Im Changing Careers. What Should My Resume Say

Im Changing Careers. What Should My Resume SayIm Changing Careers. What Should My Resume SayEmbarking on a new career path can be simultaneously exciting and slightly scary. Its wonderful to be sparked by a fresh idea or new awakened desire. Theres a sense of accomplishment when you finish an advanced degree or earn a professional certification related to your new career.But theres also plenty of uncertainty, particularly when it comes to how to position this change on your resume. The things you showcased on your resume up to this point will simply bedrngnis be enough to move you smoothly into this next stage. You need to reposition your resume so that it tells the story of why you are targeting something new and different, as well as why you are the candidate who brings the most value to the table. Following are three steps to make sure your resume gets the attention of the decision makers in the new field youre targeting.Read All About ItToo often, I landsee this step happening la st, if at all. Find ads online for the job title you want, and read a cross-section of those ads to identify the common points theyre looking for. What youre doing is compiling audience insights. Your audience is comprised of the employers, and in the ads, theyre laying out exactly what youll need to do if you come work for them.Make The Connections Make SenseIn your career change resume, you have to tell the story of your transferrable skills and explain how qualifications from your previous career are applicable and relevant. But dont make a key mistake here. Avoid the tendency to rely on imposter skills like, motivated, passionate, organized, and detail-oriented. Those words are adjectives that describe a person, which are nice, but not necessary.The transferrable skills to emphasize when youre changing careers need to focus on what you actually will come into the new job to DO that you have done before in your original career. For example, lets say youve just earned an MBA with a concentration in Project Management. Your original career consisted of a series of increasingly responsible office administration roles. What would make sense to your audience would be examples of projects youve led over the course of your career up to this point. I virtually guarantee those examples exist you just need to think about them and reframe them.Dont Get Too CreativeYoure already changing so much new career path, new educational or professional credentials, so why not change the whole style of your resume on top of that? Right? Wrong. Dont get overly creative with the resume because you read somewhere that a functional format is the way to go. 98% of recruiters and decision makers will tell you they do not favor the functional format.Keep things chronological this is the tried and true format for a reason it tells the reader exactly what he needs to know in the first 6 seconds. Any other configuration, such as a nebulous list of out-of-context skills at the top an exp erience section that says a lot of things except for the employer, job title, and dates and then the actual work history at the endnot good, not effective, and it wont work.The functional format is the biggest red flag that youre just trying to hide something, and that something is lack of needed skills. Instead, read the ads to find the keywords the employers in your new field are looking for, map your transferrable skills to those keywords in ways that make sense, and frame your story in the format most employers expect. Those are the steps to making sure your resume gets read when youre making a career change.Positioning your resume the right way is just the 1st step in successfully changing careers, especially when youre over age 50. Im presenting a series of ideas that you can use if youre having trouble in your job search, and youre thinking it may because of age discrimination. Its in 5 Secrets Smart Jobseekers Age 50+ Know That Make The Job Search EASY