How To Move into a New Role (In or Outside Your Field), with Amelia Badua

You don’t have to stay stuck in one job or one industry forever. This week, career development specialist Amelia Badua, founder of AB Careers, joins Mac to explain how you can move into a new role, whether that means a different industry, a fresh title, or a well-earned promotion. Amelia helps women turn their existing skills into raises, higher-paying jobs, and side income, and she shares why so many job seekers hesitate to make the leap.

Amelia walks through her step-by-step approach: get clear on what you want, take inventory of your skills, narrow your target roles, and build application materials that speak directly to employers’ needs. She also shares two AI prompts to help you uncover your transferable skills and build a resume tailored to each role you pursue.

About Our Guest:

• Amelia Badua is a career development specialist and the founder of AB Careers. 

Resources in This Episode:

• Connect with Amelia on LinkedIn.

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 568:

How To Move into a New Role (In or Outside Your Field), with Amelia Badua

Airdate: September 9, 2026

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.

You may think you can only do one job in one industry alone.

In fact, your skills are transferable and qualify you for many opportunities beyond the gig you have now.

Amelia Badua joins us to talk about how to move into a new role (in or outside your field).

She’s a career development specialist and the founder of AB Careers.

Her company helps women earn more by leveraging their skills into raises, higher-paying roles, and side income.

Amelia joins us from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Let’s get right into it, Amelia. When you talk about moving into a new role, what do you mean exactly?

Amelia Badua:

Yes, I mean moving into a different industry possibly, doing a career pivot, possibly a role change, or even seeking a higher-level position. So going for an advancement for a new role.

Mac Prichard:

And is this different from changing careers entirely? Are there some differences here when you talk about changing?

Amelia Badua:

It can be, right? Well, if you do an industry transition, it’s not necessarily changing a career entirely. It’s taking what you do now in one field and doing it in a different field. So, like, say moving from tech, moving to the healthcare industry, but the role is pretty much the same.

But when we look at doing like a whole career pivot, then that could be a career change. But you’re gonna look at what transferable skills you’ve gained throughout all of your jobs, which is your career, into what you can do, but something different.

So it just depends on which lane you’d like to go through.

Mac Prichard:

Why do some people believe they’ve gotta stay in the same job or the same industry year after year? What’s behind that mindset, Amelia?

Amelia Badua:

I think it’s fear. I think some people feel like they can’t get hired, especially within this market. Some feel like they may not be as qualified as other people if they decide to change.

They feel like they don’t fully understand their current transferable skills, and they feel like they may have to start over from scratch, and a lot of people aren’t willing to do that. I also think knowledge, right? So after the fear, it comes to how do I position myself for this new role?

How do I select which roles I should even go for with my current skill set that I have? So those would be the two things that I see come up most often for most job seekers.

Mac Prichard:

And what are the benefits to you when you seek out a new role? How does that help both your job search and your career?

Amelia Badua:

Yeah, so for one, when you seek out a new role, you have to understand the current skill set you have and how valuable it is. So most people don’t take inventory of their skill set before. They don’t remember their achievements.

So when you go look for a job, it kind of forces you to do that. And then you say, hey, I have more skills that I can actually go out and sell. The benefit of getting into a new job is getting more skills to add underneath your tool belt.

Because more than likely, when you’re changing jobs, you’re learning new things. It may be new systems. You may be working with different stakeholders. You may be learning a new skill or having to do more responsibilities. So it’s just more skills that you can put into your inventory for you to sell at a different time.

Mac Prichard:

Okay, so it gives you the opportunity to learn new skills, and that will make you more attractive to employers in the future. What about in the search itself? Does it open up more opportunities, give you more choice or flexibility? What happens?

Amelia Badua:

So. Yeah, so most people, they will look for their current role in the same field because it’s the path of least resistance. And I encourage you, yes, when you’re doing your job search, you can have the same role, same field.

However, I think that everyone should open themselves up to more opportunities because there are more opportunities. So instead of just sticking to your same role, same industry, you can open up the breadth of your search and select one or two other things, like one being changing into a different industry. So same role, different industry.

The other option could be, well, yes, you have your job description, but you’ve outgrown your job description. You’ve picked up more skills. So why not go for that higher-level role that you deserve to have? You deserve to get paid for.

So now you give yourself three options strategically, and you open yourself up for more opportunities during your job search.

