If I had a dollar from everyone who has heard that from a potential employer or recruiter \u2013 I\u2019d have retired years ago.<\/p>\n
As a consultant, I marvel at the idea that some feel that skills sets are not transferable between sectors. I began my career in marketing in the software sector, then moved to sales followed by HR – \u00a0both in the manufacturing sector.\u00a0 In my mind, my HR skills in particular, are transferable to any industry, especially those with departments similar to the organizations where I have worked – sales, customer service, operations, R&D, engineering, health, safety and environment, finance, management, accounting, IT etc.\u2026\u00a0 Funny, don\u2019t most organizations have similar departments?<\/p>\n
I know when I was recruiting, I may not have been a technical expert in the field we were recruiting for, but that is why the line managers were involved. All sectors and departments have one big commonality \u2013 people. People are people wherever you go. It is just the focus of organization that is different.<\/p>\n
A colleague gave me her perspective on this \u201crequiring prior experience in the sector\u201d mind-set.\u00a0 She believes there are two kinds of people \u2013 Splitters<\/em> and Clumpers<\/em>.\u00a0 Splitters<\/em> are people who see things (cups and glasses, chairs, or organizations in different businesses) as different and discrete.\u00a0 The others she calls Clumpers<\/em>. They see the differences in things but are able to find the similarities across different things more easily (things to drink out of, furniture to sit on, organizations that need HR and Finance and IT support). Clumpers are able to step back, look at information and find the similarities.<\/p>\n In organizations you need Clumpers<\/em> and Splitters<\/em>.\u00a0 They both have merits.\u00a0 But when you are trying to build bigger and better organizations you need Clumpers to set the direction,<\/em> as they can take their vast knowledge across different experiences and be strategic, leveraging their knowledge and experience to provide a good solution. The Splitter<\/em> can then join in and dive down to the right level to get to the unique pieces of the puzzle for any given circumstance.<\/p>\n Fortunately I have had many Clumpers<\/em> brave enough to hire me to help them with their work, despite having been a consultant steeped in manufacturing experience (granted in three different sectors)! \u00a0\u00a0I have worked in sectors from manufacturing to professional services, profit to not-for-profit and charities, social justice to actuarial services. Sometimes I need to understand the business that they are in for context – but the HR issues \u2013 they are often the same.<\/p>\n Part of what makes our Osborne Group team so strong is that our Principals have experience in almost every sector. We have demonstrated time and time again that our functional and management expertise allows us to cross sector boundaries with ease. If we don\u2019t have specific experience in our client\u2019s sector, we can still help because we draw upon the profound levels of experience we have collectively to resolve client issues.<\/p>\n I guess you could say we\u2019re a great group of Clumpers<\/em>!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
![\"sarah3\"](\"http:\/\/localhost\/osborne\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/sarah3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n