30% of candidates who want a new job aim for a change of industry

A third (30%) of professional candidates for managerial positions in Romania want to change the industry they work in when considering a new job, according to Pronext, a reverse-recruiting company for senior executives, experts, and managers.

“We have placed two major motivations for candidates who want to change the industry: the need for diversity and new professional challenges, on the one hand. On the other hand, the desire to reduce vulnerabilities in the context of the uncertainty of the current economic context. More candidates are aware that as they acquire knowledge and develop new skills that help them adapt to organizational environments different from the current one, their vulnerability is reduced in the event of a crisis”, said Andreea Voicu, HR Strategist Pronext.

The trend of increasing interest in new industries among applicants accelerated in 2022-2023 compared to 2019, the pre-pandemic period. Thus, the pandemic taught managers that no sector is stable, and this generated an accelerated reconversion of professionals from the affected fields to others that might only have shown interest later. Thus, a change of approach can be observed in most industries’ labor market that has spread over the last three years.

Specifically, there is a growing interest among managers for industries in digitization, automation, and green energy as candidates associate these domains with future jobs. The new trend is complementary to the changes in recruitment in 2023, a time in which the labor market is still one of the candidates, and there is still an imbalance between the skills of applicants and the needs of companies.

What are reverse recruiting services for managers

In the first phase of reverse recruiting, when they want to change the industry, the candidates are guided to connect with the new sector of interest and acquire the necessary skills to access it. Reverse recruiting for candidates subsequently involves promoting them to selected companies in the desired industry. This process highlights the transferable skills candidates have for the target positions. Also, this type of recruiting includes identifying and selecting employers of interest for the client candidate (targeted industry, company typology – national or multinational) and tracking the appearance of positions of interest for the client candidate. The next step is to promote the candidate’s profile to facilitate interviews to obtain a job offer compatible with the budget expectations, work schedule, career development prospects, and the project’s attractiveness.

Pronext has over 150 candidates and 70 partner companies in its portfolio from technology, services, retail & FMCG, construction, energy, and transport industries. It has completed successful placements for positions such as CEO, CFO, Development Director or Scrum Master.