So-called 'shadow professions' draw on skills you may already possess

Laura Ramsay - Special to The Globe and Mail - Wednesday, January 30, 2002 – Page C3  

When Kim Van Rooy lost her job, she saw in her shadow a new career. The Toronto woman had studied electronic engineering technology at college and had worked in quality control for five years at a small marine-equipment manufacturer that made highly customized parts. One of her responsibilities was to write out manufacturing procedures "and that turned into my career change because I realized I had quite enjoyed that aspect of my job," she says.

Although she had never heard the phrase "shadow profession" before, Ms. Van Rooy is an example of someone who turned to one to make a successful career change after being laid off. She's now employed as a technical writer by Nestlé Canada Inc., documenting and writing out procedures for safe use and maintenance of the chocolate-making equipment at the company's west Toronto factory, and is president of the Toronto chapter of the Society for Technical Communication, an international professional association of technical writers.

Virtually every professional specialty has one or more shadow professions that use similar skills. Journalism, for example, has shadow professions in public relations and advertising. A nurse might successfully transfer hospital skills into a new career in rehabilitation or pharmaceutical sales. A human resources specialist could find a shadow profession in skills training or labour relations. According to Richard Bolles, author of the best-selling career-change book What Color is Your Parachute?, a major stumbling block to changing careers is the belief that it requires a new degree, diploma or certificate, involving years of effort and huge debts.

But shadow professions draw on skills a person already has and require much less training. In Ms. Van Rooy's case, a course at Humber College led to a certificate in technical writing. She has continued to take evening courses over the past 10 years to upgrade her skills. Many colleges and some universities offer part-time evening classes that enable people to earn a certificate in technical writing while continuing to work full-time, she notes. That's true also of many other fields.

Martine Lacroix of Toronto parlayed a background in corporate training into a shadow profession in career counselling after she found the training job becoming too routine. "I enjoyed working with people and I was pretty good at explaining things to folks. But I got bored explaining the same things over and over again." So she took night courses at George Brown College and earned a diploma as a career and work counsellor. She now spends her days helping other employees map out career strategies and make plans for retirement. "I find it more interesting than training because each person's career and lifestyle is different," she says. The change worked for Ms. Lacroix because she was fundamentally happy in her line of work and simply looking for some variety.

One shadow profession can lead to another. Technical writing has its own shadow profession in training, an area Ms. Van Rooy is now moving into herself. "We're sort of connected with training because a lot of technical writers start writing by doing instructional-design work and then move into training because they've been writing adult educational materials to go along with the release of a product, and then find themselves as the trainers," she says.

In Ms. Van Rooy's case, "after writing all the operating procedures for the factory, I became an ideal candidate to train people . . . I had to go out and learn how to run the equipment and start up the machines and then document it and show everyone else how to do it." Today, she spends almost as much time training other employees as writing, she says, adding that although she's still classified as a technical writer, she now reports to the company's corporate trainer.

"It's been really interesting. I really enjoy being out there with people instead of being stuck on a bench like I used to be when I was just testing equipment. I have lots of variety in my role." Someone looking to move into a shadow profession can turn to professional associations representing the field they're interested in to unearth related career paths and find suitable training programs.

Most professional associations host training seminars and willingly offer information about how to break in to that line of work. For example, the Society for Technical Communication posts articles on its Web site detailing the steps required to become a technical writer and provides member contacts and meeting information for local chapters.

But moving into a shadow profession isn't always a solution to a career crisis. If you don't enjoy what you do right now, then moving sideways into a related field won't solve your workplace woes, says Howard Timms, program representative for career planning and development with the Toronto YMCA, which provides career counselling and employment skills assessments. "It's not what we career counsellors feel is the right way to make a career change because you're making decisions based on past experiences and skill sets which, to begin with, may not be the best place for you to be working in," he says.

Before making a move into a shadow profession, it's wise to undergo career counselling and an aptitude assessment, he says. "Typically a person comes out of school and says 'what am I going to do?'" and takes a job based on the economic climate of the time. Then they work their whole life based on that choice. "They may prove to be quite good at what they do but they may never really connect with it," he says.

But for people like Ms. Van Rooy, lurking in the shadows provided her career with the burst of light it needed. "I was getting really stale doing what I was doing before," she says. "I'm just really happy I made the move."