career change- questions, experience, advice, etc.

[mumra 2]

I'm starting this as I don't want to invade Macanudo's job hunting thread and there were a few recent posts on the subject as I was reading through that thread. I would be interested in hearing personal experiences of a mid-career change, answers to my questions or any general advice.  While I obviously don't post much here, I hung around on the old site enough to know sometimes there are nuggets of wisdom hidden between the dick jokes. No problem if anyone wants to tag on to the thread with a story or questions, feel free.

Brief details of my situation; fairly vague at the moment. 

-A majority or all of the company I currently work for is likely to be out of a job soon due to funding issues. Some of us were expecting this to happen last week and everyone expects the news to happen soon. I'm in an industry that is currently experiencing widespread layoffs. 

-My wife (no pics) prefers we stay in our current location and I agree with her based on several factors. Our current house is paid off and my wife's employer appears to be stable. We are in our early 40s. Our special needs child has settled into his school and started making friends after a rough few years. 

-I'm considering using some of my anticipated time after the layoff to complete an online professional certification program. Hopefully this would make my experience translatable to other fields and open myself up to a wider variety of positions as I assume my current industry will have job candidate saturation for a while. The certificates I'm considering are for responsibilities that I had to learn at my current job but had no formal training or certification.    

Questions- Mostly due to the fact that I haven't conducted a job search for the better part of a decade

1. What are the main sites used for job searches? My previous search was mostly LinkedIn with some Indeed.  

2. Has anyone personally changed careers with a professional certification rather than a new degree? I have a few degrees already and would rather add some letters behind my name with a certificate if needed.

3. What resources are most popular for resume/cv review? I had a service give me some pointers ~5 years ago when I considered a career change. I'm assuming that advice is now out of date. 

Thanks in advance for the responses. 

[closetohumping 17449]

Good luck man.

[Handcruser 2805]

Obviously you’re in tech. What do you do?

[Irwin F Fletcher 3550]

Obviously you’re in tech. What do you do?

This. What job are you looking for?

[Parliament 14260]

Do those professional certificate courses include job placement help?

Might as well get on LinkedIn and put out the vibe.

Network with other people in your field.  Coworkers who went somewhere else, competitors, etc.

Getting a full time job is a full time job in itself.  Gopd luck, Man. Serious.

[Chapo 104]

Anybody can recommend a career counselor? For somebody interested in a career change.

[Cheeseweasel 26438]

On 3/20/2023 at 9:11 PM, mumra said:

1. What are the main sites used for job searches?

Every job I've had of any significance came from networking. If it's safe, start talking to people in your network that you may be interested in a move.

[tx 3 putt 77061]

Network, Network, Network 

also, Start stealing office supplies asap 

if your laid off, might be some govt money to training and certs, but probably not in Texas 

[HamsterHookah 112]

On 3/24/2023 at 8:52 AM, Parliament said:

Getting a full time job is a full time job in itself.  Gopd luck, Man. Serious.

Ain't this the truth.