Career Changers - Creating a Resume for a New Career

Career Changers - Creating a Resume for a New CareerCareer Changers - Creating a Resume for a New CareerEven when you are a seasoned professional, securing a job with an impressive resume is tough in a competitive job market.Its a bigger concern when you are changing directions in your career.One way to start your new journey is with a remarkable resume.Your resume shouldExhibit the passion for your new chosen pathRevealyour abundant potentialShowcase current skills that you already possessThe following five recommendations should help you get started.It begins with the titelblatt letterAs you begin your journey to start your new career, your first task is convincing hiring managers of your newfound passion.The purpose of a cover letter is not only persuading the hiring manager to read your resume but explaining to them why you want to change careers.A great cover letter willConvince the hiring manager about your desire to pursue this new fieldExplain how your interest and skills can be beneficial to the companyYou do this by explaining how your transferable skills and accomplishments will support the position and organization you are applying for.Your cover letter should be convincing enough for them to review your resume and contact you for an interview.(For more, seeHow To Write An Amazing Cover Letter With Examples.)Use the right resume formatMost individuals use the traditional chronological resume.However, a functional resume has proven to be more useful for career changers.This resume format draws more attention to your transferable skills and accomplishments than your work history.Always start your resume with a professional summaryInclude your career goals and a synopsis of your qualificationsAfter the career summary, list accomplishments and transferable skillsThese will give hiring managers a look at the most relevant experience to keep them interested.(For more on how to format your resume, readProfessional Resume Style - Headers, Fonts, Themes.)Id entify your transferable skillsTransferable skills are skills youve obtained in previous work history that can also have an impact on your new career.These skills can be valuable to any profession or organization.Taking inventory of your skills can be used to your advantage in a resumeList transferable skillssuch asManage multiple projects simultaneouslyThis shows that you have the ability to multitask and can take on more than one project at a time.Communicate effectively with clients/customersThis highlights your relationship-building skills and how well you communicate with individuals at various levels.It is important to remember that all new positions will have a learning curve.However, these transferable skills show hiring managers what you have to offer despite your lack of professional experience.Quantify your accomplishmentsAccomplishments can prove to be a tremendous asset to your resume.Thisespecially comes into play if you are changing professions.Quantifiable achievemen ts show that you know how to make effective changes within an organization.Achievements should be very specific and include details such as theseDid you improve any current processes by increasing productivity?How did you help save the organization money on a project?Did you lead any projects or task force?Positive accomplishments show your ability to lead, manage, and solve problems.It is also good to add numbers to your achievements... especially if it includes employees, budgets, and money.Showing percentages and dollar amounts help the hiring manager visually see your efforts.Reinvent yourselfAs you begin to reinvent yourself in your new profession, look into finding ways to gain more experience in your desired field.This experience shows hiring managers that you have a real passion for your new field and have a vested interest in developing new skills.For example, if your new career is in accounting, you may want to ...Join a professional accounting associationTake additional c lasses at a local community collegeVolunteer your time bookkeeping for a non-profit organizationThese are great ways to expand your knowledge and gain reliable references.Regardless of where you gain the experience, it still counts as experience.Therefore, it adds to your value in the eyes of prospective employers.(You will also want to include this information in the professional summary of your resume.)Closing thoughts on creating a resume for a new careerChanging directions in your career is possible in the current job market.Most individuals who change careers take advantage of industry changes that have resulted in the lack of employment in some areas.As you embark on your career-change journey, the most important thing is to focusFocus on your passionFocus on skills you already possessFocusing on your skills, desire, and potential will showcase your enthusiasm, which will lead you to an interview.(For more on resumesdont miss theTop 5 Resume Sections You Cant Go Without.)

