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#CareerAdvice : #ChangingCareer – Considering a #CareerSwitch ? Here’s How to Write your #Résumé …Making the Decision to #ChangeCareers is a Huge Undertaking, so Here’s How to Make Sure you Get the Job you Want.

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Making the decision to change careers is a huge undertaking. Not only do you have to be willing to acquire new skills and step outside your comfort zone, but you also have to be able to sell your past experience to recruiters and hiring managers.

DO YOUR RESEARCH

“It’s critical to talk to those who are in the careers you want to go into to find out what they would want to see in a resume,” says Denise Riebman, a career development specialist. What are the hot terms in the field right now? The most in-demand skills and relevant knowledge? These are things you need to find out, then incorporate into your resume where you can.

Related: What career changers wished they knew about making the switch 

HIGHLIGHT TRANSFERABLE SKILLS

“When you’re changing careers, it’s assumed that your recent work experience will not perfectly align with the role you’re now targeting,” says Amanda Augustine, career advice expert for TopResume. “To ensure your resume isn’t immediately trashed by the ‘bots’ or a recruiter, you need demonstrate that you possess the skills necessary to do the job well, even if this new job isn’t a natural next step after your previous role.”

That’s where transferable skills come in. “Some transferable skills are universal, regardless of the field: leadership, communication, analytical skills, and many others,” Augustine says. But to find industry-specific ones, you’ll want to conduct informational interviews and review the job descriptions you’re targeting. Look for commonalities between the postings, and you should get a good idea of what skills hiring managers are looking for.

“If you need help, create a word cloud out of the job descriptions using a site like Wordle to identify which skills are emphasized the most across multiple job postings,” Augustine suggests.

Related: This is how to change careers without spiraling into the unknown

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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SHOW, DON’T TELL

This is good advice for any resume, but it’s especially important for career changers. Why? Well, you’ll be able to not only highlight transferable skills, but also prove that you’re excellent at them.

“Use statistics and numbers to show concrete information about the value you bring,” recommends Dustin Polk, president and executive resume writer at Oracle Resumes. “Instead of just saying ‘developed and implemented innovative process improvements,’ say ‘increased operational efficiency and annual revenues by 13% by developing and implementing innovative process improvements.’ Show the value you bring, don’t just claim to bring it with nothing to back it up.”

LEARN THE LINGO

“Each industry has its own jargon–terminology, acronyms, and initialisms that only make sense to people who are familiar with the field,” Augustine says. “It’s your job to figure out how to translate your experience and past successes into terms that will resonate with your new target audience. Subscribe to industry-specific publications and follow their social media accounts, set up Google alerts for some of the major players in the space, and attend trade shows and other events that are relevant to your target field to gain this insight. Then update your resume accordingly.”

Related: 5 books to read when you’re considering making a big change 

USE YOUR SPACE WISELY

“You don’t have unlimited space,” Polk points out. “You get one to two pages to fill with your most impressive accomplishments and qualifications.” Especially if you have a long job history in a previous career, this can be difficult to enforce.

“Many people will turn into a sort of hoarder when writing their resume,” Polk says. “You can’t fit 18 bullet points of details for a job you had in 2002. It’s barely relevant, and a busy hiring manager won’t read it. If they want extreme details on the things you’ve done, your resume has already done its job, and you’ll be getting a call for an interview. Keep it clear, concise, and as relevant to your new industry as possible.”

PUT EDUCATION IN THE RIGHT PLACE

Most resume advice tells you that once you’re a few years out of school, you should move your education down to the bottom of your resume. This is true for the most part, but there’s an important exception career changers may want to consider. “If you recently earned a degree relevant to your new field, place your education section before your experience section,” Polk recommends. “Make sure they see that new degree. If it came with a designation, put that with your name at the top of the page, i.e. ‘John Smith, MBA.’ ”

CHOOSE YOUR FORMAT WISELY

Sometimes, a functional resume–one that highlights skills above job history and is generally not chronological–is recommended for career changers, as it allows candidates to showcase what they choose. “While I strongly discourage professionals from using a functional resume format, some career changers find it easy to present their marketable skills in this structure,” Augustine says. “A word of caution: Recruiters despise this resume format and most applicant tracking systems (ATS) have difficulty reading and parsing your resume’s information when it’s presented this way.” That means you could automatically get rejected just for using the wrong resume format.

The consensus among experts? Stick with a chronological format, providing more or less detail for each job, depending on how transferable your responsibilities and accomplishments were.

