job to job might have you jumping from the frying pan into the fire, to coin a phrase. A more thoughtful, strategic approach would be vastly more helpful.

You're only 36, there is still time to develop your career path. Just try to work out what path you're really on. It would be better to create stability now, than to be job-hopping still in ten years.

Good luck.

ChrisB

If you break it down to its simplest form, a company would be interested in your skills in a function (right now, sales) and your knowledge of the products/markets. Usually, you can change 1, and that often comes with some difficulty. But it is very difficult/almost impossible to change both at once.

So you could possibly change from sales, you need to stay at the same company or move to a company in the same market to have the best chance of succeeding. You would need to focus on how you know the customer and products, and go toward a job where that knowledge would be important (such as marketing).

On whether to do this as a 34 year old father - that is up to you. Any change comes with risks.

Peter is right -- any change comes with risk. That said, you are more likely to find acceptance in a new field now, than you will at an older age.

If you are unhappy in sales and have an MBA in marketing, then you should go to a hiring consultant to see if they can help place you into a marketing position in another company. If they cannot, then learn from them what experience you need to have before they can place you. Even if it takes time to accumulate those experiences, you'll still be improving your marketability.

Learn more about what hiring managers seek in related fields and position yourself to market attractively to them. But realize that when switching careers, you may have to make compromises in salary in the beginning. That is never ideal, but it is easier to do this while your daughter is young; it is almost impossible once she is a teenager or wants to go to college.

Among the posts you might consider, think about a research position at a large management consulting firm. With your experience in sales -- even if you don't enjoy selling yourself -- you'll recognize sales opportunities in the research you do, and that will be valuable to your firm and to its salespeople.

Whether you stay in sales or go to another field, don't wait too long before making the decision. Waiting will not make it easier.

Good luck to you.