Mac Prichard:

What concerns have you found employers might have about someone who’s seeking a new role when they’re perhaps reviewing that applicant’s resume or talking to them in an interview?

Amelia Badua:

I think most employers, from a recruitment perspective, the question they’re asking themselves is: can this person do the job? Will they understand the industry? Will they understand the environment, especially if they are doing a role change into a different industry? And will they understand the role itself? And what could the learning curve be, if any?

But it’s up to you, the candidate, to answer those questions inside of your resume and also throughout the interview process. So that way they understand that yes, even though you’re coming from a different background, you understand what’s needed for their environment and you’re able to do it.

Mac Prichard:

And are there ways that you’ve seen people do that effectively, that you’ve coached who have addressed those concerns, both in their resumes and in their conversations with employers?

Amelia Badua:

Yeah, so first it starts with the resume. And it starts with actually understanding the job description, actually being able to dig into it. In the job description, which most people don’t read, when it says about the company, it tells you if it’s a global company or if it’s a Fortune 500 company or if it’s a startup company. And that’s a big deal because then how you face your resume towards it, if it’s a startup, for example.

One of my clients wanted to work at a startup. And so she had to understand that she is going to be building and scaling. So in the resume, she had to speak to building and scaling projects that she’s done before. And throughout the interview process, she had to answer how she has built, how she has scaled, innovation, things of that nature.

And so then they were able to understand, okay, if she can do the work, even though it looked a little different –– it was for more of like a family-owned, smaller operation that scaled –– if she could do it there, she can do it in this role. And she was able to get the job doing that as well.

Mac Prichard:

Okay. So understand the employer’s needs, and sometimes those needs are hiding in plain sight right in the job description. Let’s talk about how to move into a new role. And I know one of the first steps you recommend, Amelia, is to identify your wants and your dislikes.

Why is it important to be clear about what matters to you in your next job and also to be clear about what’s unacceptable to you?

Amelia Badua:

Sure. I think because if you’re leaving your current space or if you are, like many others, and you have faced a layoff, most people don’t want to get into a situation that they’re gonna want to leave a year later. It takes a lot of work to secure a job.

So you wanna secure a job that you actually plan to be there for at least a couple of years and that you’re not miserable. So when I say identify what you want, I mean like your task, your responsibility.

Like if you are a master facilitator, you know that that’s going to be high on your wants list, right? However, if you cannot stand doing a lot of data dumping or doing analytical work, then you know that the jobs you’re going to go for are not going to include data or analytics.

And then also understanding, like your wants, like how far are you willing to commute? How much money would you like to make? That way you have a standard, and when you start looking for new roles, you have something to check it against, like, is this role going to be a good fit for me?

Does it have the duties that I want to do? Is it in the environment? Is it fast, like a startup, or is it slower? Or is it like a nonprofit where you need to build a little bit more? So you have to tease all those things out first to go into your job search.

Mac Prichard:

So many candidates out there, and I certainly did this early in my career too, will say, I can do anything. I don’t want to say no. I wanna keep my options open. Talk more, Amelia, about why it’s important to say no to things and focus on what you want and be clear about what you don’t want.

Amelia Badua:

It is, if I look at it as like shooting for a target, right? If you have a bullseye in the middle, it’s easier for you to shoot and for you to focus. But if you’re like, I can do anything, I’m open to anything, you’re kind of shooting all over the place. And when it comes down to it, are you going to be able to do it if the opportunity does come?

But from my experience, I do believe for job seekers and what my clients have seen, the more strategic you can be on the front end of the search, the better results and options you have on the back end of the search.

Mac Prichard:

Terrific. We’re going to take a break. Stay with us. When we come back, Amelia Badua will continue to share her advice on how to move into a new role in or outside your field.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Amelia Badua. She’s a career development specialist and the founder of AB Careers. Her company helps women earn more by leveraging their skills into raises, higher-paying roles, and side income. Amelia joins us from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Now, Amelia, before the break, we’re talking about how to move into a new role in or outside your field. And what we mean by that, the benefits of doing so, and some of the steps you can take to start doing it.

A second step you say job seekers can take to move into a new role is to inventory your skills. And you touched on this in our first segment, but say more about this: why it’s important and how to do it.

Amelia Badua:

Sure. So it’s important because you can’t sell what you don’t know that you have. And I find that most job seekers don’t fully have a full scope of everything that they have under their belt.

So I’m gonna tell you how to do it, but I want you to get a pen and paper if you’re listening. So the first part is doing your collection. So if you can start with your current job description. If you don’t have it and you are still working, request it. Okay.

