Retooling Your Resume to Change Fields
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16 June 2010
So you want to move to a different field entirely? Your father said, "You'll never be able to do it." Your mother said, "After we spent all that money on your degree?" Fortunately, your friends and/or significant other said, "Sure, why not?" We here at ? We say, "Go for it, but don't forget to give your resume a makeover."
Here are a few things to keep in mind:
1. Remember that a resume is a marketing document, not a career obituary.
Don't tell your career history in this document. Do your homework researching the organizations to which you're applying. Feature in the resume what you can do for them in the future, rather than what you've done in the past. This is a cold call, and you're the product.
2. It's up to you to show potential employers how your experience in another field will benefit them -- don't expect them to make the effort.
The average person spends seven seconds scanning a resume before she decides whether to put it in the maybe pile or the circular file. Don't ask him to spend any of that precious time trying to figure out where you'd fit in the organization. That's totally up to you! Because you've done your research -- there's that R word again -- you'll have some idea of where the organization is going and what skills and competencies they're going to need. Pitch yourself as expert in those areas and don't worry about downplaying or leaving out the rest.
3. You're probably better off with a functional resume.
A functional resume offers you the best opportunity to showcase skills rather than job experience -- it's a forward-looking kind of resume. The highlights or profile section at the top functions as a sort of editorial page where you can show the relationship between the kind of person you are and the demands of the job. It also offers a chance to show that your style will fit with the culture of the organization. Yana Parker has a terrific resume book called The Resume Catalog: 200 Damn Good Examples.
4. The best strategy is to make the resume an afterthought.
Our culture is screwy in a number of ways, as most of us know. One of the strangest miscalculations afoot in the land is a bias against career changers. Tom Peters has said repeatedly that employers should never hire anybody who hasn't changed fields or had gaps in his resume, but that message about creativity, a fresh vantage point and risk taking doesn't seem to have infiltrated the bunker of most human resource departments. Therefore, the best thing to do about your resume is to network like mad, talk your way into an organization through the side door, or take them by surprise with a referral to talk to somebody important about working there when there are no jobs posted. In that way, you won't be competing with a stack of people who have more credentials than you do in the new field. The resume? Oh, you'll just pass that on to HR as a matter of course, after the deal has been signed.
Changing fields is one of the best things you can do for your career and for your mental health. Just don't ever ask headhunters to help you do it -- it doesn't calculate for them and they'll tell you you're not marketable. Don't mention it to your parents either. There's no point in setting them up for a coronary. But you should talk to your friends, particularly those in the fields you'd like to consider. And you should, of course, keep talking to about it. You know where to find us.
source: MSN Careers (careers.msn.com)
