Resume Help Blog

Posts Tagged ‘changing careers’

You’ve heard the hype about the economy—there aren’t any jobs to be had, and things are tough all over the country. But since when do you listen to the naysayers?

Sure, you’re not going to step out of college and into a CFO position, but you’re also not stepping into a part-time job selling hot dogs on the side of the road. Being realistic about your opportunities goes both ways, and the most fatal mistake job seekers make is selling themselves short.

Be confident

Congratulations, you have a college degree! Maybe you weren’t in the top of your class with a full academic scholarship, but you have a higher education, and that means something to hiring managers. What it means exactly is that you have the latest information about your field of study. You’ve most likely worked with cutting-edge technology. And, you’re not so set in your ways that you can’t be trained. This gives you a distinct advantage over people who aren’t fresh out of school. When you go to interviews, remember this.

Be enthusiastic

College graduates have something many other job applicants don’t have. Enthusiasm! All things being equal, someone with a positive attitude will get the job over someone who is jaded, indifferent, or world weary. It’s not all about what you know. It’s also about who you are. Show hiring managers that you’re someone other people would want to work with.

Be strategic

Employers are looking for long-term investments and are hopeful that you will be loyal to their company. When they ask you what your five-year plan is, don’t tell them that you hope to be traveling in Europe, nor should you point to the company president and say, “I want to be there.” Consider your audience.

Be persistent

Don’t be so confident that you think everyone should want you. Always tailor your resume and cover letter for each position. Follow up with a phone call. If you don’t hear from the employer in four weeks, send another letter with another resume. Call again. Don’t give up until you’ve heard a definitive answer. If it’s a “no,” send a thank you letter anyway to ask that they keep you in mind for any future positions. Repeat for each job search. If you want an employer to see you’re willing to go the extra mile, show them up front.

Being a realist when it comes to job searching is hard work. Sure, it takes work to get work. But landing a job and putting yourself on the road to a successful career is worth it.

Everyone knows that resumes serve as the quantification of who you are, what you’ve accomplished, and what expertise you can bring to your next employer. So, in this competitive job-seeking environment, a professionally written resume is a necessity to help you stand out from other applicants—but it’s not the only tool that should showcase your talents and experience. Today’s business people also need actively managed profiles on the social media sites that recruiters and others are using to find and learn more about potential hires.

LinkedIn is the most popular of these sites from a professional standpoint. While many people think of it as a Web-based contact management system, it’s so much more. In fact, it’s really a 24/7 personal branding machine. Here are a few ways you can use LinkedIn to help sell yourself to a hiring manager:

• Position yourself accurately. The first step to fully leveraging LinkedIn is to think about your “positioning.” Since most people will not remember a lot about you, you want to give them one or two nuggets of information to associate with your personal brand. Let’s say you’re a salesperson who specializes in selling widgets to emerging biotech companies. Your profile should be constructed around reinforcing that role so anyone reading it knows that’s your area of expertise.
• Use keywords. You’ll want to populate your profile with keywords that someone looking for a person with your experience would use when they search LinkedIn for job candidates. This helps LinkedIn serve your profile to them as an option.
• Join groups. Once your profile is configured, you’ll want to proactively cultivate your image as an expert by joining LinkedIn Groups where people with similar interests congregate. Resist the temptation to jump into the conversations you find posted there. Rather, sit back and observe for a week or so, getting a feel for the ways people communicate, and then start participating in discussions. Eventually you will want to begin new discussions for others to join too.

As a Certified Professional Resume Writer, I am often approached by highly qualified job seekers frustrated by weeks and often months of costly unemployment. Job seekers who have sent hundreds of resumes yet never hear back from the employer.

I’ve found that the majority of my clients attempt to write their own resume and only seek the help of a professional after weeks of failure. There are many reasons they fail, but most tend to be associated with ineffective resume templates designed in the 1990s which are not compatible with today’s keyword searches done by recruiters and hiring managers. I am dismayed to think of the number of opportunities that highly qualified candidates have lost to those less qualified but have a better understanding of today’s job search process.

The Top 5 Reasons Resumes Fail

Lack of Industry Specific Keywords — Due to the sheer volume of resumes that employers receive, only a handful are ever printed and will reach the hands of the hiring manager. Employers today often use software programs to search for keywords specific to the position. The more hits that they find, the more likely it is that your resume will be read. This is the process that most often eliminates even the most qualified candidates from consideration.

Resume Format — There are a variety of formats available to better market your skills and experience including: chronological, functional, hybrid, Curriculum Vitae (CV), Federal Resume format, etc. Choosing the wrong format for your situation can quickly eliminate you from consideration. A well-written resume will match your skills and experience to the hiring managers’ needs.
Objective or Qualifications Summary? — I personally believe that an old-fashioned objective is a waste of the most valuable real estate on the resume. It would be nice if employers really cared what you wanted in a job, but in actuality they are only concerned with what you can do for them. Why not use this area to market the skills and experience to position you as the best candidate for the position?
Task-Focused vs. Accomplishment Based Resume Unfortunately, the majority of resumes that I review are more of a chronological history than a true marketing document. Imagine a hiring manager with one position to fill and 100 equally qualified candidates applying for the position and each candidate has a similar educational and professional background. It’s easy to see that the candidate who contributed the most in previous positions is likely to get the job.

A One-Size-Fits-All Resume — In today’s highly competitive job market a one-size-fits-all resume really fits none. An employer searching for an accountant is going to be searching for different keywords than an employer searching for a sales representative. If you don’t know what type of position that you’re looking for, how will the employer know?

In today’s highly competitive job market it is imperative that you quickly and concisely provide the hiring manager with the information that they seek. A well formatted resume will allow the employer to quickly glance at the resume and find the skills and experience that they are looking for in the first 1/3 of the first page. Only after capturing their attention will they bother to read your resume from top to bottom.
When seeking the help of a professional it is important to seek a certified resume writer. With today’s economic conditions many claim to be professional resume writers, however, they often do not have the training necessary to help you get through the screening process.

Choose carefully; ask for and compare samples of their work. Your writer should do much more than simply type a resume. They will analyze your career and help you determine your career direction, develop a format that’s most suitable to your specific situation, and then craft a strong and compelling marketing document that targets your career objective and positions you as the best candidate for the position. A professionally written resume can help you get the job that you want and the pay you deserve.

If you are unsure of how exactly to go about making these resume edits you can check out samples of other similar resumes online at sites like resumeindex.