If you don’t or if you don’t have the option to do that, then just do a brain dump of all of the work that you can think that you’ve done. Most people have like a brag sheet or a brag book. I would say start there as well.

Also, I want you to look at your current resume, even if it’s not fully updated just yet. And then I want you to also look for work that you’ve done in your previous roles as well and your performance reviews. So if you have your performance reviews handy.

If you have your job description, your brag sheet, or your brain dump and your resume, you’re in a good place. Next, I want you to use AI. If you don’t like AI, you can do it manually, but for the purposes of this show, I’m gonna share an AI prompt with you all because it’s going to help you extract your skills, your hard skills, your soft skills, and your competencies much faster.

So you can use this prompt.  So you are a career strategist; review my job description and my resume.

Or it may be a brain dump: my list of projects and tasks, along with some information for my performance review; extract my hard skills, my soft skills, my transferable skills, competencies, strengths, and areas of expertise.

Mac Prichard:

Okay, so let’s pause there for a moment. So you’re taking all these documents, you have them in electronic form, and you’re using an AI tool like Claude or ChatGPT; you’re feeding the documents into the prompt and then asking that question.

Amelia Badua:

Correct. And at the end of that question, you’re gonna want you’re gonna want to say, based on that information, what other roles align with my current experience? And then, of course, like what you had mentioned, Mac, you’re gonna wanna upload the job description and your brain dump document.

You can copy and paste if you don’t have everything electronically. And based on the feedback that Claude or ChatGPT gives you, you can see which options interest you the most.

And then it’ll be up to you to research each of those options and then think through how you qualify for each of those roles and potential gaps. And once you do that, you can select one to three targeted role matches for yourself.

Mac Prichard:

So you’re getting a list of roles that your skills would allow you to perform, and you take that lesson; you’re recommending focusing on one to three specific roles. Why do you suggest narrowing the list down, Amelia, and what’s the best way to narrow it down?

Amelia Badua:

Sure, I think it can be overwhelming. In my experience working with clients, if you’re trying to go for five or six different positions, that means you have five or six different strategies for your resume, for your interviewing, and things of that nature.

However, if you decide to just focus on three altogether, so say one being your current role, current industry, and two other options for yourself, that’s only three different job application materials that you have.

And three different ways that you can start preparing for your interviews, which is a little bit less overwhelming for you as a job seeker.

Mac Prichard:

And what have you seen work with your clients who are trying to take that list of six, seven, ten roles and boil it down to three? How has it helped them make that choice?

Amelia Badua:

One curiosity. So if you get a list of like 10, for instance, and you’re automatically like, I would never do these three, or I’ve already kind of touched on this before. I don’t like it. You kind of go back to your wants and your dislike lists from the earlier suggestion in the first segment, and you’re looking for the roles that are mostly going to align with the duties that you want to do.

And so that’s what I’ve seen being successful is when we’re clear on the front end of the type of duties and the scope of work we want to do. It’s easier once we get a list of options to see which ones align with our wants.

Mac Prichard:

Okay. So you have your list of three target roles, then one of them might be the role you’re currently performing, and two that you want to explore and chase. You mentioned application materials, and I know that’s a s another step that you recommend people follow.

How do you prepare the application materials for those three different roles, and how does that help you?

Amelia Badua:

Yeah, so we’re gonna rely on our friends chat. Now it’s not to completely do all the work for us. We just wanna use the system to help us work more efficiently. So we still have a lot of work that we want to do.

But once you know the roles that you’re interested in, you’ll want to grab three to four job descriptions for each role that you are interested in. And once you have the job descriptions for the roles that you actually want to do.

You’re going to want to use AI, and you can prompt it and say, “Read these job descriptions and identify the common soft skills, hard skills, and experience along with qualifications that these employers are seeking.”

And then you can say, “Using those common themes and my current resume, help me create an updated master resume for the role, highlighting my relevant experience.”

And then identify possible skill gaps and estimate my percentage for the job. So each job seeker is gonna have to run that exercise for each match or each role that they are going for. So they should be running this exercise three times for the roles that they’re seeking.

And from there, it’ll help them create three master resumes that they can just tweak depending on which jobs that they’re applying for within those roles. Is that clear?

Mac Prichard:

It is, and many of our viewers and listeners might be new to AI. What are some beginner tips, particularly after you put in that first prompt, Amelia?

