Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
Many in today’s job market have had to reinvent themselves in order to apply for positions in growth industries such as healthcare.
Perhaps you had your start in sales or accounting but are now looking for a position in a new field. What do you showcase on your resume when your past experience is in a completely different industry?
1. First and foremost, place your Education and Training in the new field above Professional Experience rather than below it. Be certain that you include coursework studied in your new field. Did you receive an internship in it? Include that. Was your GPA 3.5 or higher? Be certain you state that on your resume. Were you involved in any special projects that prove you excelled in this new field? List details of that in the Education section.
2. Include only those tasks and accomplishments in your Professional Experience that will dovetail toward your new goal. If you were a whiz with details in your accounting career, play that up if you’re moving into healthcare, IT or any other field that requires meticulous attention to detail. Although the career paths are different, how you handled daily stats, etc. will prove to a hiring manager that you’ll be equally responsible in your new position.
3. Never state in your resume or cover letter that you have no experience in the new field. That’s opening with a negative rather than a positive. Play up what you do know, what you have done/accomplished and how it translates well to the new field. Highlight your education and training in the new industry. Play to your strengths, not your weaknesses.
Moving from one industry/career to another is never easy. However, you can prove to the hiring manager that you have what it takes in the new field if you organize your resume according to what the new company needs and your ability to accomplish it.
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011
If you’ve decided to enlist the aid of a professional resume writer in your job search, you should know what this type of service can and cannot do for you.
What’s not possible:
1. For any resume writer or service to guarantee you an interview or a job. Even if the economy wasn’t in such poor shape, a resume writing service has no control over your resume once it’s delivered to you. If you’re applying for jobs for which you are overqualified or under-qualified, then you won’t be invited to interview. If your industry is contracting, rather than expanding, then your chances of success go down no matter how great your resume is. If you give up and don’t use it, you’re guaranteed failure.
2. Guess as to what you want. If you have no idea where you’re heading, don’t expect a resume writer to know the answer. Asking someone to craft a resume without a firm plan as to the job you’re seeking is like asking someone to jump into a car on the West Coast and tell them to drive to a location in Manhattan without the use of a map. They may get there, eventually, but the journey will be a long and arduous one.
3. Fabricate data. Resume writers work from what clients give them. If you provide little to no data about your professional experience, they can go to the government’s Occupational Handbook and look up your job title and see what you’re supposed to be doing. However, all they can do is ask – “Did you do this? Or this? Or this?” Don’t expect them to read your mind. Give them all the data they need to work with.
4. Match the style you believe is best. Every writer has a unique style. Some you may prefer over others. That doesn’t mean the less preferred style affects the quality of the resume. The content is what’s most important, along with its organization. Just because a resume writer uses one word when you prefer another doesn’t mean that a hiring manager will reject you. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hiring managers and recruiters look at the whole picture, not one word or a series of words.
5. Be available 24/7. With any service you engage, you have to be realistic in terms of the time you expect from the writer. If you’re demanding round-the-clock service for the least amount of dollars, you will be disappointed. Only services that cost clients thousands of dollars will be able to provide a level of constant service, and even these businesses won’t work with any one client forever.
What is possible, and what you should expect from a professional service:
1. The terms of the service clearly stated on the website – eg: cost, turnaround time, any service guarantees, etc.
2. A level of professionalism indicated either by the writers being CPRWs (Certified Professional Resume Writers) or by the company being a member of the PARW (Professional Association of Resume Writers).
3. A clear idea of what the service provides in terms of business documents. The best way to show this is for the service to provide work samples on the site.
4. Membership and a high rating with the BBB.
5. Longevity of service. If a company has been around for more than ten years, then it’s doing something right.
6. One-on-one contact with your editor. This can be by email/IM/phone. Phone is preferred.
To make your resume writing or editing process a success, keep these points in mind before you hire anyone to work on your business document.
Tuesday, September 27th, 2011
In this day of social media, there is a point – at least for a serious job seeker – when too much information will certainly reduce your chances of getting an interview, promotion or the employment opportunity you seek.
While we all enjoy posting our photos and what we’re doing on Facebook, it pays to remember that one day employers may very well be searching that database before they decide to call you in for an interview.
If you think photos of you getting wasted on a Friday night are funny, it won’t be to a hiring manager. If you rant and rave about a particularly touchy subject, a hiring manager will worry that you’ll do the same on the job.
Even if you behave yourself on Facebook, you may leave a trail of crumbs on various websites where you’ve left comments. For some, it’s sport to let loose with unacceptable comments as long as it’s being done from the safety of a computer keyboard. However, if your email address is tracked by a potential employer and they see anything disturbing in your comments, you can kiss that job opportunity good-bye.
In public, we all monitor our responses, never thinking to reveal our deepest thoughts or prejudices. It’s prudent to behave the same way online.
Before you apply for a position, check your Facebook and other social media pages and clean them up. A mentor from my past once told me, “Don’t write anything down that you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times.” Great advice. Revisit those sites where you left comments. If you can be identified via your email address, then change it on your resume before you apply for a position.
We’ve all acted foolishly…it’s human nature. But when your livelihood depends upon you behaving in a professional manner, you better make certain an employer can’t find anything negative about you on the net.
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
There are a few lucky people out there who have perfect job histories. No gaps in employment. No job hopping. No downsizing at their firms. No career transitions.
Most of us, however, have something in our past that we fear will hurt our future chances. So, what do you do to turn a negative into a positive?
First of all, look at yourself as a product you want to sell to the company with your resume and cover letter as the advertisements. With that in mind, try to minimize the negatives. For example, when you see a soft drink commercial, there’s no mention about sugar adding empty calories, harming teeth and contributing to ill health. The entire focus is on taste and sharing a soda with friends.
Keeping that in mind, never begin your cover letter with a statement like – “I know I don’t have any experience in this field, however…” No one will get past the no experience part. Or “I was laid off and haven’t had a job for two years, but…” Again, few will get past the ‘laid off’ and ‘no job’ for several years.
Instead, dovetail what you do know or what you’ve learned through recent retraining to open your cover letter and your resume. The first paragraph of your cover letter might read something like this:
“With comprehensive experience in accounting, including serving as the liaison with the IRS at XYZ firm, I can minimize company tax burdens. While at XYZ firm, I saved the company $1.5 million in tax liabilities.”
Nowhere in that paragraph does it say that the candidate is currently unemployed, nor should it. Instead, it begins with a positive – how s/he can save the company money through tax negotiations.
On the resume, the same concept is used in the opening summary. Start strong with one, preferably two recent/relevant/quantified accomplishments that will translate well to the job you’re seeking. In an endless sea of resumes and applicants, hiring managers notice this kind of data.
As to not having experience. If you’ve never worked in an industry and have no training in it, then don’t apply. Simple as that, because you’re wasting your time. However, if you’ve been trained in the field, play that up, not the fact that you have no experience. In the first paragraph of your cover letter, you might write something like this:
“In response to your posting for a dental assistant, I have worked with (then name the tools you used at school, the techniques, everything you trained in.) Be detailed. Don’t apologize for not having experience, present your skills and what expertise you do have.
Getting an interview isn’t easy, especially in our current economy. Even so, many individuals with less-than-perfect backgrounds do it every day. Their secret is simply presenting themselves in the best possible light in their cover letters and resumes.