REMEMBER THAT YOU’RE MORE THAN YOUR RESUME

Having a great resume is no doubt important, but when you’re a career changer, there are things that matter more. “Especially when you are making a career shift, connecting with people in the field through authentic relationship building can give you a leg up, so that someone is willing to take a chance on you–no matter what is on your resume,” Riebman points out.

 

FastCompany.com | August 14, 2018 | BY JULIA MALACOFF—GLASSDOOR 4 MINUTE READ

#CareerAdvice : #ResumeWriting – 6 Ways to Make the Skills Section Shine on a #Resume …Here are a Few More Tips on How to Make the #SkillsSection on your Resume Truly Shine.

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For many resume writers, the “skills section” presents a unique quagmire. On the one hand, you want to showcase as many skills as you can to show your competence. On the other hand, you don’t want to make it look like you’re padding your resume, and you definitely don’t want to list skills that you’re only half-competent at.

Resume writer Anish Majumdar recommends building your skills section by writing out the skills you need at your current job, and then reviewing your list and circling skills that correlate with your target position. “Finally, underline those circled skills which can be proven on your resume. These are the ones you need to focus on,” writes Majumdar.

Once you’ve done that, here are a few more tips on how to make the skills section on your resume truly shine:

1. Give it all you’ve got

Don’t be shy about layering on your skills – both hard and soft skills. Just because you’re a software engineer doesn’t mean you don’t need to showcase your communication, cross-sector collaboration, and time management abilities. In fact, listing those skills alongside your competency with Java and Python will make you stand out from the crowd. Layering your resume with skills can serve to give recruiters a well-rounded, multi-faceted image of you.

The Best Way to Add Keywords to Your Resume

2. Only include the good stuff

That being said, you need to make sure you’re not putting skills on your resume merely to bulk it up. Certain skills, like knowing how to use Microsoft Word or email, are too basic to distinguish you from other candidates. These competencies are obvious to recruiters, and should not be placed on your resume. If the answer to the question “can every other applicant to the job write that they have this skill?” is yes, you might want to reconsider taking up precious resume real estate with the skill.

 

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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3. Bulk your skills up

No, this doesn’t mean by padding your resume with skills you don’t have! If there are certain skills that you find would be helpful to have for the jobs you’re applying to, but you don’t currently have, it might be time to take a class or do a training on these skills. It also might be a question of brushing up certain skills, so that you can show them off, like upgrading your “intermediate proficiency” in Spanish to “professional working proficiency”. Investing time and money in these skills now can have big payoffs in the future.

4 Ways Your Resume Might Turn Employers Off

4. Be straightforward

The skills section of your resume is not the place to sugarcoat. What you see as a rose-colored picture of a certain skill might simply be seen as a fib by a recruiter. Let’s take the Spanish example again. Suppose you say you have “professional working proficiency”, when you really just spent a semester abroad in Spain when you were in college 10 years ago, and haven’t practiced the language since. A portion of your job interview is conducted in Spanish – yikes! Or even worse, you get the job, and your first assignment is to interface with an Argentinian client – completely in Spanish. Chances are you won’t be at the job for much longer. Even little resume fibs can cause big trouble.

5. Showcase your transferable skills

Especially if you’re transitioning careers, showing off your transferable skills is critical to fleshing out the skills section of your resume. Transferable skillsinclude things like leadership, analytics, communication through writing, public speaking, mathematical reasoning, or organizing meetings. These type of skills can give you the boost you need in showcasing your experience.

Ask a Resume Writer: How Do I Showcase Transferable Skills?

6. Back yourself up

Soft skills like “coordination with sub-contractors” can sound intangible and airy – which is why you shouldn’t be afraid to back yourself up with a few examples and numbers. “Coordinated weekly with 12 subcontractors to drive a project slated to take 6 months to a 3-month completion time” packs more of a punch, and lets whoever’s reading your resume visualize better your abilities.

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Your #Career : 3 Ways To Develop #TransferrableSkills In Your Current #Job …This Google #Recruiter Shares How he Leveraged his #Skills to #ChangeCareers , from #Sales to #Recruiting .

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My first job out of college was in sales. Today I’m a recruiting manager at a global tech company in Silicon Valley. I’m also a podcaster. The one thing that connects the dots of my career trajectory and every job move in between: transferrable skills.

