In today’s job market, it is not uncommon that as a job seeker you might be considering an alternate career path or a career change altogether. There are many reasons that job seekers want to pursue a different career path. Most times, you are looking for new opportunities that challenge you and help you grow professionally. Since the emergence of the gig economy, this career change mentality has been coming up more frequently with my clients. It gives you the opportunity to hone your skills in a new field. The gig economy has allowed job seekers the flexibility to pursue short-term employment in different areas while honing their skill set. No matter what your reason is for choosing a different career path, you should be mindful of your resume and how it impacts your Professional Value Proposition (PVP) and unique personal brand.
The Focal Point of Your Resume
When it comes to creating your resume and pursuing your career change, there are several questions you need to ask yourself. You need to determine exactly what your career path looks like. Do you see yourself transitioning to accounting jobs, nursing jobs, consulting jobs, or something else? Do you see yourself successfully embarking on a new career path and maintaining longevity in your new career? Do you have a timeline to fully execute your career change and land another job? All of these questions need to be answered prior to developing a resume that focuses on your achievements. These strategic elements will play a vital role in the development of your PVP and personal brand on your resume. In order for hiring managers to see the value in what you are offering, you have to strategically reflect this in your resume while positioning yourself as someone that can hit the ground running in your new career. The focus should be primarily on transferable skills that will have added value to hiring managers in your new field. You can easily integrate these transferable skills into your PVP, keyword optimization strategy, and unique personal brand. When your resume goes through applicant tracking systems and electronic screen outs, this will help you gain traction with applicant tracking systems and maximize the number of interviews you receive.
Is a Career Change a Realistic Option Right Now?
This is an important thing that you need to examine before you decide to shift career paths–how realistic is your career change in relationship to what you bring to the table right now? You might be an accountant that is tired of being the bean counter in your company and decide that you want to pursue a more creative career in social media marketing. That is a great goal, but as of right now do you have any knowledge or expertise in social media platforms, SEO, or digital strategy? A lot of job seekers would love to change career paths, but the truth is that some might not be ready right at this moment because their skills might need to be further developed. The good news is that you can easily overcome this challenge. If you are looking to pursue a career path that can leverage your existing skill set, that is a bit easier. But if you do not have any skills or knowledge in your new field, then other steps need to be taken before a successful career change can occur. A good first step would be to pursue advanced education or training so you can learn new skills that you can leverage in your new career. From a resume perspective, this will help tremendously. Instead of focusing on transferable skills from a previous job, you can focus on transferable skills you learned from an educational or training standpoint. When it comes to developing an effective resume that will help you thrive in your career change job search, you have to be sure your skills, core competencies, PVP, and personal branding closely align with your new field.
As a job seeker, if you make the commitment to change career paths and go in another direction, ultimately your resume and personal branding need to be adjusted accordingly. As you can see, the common denominator in creating an effective career change resume is focusing on transferable skills. Whether transferable skills are derived from previous jobs or from recent education and training, that will still positively impact your resume and help you gain traction in your new field. If you are considering making a career change, make sure you know what your new career path looks like so you can reflect this in your resume. If you don’t strategically position yourself and align your personal brand with your career change jobs, it will mean the difference between getting an interview and getting passed over.