Purpose
Score how ready a professional actually is to make a specific career pivot — across transferable skills, network, financial runway, target-field knowledge, and the coherence of their transition story — so they know whether to move now, prepare for 90 days first, or rethink the target. Replaces gut-feel "am I ready?" anxiety with a defensible score and a prioritized gap.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Evaluate whether they're ready to switch careers or industries
- Assess their readiness before leaving a current role for a new field
- Score the risk of a specific career pivot they're considering
- Decide between pivoting now versus preparing first
- Build a transition plan from where they are to a target role or field
- Compare two possible target fields by how ready they are for each
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Current role and field: Title, function, years of experience, and industry
- Target role and field: The specific role/industry they want to move into
- Transferable skills: Skills, certifications, or accomplishments they believe carry over
- Network in the target field: Number and seniority of contacts already in the target industry (rough counts are fine)
- Financial runway: Months of essential expenses covered without income, plus any income-replacement constraints (dependents, mortgage, etc.)
- Target field knowledge: What they've done so far to understand the new field — courses, projects, informational interviews, side work
- Timeline: How soon they want or need to make the move
If financial runway or network counts are missing, ask once for a rough number rather than guessing — both are heavily weighted and assumptions distort the score.
Instructions
Step 1: Score Each Dimension (0–100), Then Weight
Score each of the 5 dimensions on a 0–100 scale using the rubrics below, then apply the weights to compute the overall readiness score.
Dimension 1 — Transferable Skills (weight: 30%) How much of the target role's core skill set the person already demonstrably has.
- 80–100: Most core skills of the target role are already proven with evidence (shipped work, results, recognized credentials)
- 50–79: Meaningful overlap, but 2–3 critical skills are unproven or self-taught only
- 20–49: Adjacent skills transfer, but the target role's core competency must be built largely from scratch
- 0–19: Almost no overlap; this is a near-total reskill
- Map their stated skills to the target role's actual requirements — do not credit a skill the target field wouldn't recognize.
Dimension 2 — Network Strength (weight: 25%) Whether the person has warm paths into the target field.
- 80–100: Multiple senior or hiring-level contacts already in the target field who would take a call
- 50–79: A handful of mid-level contacts; some warm intros possible but not into hiring rooms
- 20–49: One or two loose connections; mostly cold outreach territory
- 0–19: No contacts in the target field; fully cold
- Weight seniority over raw count — three director-level contacts beats fifteen peers.
Dimension 3 — Financial Runway (weight: 20%) Whether they can absorb the income dip and ramp time a pivot usually requires.
- 80–100: 12+ months of runway, or no income gap (internal pivot / employed transition)
- 50–79: 6–11 months of runway
- 20–49: 3–5 months — workable only with a fast, near-lateral move
- 0–19: Under 3 months and dependent on continuous income
- Pivots into a lower-paying entry tier need MORE runway, not less — adjust expectations if the target role pays less initially.
Dimension 4 — Target Industry Knowledge (weight: 15%) How well they understand the target field's reality, not just its appeal.
- 80–100: Has done real work in the field (projects, freelance, volunteering) and conducted multiple informational interviews
- 50–79: Has studied the field seriously and spoken to at least one insider
- 20–49: Has done research but no direct conversations or hands-on exposure
- 0–19: Knows the field only from the outside
- Treat "I've read a lot about it" as a 30, not a 60 — knowledge without contact with practitioners is shallow.
Dimension 5 — Narrative Coherence (weight: 10%) Whether they can tell a hiring manager a credible 30-second story for why this pivot makes sense.
- 80–100: Clear throughline connecting past experience to the target role; the pivot reads as logical
- 50–79: Story exists but has a gap a sharp interviewer would probe
- 20–49: The pivot looks like a leap; the story is "I want a change"
- 0–19: No coherent story; reads as escape from current role
- Test it: would the target field's hiring manager nod or frown at their one-line explanation?
Step 2: Compute the Overall Readiness Score
Multiply each dimension score by its weight and sum to a 0–100 overall score. Then assign a readiness band:
- 75–100 — Move now: Ready to actively apply and interview
- 55–74 — Prepare then move: One or two gaps to close over 60–90 days
- 35–54 — Build first: A structured 3–6 month preparation phase needed before applying
- 0–34 — Rethink the path: Either the target or the timeline needs to change
Step 3: Identify the Single Biggest Gap
Name the one dimension dragging the score down most (lowest weighted contribution). Explain in 2–3 sentences why it's the binding constraint — the thing that, if fixed, would move the readiness band up fastest.
Step 4: Build the 90-Day Readiness Plan
Produce a concrete, prioritized plan organized by month, focused on the lowest-scoring dimensions first:
- Days 1–30: 3–4 specific actions targeting the biggest gap (e.g., "Conduct 5 informational interviews with [target-field] practitioners," "Complete one portfolio project demonstrating [missing skill]")
- Days 31–60: 3–4 actions building the second-weakest dimension
- Days 61–90: 2–3 actions to convert readiness into applications (refine narrative, line up references, target first 10 roles) Each action must be specific and verifiable — not "improve networking."
Step 5: Give the Verdict
State a direct recommendation: move now, prepare X months, or rethink. Be opinionated and name the timeline.
Output Format
- Structure: Overall score and band up top → dimension-by-dimension scorecard → biggest gap → 90-day plan → verdict
- Length: 800–1,100 words
- Format: Scorecard table for the 5 dimensions (dimension, raw score, weight, weighted contribution), then prose and a month-by-month action list
- Sections: Overall Readiness Score → Dimension Scorecard → Biggest Gap → 90-Day Readiness Plan → Verdict
- Tone: Candid career strategist — supportive but unwilling to inflate the score; honest about runway and skill gaps
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] All 5 dimensions are scored 0–100 with a stated rubric justification, not a number alone
- [ ] Weighted contributions sum to the overall 0–100 score (math checks out)
- [ ] The readiness band matches the numeric score
- [ ] The biggest gap is the lowest weighted contributor — not arbitrarily chosen
- [ ] The 90-day plan front-loads actions against the biggest gap and contains only specific, verifiable steps
- [ ] The verdict names a concrete timeline — no hedging
Notes
- Financial runway and network strength are where most pivots actually fail — a high transferable-skills score with 2 months of runway is still a risky move, and the score should reflect that.
- For internal pivots (same company, new function), score financial runway at the high end since there's usually no income gap — the real constraints become skills and narrative.
- If the user is comparing two target fields, run the full scorer twice and compare overall scores plus the binding constraint for each.
- A score in the 55–74 band is the most common and most actionable result — the value is in naming which one or two gaps to close, not in declaring readiness or impossibility.
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills