(NAPSI)—If you think your work skills are only useful at your current job, think again. Many of the skills acquired in the workforce can be used in related or even completely different careers, so there’s no need to stay in that dead-end job or keep trying for a job in an industry that’s losing them.

Many skills can be transferred and be an asset in another type of career. Although the U.S. unemployment rate is currently 8.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 3.4 million jobs open right now. Many employers have positions they believe they can’t fill and can’t find the “right” candidates to join their team. Many of these open jobs are in sales and other areas such as human resources, where skill sets are easily adapted to new organizations and industries.

While many employers are having a tough time finding “qualified” candidates to fill open jobs, the insurance industry is hiring, targeting efforts at career changers.

For example, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (Guardian) expects to increase its sales force by 5 percent, adding over 800 new members to its national distribution team in 80 agencies across the U.S. The company has seen that life insurance industry experience is not the only desirable background in this rapidly changing economic time and hopes to fill many of those positions with candidates from other walks of life.

While the pool of people who succeed in making the shift into the life insurance and financial advisory arena is diverse, they share certain characteristics, particularly the eagerness and overwhelming drive to make the opportunity their own and create a business for themselves.

Diverse business experience, well-developed interpersonal skills, a keen interest in financial success, a passion for lifelong learning, and professional training are important transferable skills for people most likely to thrive in the financial services environment.

Some 65 percent of the company’s representatives are career changers. Career changers tend to offer many great qualities: maturity, good judgment, professional comportment, knowledge of business etiquette, and experience. In addition, career changers are often self-starters, and while they may need training to assume their new responsibilities, they do not need an inordinate amount of hand-holding.

For many companies, hiring the “right stuff” means welcoming career changers. For more information, visit www.GuardianLife.com.

 

On the Net:North American Precis Syndicate(NAPSI)