Changing Careers? In this Economy, You'd Better Be Prepared.

Changing Careers?

Is it time to change careers? If so, the ideas below offer some excellent advice for revamping your resume to outline the new direction your career will be taking, even in a tough economic situation.

As you know, your resume has to be the best it can be. When changing careers, your skills and achievements may perfectly fit into your new position. But even if they don't, how can you make your resume appeal to an employer in your new field of employment? You have to present yourself on paper in a different way that you have in the past. Your resume has to be carefully tailored to the new employer's needs and goals. And, with the economy the way it is, you'll be facing stiffer competition.

First, choose a resumeformat that best highlights your skills, accomplishments and talents. Most likely, this will either be a functional format or a combination format. The reason that these two resume formats are better for career-changers, is that they place more of an emphasis on the work done rather than on the employers, education and dates the work was done.

It does make a difference in how you are viewed. In either format, be sure to list your skills and accomplishments near the top of the page. Let the hiring manager see what you have to offer instead of what your job title was or where you worked. While important on some level, who you worked for may detract from what you did while you were an employee there. Why?

Look at this example. Perhaps you worked for Destin Marketing as a graphics designer and now you want to re-focus your career in a new direction. Now, you want to be an artist for Christmas cards. While the two involve artistic abilities, many of the tasks and responsibilities will be different. Placing those skills and talents where the prospective employer can see them first, is critical, especially when you remember that there are a lot of other job candidates vying for the same position.

When considering the skills you should put in your resume, remember that there are a myriad of transferable skills that employers seek regardless of where you work.
They transfer from position to position.
Consider this list and how each one might apply to you:

• communication skills (written and oral)


• negotiation skills


• team player


• leadership abilities


• motivating others


• solving problems

Of course there are many other possibilities, but you should be able to understand the concept by those presented here.

If you have won awards, received honors, had material published or anything along these lines, list them on your resume, but only if they relate to your new career path. Telling a prospective employer that you were real estate agent of the month in your office would be fine if you were going into a related career or a sales position in a new field, but if you are going changing careers to a school teacher position, no one is really going to care about a sales award.

Changing careers is not for everyone. It does require patience, creativity and more work than it would take finding a position in an identical field. It can be done, though, and should be, if it is the right thing for you, your happiness and your future.

Best wishes!

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To view resume formats, go here: Resume Formats

Carla Vaughan