Moving Out but no Experience

Question

Hi, I am interested to find opportunities elsewhere as I am on the bench for about 6 months into my new role.

I don't have any experience in my new role as I was from another role that is not totally related. What should I do if I want to move out?

The firm has plenty of learning materials around the role I am interested in. I can certainly brush up my technical knowledge but not sure how much this help.

Any advice?

Answer 1

I think we've seen your story unfold in this forum for a while.

At this point, you have to either:

1) ask to go back to former team

2) find a different job

By this time you probably exhausted every action you could take in order to get staffed, so I wouldn't consider this an opportunity anymore.

If you are on the bench you probably have plenty of time to look for a new job and network extensively (inside and outside the company). Just go for it.

Answer 2

Hi there,

Here's my advise:

Network a ton
“Hide" this gap on your resume (put in anything you can under this role on your resume)
Get proposal work
Get on a project at the company ASAP
Do pro bono consulting (lots of companies out there that you can volunteer there for 5-10 hours/week)

Answer 3

Hi,

could you clarify a bit more? Are you in a consulting firm now? Did you have a non-consulting role prior? How is “the role you are now interested in” related to what you do now? Same firm?

In consulting it is not unusual to be on the beach for several months, especially if you are new. That often has to do with the project pipeline rather than the individual though. You should be proactive and have an open dialogue with your manager/mentor to better understand

why you are still not staffed
when you can expect staffing
where you can meaningfully support in the interim

To answer your question on how to best prepare for a potential switch, I'd have to understand more about the context (see questions above).

All the best