Welcome to Leadership: Your Questions Answered. Each fortnight, experienced and award-winning leaders Helen McCabe and Jamila Rizvi respond to your workplace queries, questions and conundrums.

This week Claire and Belinda asked, respectively: How do you prove skills can be transferable and a new industry can be learnt? How do you manage a reentry or redirection in your career?

Helen: I don’t think you can research the industry enough. You have to study the profession that you’re interested in moving into. You need to have a really deep understanding of the skills required in that profession, and you need to hone those particular skills. I’d also recommend talking to people who are working in the industry. If you don’t know anyone, see if your friends know someone and ask them to introduce you. Read up on the industry as much as you can and find people who can help you, because you have to show that you are deadly serious about this shift into the industry.