How can you make sure that you get material you can actually use? What are some follow-up questions you might ask ChatGPT or other AI tools?

Amelia Badua:

The output is only as good as the input for AI. And so we have to think of what type of output we would like. So I think you mentioned the first when we’re talking about collecting the materials and what we’re trying to get out of the materials.

So we know with the first piece of advice that I gave job seekers with putting all of our materials into the system to see what other jobs we align for, we know that we’re only gonna know what jobs we align for based on skill because that’s what employers are hiring for.

And so the reason that we’re putting all of our job descriptions and our resumes and our brain dumps in there is so that the system can understand our skill set and recommend other jobs that align with our current skill set. So if you have the right prompt, which is the right question, then it will make it easier for the system to answer your question.

So a follow-up question could be, for example, if we go with my second, which is how do you apply job application materials, right? How do you create those? You have your master resume.

The follow-up question could be, “In addition to can you give me my percentage match, in addition to can you tell me what the current gaps are? You can ask a question about, okay, based on this experience, what is my market, like my market salary for this type of job with this resume?”

But of course it’d have to have something to bounce back to, which would be the job descriptions you uploaded.

Mac Prichard:

Okay. So it can be a good research tool to understand market conditions. Employers get a lot of applications now, many generated entirely with AI tools.

What steps do you recommend candidates take to make sure that the drafts they get from an AI tool are actually authentic and represent them? Well, what kind of editing do you recommend, for example?

Amelia Badua:

Yes, so I do recommend heavily editing. As I said earlier, we don’t want it to completely do it for us. We just want to be more efficient. So anytime you get a master resume, for example, from whatever tool you decide to use, whether that’s Claude or ChatGPT, you’re gonna have to go back in there for a couple of things.

One is to make sure that it’s accurate, because sometimes the system will create a resume that is not accurate at all. It’ll just see that you have the job description bullet points. It wants to make you sound good. So it may add in something that you haven’t even done before, which is what we don’t want.

So first, we want to check for accuracy. The second thing that we want to check for is: does this sound like me? Would I ever use these words? Most of the time, you’re probably not using a lot of the words. And you’re also having to understand that it’s a recruiter, it’s a human that’s reading your resume.

Right. So you want it to have kind of like that human feel and not feel so much like a robot. So you’ll want to write it in your own words. The third thing is you want to see are you leading with your strengths?

Like what do you personally want to highlight at the top of your resume for the job that you are going for? For example, if you are an HR generalist but you love onboarding, you love the performance review cycles, you love offboarding, and I’m just throwing things out here.

That may be the things you want to lead with at the top. It may be something that you wanna lead with in your intro and how you’ve been able to make an impact in these areas. However, AI will not know that unless you prompt it specifically to tell them that type of data. So check the data, make sure it sounds like you.

Mac Prichard:

Terrific. Well, it’s been a great conversation, Amelia. Now tell us what’s next for you.

Amelia Badua:

Yes, I want to continue to partner with people to help them earn more money. And so there are two groups of people I would like to continue partnering with. One being women. As we mentioned before, I help women leverage their current skill set in a variety of ways to earn more money.

So whether that’s new roles, career pivots, or launching a side business using their expertise. I’m all for that. In addition to that, in my work that I’m doing now, I’m helping youth with career readiness to land new positions.

And so I would like to continue facilitating for our youth ages 18 through 24, for other nonprofits, as well as colleges and schools, to bring workshops to that area as well.

Mac Prichard:

Terrific. I know that our viewers can learn more about you and your work by visiting your LinkedIn page, and I hope that people will reach out and connect with you there as well.

We’ll be sure to include that link in the show notes. And if you do reach out to Amelia on LinkedIn, let her know that you heard or saw her on Find Your Dream Job.

Now, Amelia, given all the great advice you’ve shared today, what’s the one thing you want our audience to remember about how to move into a new role in or outside your field?

Amelia Badua:

You have options. You’re not stuck to one thing. You can l leverage your skills in a variety of different ways. So I just want you to acknowledge the skills you currently have and look for buyers who are ready to purchase them.

Mac Prichard:

Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job.

You can support our show and help others find it by leaving a review and rating on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have a question or a suggestion? Email me at mac@macslist.org, or connect with me on LinkedIn.

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This show is produced by Mac’s List.

Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media and creates our transcripts.

Our sound engineer and editor is Megan Hattie Stahl. Our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.

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