Resumes for Changing Jobs
Writing resumes is never fun. After you get over your writer’s block, a
balance between promoting yourself and creative writing constantly struggles,
making it hard for you to feel confident about your writing.
Changing careers requires re-tooling your resume
For people changing careers, writing their resume
become even harder. Because basically, you have to keep from making your resume
look like you’re starting from scratch. You have work experience, just in a
different career.
Here are some writing tips to help you tailor your resume for a career change:
• Use your target career’s buzz words. Make sure your new resume doesn’t include
terms that are specific to your current industry.
• For your new resume, move components around so that you appeal to the
industry. If you went back to get your law degree, education should be in front
of the last five years you’ve spent at the drug store.
• Try a different format for your resume that will allow you to show how you do
have the right experience for your new career. You might want to try a
functional resume.
• Do some corporate recon work; find a resume for somebody else already with the
career that you want. You might learn more about what a prospective employer
would be looking for in your resume.
• Turn your resume into a talking point for your desired career. If a task
doesn’t support your new career, consider summarizing it or leaving it out
altogether.
When you’re changing your career, take some time to prepare for your
interview questions. You know what they’re going to
ask you. “Why are you doing this?” “Why should I hire you?” Be faced to resolve
their reservations. “But you don’t have the right background.” “Normally people
work their way up in this field.”
Resume advice things to do:
- Limit the length of the resume. Unless you have extensive experience, one page
will do.
- Select resume paper that is light in color and has a fairly plain background
so it can be copied, scanned, or faxed easily.
- Check for spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors.
- Print it on a laser printer or very clear ink jet.
- Limit the graphics and keep uncluttered, or related to your career.
- Save a copy of your resume in a text-only format so you can e-mail it easily
or copy and paste it to a job web site. Many companies scan resumes, but
scanners have difficulty with lines, graphics, and some fonts.
- Use action verbs, adjectives, or keywords that describe your skills.
- Describe your accomplishments quantitatively where appropriate.
Things you should avoid in your resume:
- Using the word "I' or indefinite or personal pronouns or articles such as
"my," " our," "an," or "the."
- Lengthy job descriptions.
- Personal information or photographs.
- Making vague statements.
- Don't be redundant.
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