So, you want to change verticals; financial services is no longer your cup of tea -- maybe you are thinking of moving to a role in healthcare. Or maybe you spent your whole life working in engineering and think it might be good idea to work for an investment bank. Certainly, it is not uncommon to change jobs or industries multiple times throughout your professional career. But, you better make sure you can talk the talk as well as walk the walk. It is not just enough that you can get the job done. When you walk into the interview, the first thing the interviewer thinks is “Wow this person’s background is impressive but he has no experience in

In order to be successful transitioning from one industry to another, you'd better be able to sling the jargon and use the right acronyms as appropriate. When the interviewer tosses out some acronyms you better know exactly what they're talking about.

If you are thinking about moving healthcare to financial services, you better know what CLO, CDO, RMBS, ADR, IMF, FX, and M&A mean. If you have worked in engineering firms since you graduated college and you think that life in healthcare might be more fulfilling and interesting you better know what HIPAA, FDA, JCAHO, MMIS, NHS, ICU, and OSHA are. Moving from financial services to engineering firm TQM, AI, JIT, and RFID better be in your glossary. There are others too, too numerous to count.

You may think that acronym soup is useless when you try to find a job. This is anything but true; acronyms and industry jargon are kind of like the ticket to get into the exclusive party without waiting on line in the cold.

So, how do you close the gap between what you know now and what you need to know to get that new job? Research, research, and more research. Every industry has countless websites devoted to discussing the ins and outs and the pros and cons; and these sites will be replete with acronyms and jargon that at first glance seem to be Greek. Read and learn -- if you find a word that is unfamiliar or appears to be out of context look it up. Keep reading. If you see an acronym, even if you think you know what it is look it up and make sure that you have context when you do so. Searching for an acronym and the industry in which it is used will yield much better results than just searching for the acronym.

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If any of the above acronyms seem foreign to you, I have provided a bouillabaisse of acronyms to get you started.

Appendix – partial acronym dictionary

Healthcare

HIPAA – Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, FDA – Food and Drug Administration, JCAHO - Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, NHS – National Health Service, ICU – intensive care unit, OSHA - Occupational Safety & Health Administration



Financial Services

CLO - Collateralized Loan Obligation, CDO - Collateralized Debt Obligation, RMBS - Residential Mortgage-Backed Security, ADR - American Depositary Receipt, IMF – International Monetary fund, FX – Foreign Exchange, M&A – Mergers and Acquisitions



Engineering
TQM – Total Quality Management, AI, JIT – Just-in-time, RFID – Radio Frequency Identification