If you’re new here, welcome! Each week I answer questions about all things recruiting and hiring related. Questions are submitted by readers just like you!
This week, I am speaking to Overwhelmed Educator, who submitted the following question:
Dear Overwhelmed Educator,
There’s a lot of resume and cover letter information out there and the truth is that any advice you get has the potential to work if you can work it. If you feel like you’re forcing the advice into your resume or cover letter, that disconnect will show and weaken your application.
I want to shout out your awareness of this career transition and your strength to persevere and find out what works in your resume and cover letter in the face of rejection. This is your greatest advantage right now.
As a recruiter and resume coach, I have three consistent tips for applicants transitioning between careers:
- Tailor your resume to highlight the accomplishments and achievements that are relevant to your next role.
- Have a short professional summary at the top of your resume, followed by your areas of expertise listed underneath, and position your work experience last.
- Write how you talk!
1. Tailor your resume for your next role.
This is a common piece of advice for a good reason. Without knowing your next career move, writing your resume suddenly becomes twice as difficult.
What career are you focused on next?
Knowing the answer to that will help you write your work experience with that next role in mind. Instead of simply regurgitating the list responsibilities from your previous roles, you’ll be able to highlight accomplishments relevant to your next career.
2. Have a short professional summary.
When it comes to formatting, I like to employ professional summaries followed by your areas of expertise, and finally your work experience. Professional summaries act as a mini cover letter and help you set the tone and sell your expertise to the resume reader.
With your professional summary at the top, you should include an Areas of Expertise section underneath. In it you’ll include your core competencies, skills, programs. You’ll want to change them so that they highlight what the job description is asking for.
Finally, list your work experience. Each job you include highlights your achievements, creations, leadership opportunities. With every role, ask yourself:
What did you do that no one else did that’s relevant to the type of work you’re looking for?
Let’s pretend you’re moving from teaching to accounting. For many teachers, it’s common to see “Managed a classroom of 30 kids.” This is great detail, but it doesn’t tell me how it’s relevant to this role in accounting, and it doesn’t tell me the whole story. Things like,
- I reorganized the budget as treasurer for Abbott Elementary’s PTA and accounted for missing expenses and receipts.
- I managed the classroom budget to track expenses including supplies and field trips which helped the board provide additional supplies to classrooms in the science department.
3. Write how you talk!
You may have seen this advice over and over too. Clear language is key. I’ve seen a lot of jargon-y phrases like, “Facilitated the inner workings of the client management system” and have had to set those resumes aside for lack of clarity.
In the bullet points under your roles, you can be conversational and clear! You’re allowed to tell a story. For example, “We had no existing client management system. I implemented a system called Sample System over the course of 3 months. I trained team members on it, and we increased our client satisfaction by 21%.”
This kind of clarity breathes life into recruiters and hiring managers! It gets us so excited to chat on the phone with you.
This is my general practice with every person I coach, Overwhelmed Educator. I hope it gives you helpful direction. I’m cheering you on as you continue tweaking your resume and cover letter for future applications.
Signing off,
Sylvia Torres
PS
If you’re reading this and want resume help. I offer individual resume coaching for $195. It’s an hour-long coaching session where we dig into who you are, your career goals, your current resume, and then we go over all of the resume points above (and more) to help you build a resume that fully represents you and all the value you bring!
TL;DR
As a resume coach and recruiter, I have three consistent tips for applicants transitioning between careers:
- Tailor your resume to highlight the accomplishments and achievements that are relevant to your next role.
- Have a short professional summary at the top of your resume, followed by your areas of expertise listed underneath, and position your work experience last.
- Write how you talk!
If you’re looking for support around building a resume that matches who you are and gets you into the next stage of the application process, my one-hour individual resume coaching for $195 is for you!
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