Resumes
Defining Transferable Skills for your Job Change or When Changing Careers
Sunday, June 15th, 2008There are four steps to identifying and translating your skills and experiences when you are writing resumes and cover letters for making a job change or changing careers:
Step One - Brainstorm
Brainstorm a comprehensive list of all of your skills. Use your resume or a cover letter to jumpstart your brainstorming.
Step Two - Basic Elements
Take each […]
Functional Resumes for Job Changes and Changing Careers
Saturday, April 26th, 2008Functional resumes are organized by function or category, rather than time (chronological). The advantage of a functional resume is that you can highlight the most relevant experience, even if it was volunteer work, a hobby, or three jobs ago.
Some very conservative organizations/industries (e.g., banking, Wall Street), do not like functional resumes, so be sure to […]
Don’t Torpedo Your Dream Job Change with the Wrong Email Address
Saturday, February 16th, 2008Your e-mail address is part of your first impression when you are making a dream job change. Imagine if an employer sees a resume with an email address like funnyface@ or jeepersjohn@! Unless you’re a professional comedian or actor, the email address that seemed fun when you set up your account could cost you the […]
How Do I Slash a Too-Long Resume?
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008Question
M writes: The last time I updated my resume was almost ten years ago. I’m having a hard time keeping my 20 years of experience to 2 pages. What do I keep and what do I leave off?
Answer
Ruthlessly prune your experience to the most relevant. You can list jobs in your past history with just […]
Career Objective: Is it Mandatory on a Resume?
Friday, January 4th, 2008Contrary to popular belief, putting an objective on your resume is not mandatory. Include an objective if a potential employer cannot easily tell what type of position you might be applying for, based on the body of your resume.
A typical resume objective reads something like this: “A position in the ‘fill-in-the-blank’ field where I can […]
Is a Job Change Your Career Resolution? Make Your Job Search Easy by Chunking It Up
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008Making a job change can seem as daunting as tackling Mount Everest. But, you can make it easy to tackle by breaking your job search into small, manageable pieces and then giving yourself a pat on the back as you complete each piece.
To get started you can chunk up your search into pieces like this:
1-Find […]