At the point that I decided sales wasn’t for me, I reflected on what I enjoyed (helping people), what I wanted to do next (HR), and what would be the stepping stone role to help me get there. It turned out that recruiting at a staffing agency was a good middle ground. Recruiting meant I’d sell companies to candidates and candidates to companies. I’d help job seekers take the next step in their careers while ensuring hiring managers had access to great people.

But before I landed a job as a recruiter at Google, I teased out the skills I needed to highlight in my resume and interviews–skills like the ability to build relationships, persuade others, and provide a high level of customer service. All skills that continue to prove key to this day, even as a podcaster. Here are a few ways you can identify and leverage transferrable skills to help you secure your next opportunity.

Related:This Is How To Land Your First-Ever Management Role 

TRACK YOUR TASKS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

One of the biggest challenges I had for years was recalling everything I accomplished when it came time for performance review season. I’d sit there wracking my brain in hopes of recovering all I’d done over the past 6 to 12 months so I could write a stellar self-evaluation. Then one day I decided to start a project and task log that I’d update throughout the year. Recalling the details of projects became much easier.

This log also helped me identify skills and themes that’d be transferrable if and when I decided to make a move. It was easier to update my resume and speak to these skills during interviews because everything was already written down. Instead of searching for examples, I was picking from a list I’d already created.

I also encourage you to include projects, tools, and accomplishments from your extracurriculars, especially if you hold a role in a club, organization, or have a side project. Skills picked up outside the office can be just as valuable. For example, producing and releasing podcast episodes has required me to create workflows to get tasks done. Since I’ve documented them, a new team member can be dropped in and become productive right away. Creating and improving processes to drive efficiency is a key skill that’s transferrable to a wide range of jobs. It also speaks to problem-solving, as you’re usually identifying something that isn’t working well and then fixing it.

Podcasting has also provided me public speaking opportunities that have in turn made me a better presenter at work. I’ve learned the importance of storytelling, which is just as valuable when talking about data as it is when you’re trying to motivate a team to overcome a major hurdle.

Related:Here’s What To Do When Common Career Advice Doesn’t Work For You 

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Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/First-Sun-Consulting-LLC-Outplacement-Services/213542315355343?sk=wall

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Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search:https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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LEVERAGE LINKEDIN AS YOUR CAREER CONSULTANT

LinkedIn is great for networking, but it’s also a great way to research what skills and experiences you need beyond what you find in job descriptions. For example, when searching for new positions, I’ve made it a habit to look up various versions of the job title and find people already in the role. Their career history and current responsibilities give me a blueprint for my resume and LinkedIn profile. I can create a list of the common themes across profiles and cross-reference my log to find relevant examples.

BE PROACTIVE ABOUT YOUR NEXT STEP AND NEW SKILLS

Even if you’re happy in your current position, you should consistently revisit what’s next in your career and if you have the skills to get there. After doing role research, you’ll sometimes realize you don’t have everything in the job description or all the skills you saw in other profiles. That’s okay. When you’re moving into something new–even if it’s within your field–there will be gaps. Your goal is to minimize these gaps by picking up news skills that can be transferred to your next job.

Maybe you realize the next target role requires in-depth quantitative analysis skills, which you don’t get to flex in your current position. You could survey what’s happening around the company and ask to be involved in a project that gives you more exposure to Excel or the opportunity to track and report on key metrics. Maybe you do the weekly or monthly team reporting in collaboration with your manager.

Related:Changing Careers? Here’s Exactly What To Put On Your Resume

Perhaps there’s someone whose spreadsheet abilities make you wonder what you’ve been doing all your life? Compliment them on the great work they’ve done and ask if they can show you some of the basics. Nearly a year ago, I asked a respected program manager to show me how she keeps various projects and deadlines organized. With her help, I ended up developing a project tracker that’s helped me manage large cross-functional initiatives that involve many moving parts and people. This speaks to taking the initiative to develop myself and the ability to manage complex projects and deliver results–two things that are expected in nearly every professional position.

These are just a few ways to help you think about transferrable skills and navigate your career development. You’ll be surprised by how relatable your skills are to many different fields. The first step is to write things down. Once you do that, it becomes a game of plug and play. Happy hunting!

This article originally appeared on The Well, Jopwell’s digital magazine and is reprinted with permission.Jopwell is the career advancement platform for Black, Latino/Hispanic, and Native American students and professionals.

FastCompany.com | May 11, 2018 | BY RICH JONES—JOPWELL 4 MINUTE READ