The Challenges of Bringing Your Whole Self to WorkAnd Why You Should Overcome Them

The Challenges of Bringing Your Whole Self to WorkAnd Why You Should Overcome ThemThe Challenges of Bringing Your Whole Self to Work- And Why You Should Overcome ThemIt can be challenging to be authentic in the workplace, whether dealing with bosses, colleagues, or clients. But if you learn to overcome your fear, bringing your whole self to work or a job search can bring benefits to employees, candidates, and organizations alike.Authenticity Enables EffectivenessLorraine Martin knows this firsthand. A former executive vice president at Lockheed Martins Rotary and Mission Systems, Martin struggled with owning her authenticity early in her career. She explains how when she welches first starting out as a program manager, she was among the youngest in her group- and being five feet tall exacerbated how young she looked and how vulnerable she felt compared to more veteran kollektiv members. But over time, Martin realized the benefits of deciding to contribute fully by bringing more of he r whole self to the tableIt was, perhaps, my experience leading the F-35 program where I saw most clearly the necessity of having to have my full self available to me at work, recalls Martin. It was a very challenging job with new challenges every week, sometimes daily. I was leading and needing to motivate a large, global team to take on the challenges. I needed to bring the pieces that enabled me to be effective in very diverse situations- to do that I had to have all the pieces of me at my disposal. Being authentic made all the difference.A Double-Edged SwordSelf-disclosure in a work context is something of a double-edged sword, since theres always the possibility (and risk) of both positive and negative outcomes from prioritizing authenticity in your professional life. As Lisa Rosh and Lynn Offermann suggest in Harvard Business Review Despite its potential benefits, self-disclosure can backfire if its hastily conceived, poorly timed, or inconsistent with cultural or organization al norms. But there are many potential payoffs as well, as Martin explainsFor myself and others who I have had the honor to work alongside, I have no question that bringing your whole self to work is the best answer, Martin says. When we bring our whole selves to a problem, we enable the richest opportunity for success. Nothing has to stop at the door.She adds that a variety of thought, experience, and communication styles all bring richer results, which allow for more innovative solutions to challenges that might be missed without differing perspectives. We each have a rich kaleidoscope of experiences, perspectives, and styles that makes each of us whole, says Martin. And each of us has many things that make up our authentic selves. Did we grow up in an urban environment, or maybe in another country or culture? Did we serve in the military, or maybe do humanitarian work? Were we adopted? From a large family? A single-parent family? All of ansicht things, and many others, help form who we are- our authenticity.When Work Doesnt Accept All of YouWhat about when your work environment doesnt feel inclusive and thus makes it even more challenging to be your authentic self? Martin is clear about her advice here If some part of you is not welcome where you are working, then it is the wrong place to be.When you sit in your office and know that there is a piece of you that you had to leave at the door, you are not whole. It is the missing piece of you that causes stress, resentment, and pain. She adds that being the best partner in any work situation also means understanding what is needed from you to be most effective with a given platzset of people. Having all of yourself to choose from in a given situation is the key.How to Bring Your Full Self to the OfficeHere are five tips from Martin about ways to get more comfortable bringing your full self to the officeFind an ally. If you feel like theres a specific piece of yourself and your personal life that youre keeping underground at work but that feels important to surface, Martin recommends first practicing the piece that you are leaving out of work with a trusted ally in the office. Pick someone who has shown that they enjoy sharing such information, says Martin. It has to be the right context for you and for them.Begin sharing more about yourself. As you work on finding allies, focus on sharing to build trust that assists in the challenges at hand. Bring yourself closer to others in order to better work as a team- to accomplish challenging work activities, says Martin.Practice being the coworker needed for specific situations. Once you have all of you on board at work, Martin suggests channeling those additional assets directly into situations that you are currently dealing with Dont sacrifice who you are. Instead, focus on the parts of you that will be most helpful to the challenge before you with the team at hand.Be an ally. Once youve mastered finding an ally and become more comfortable bei ng yourself in a work setting, its time to pay it forward. Martin, for example, became an LGBTQ ally in a large organization and found the experience meaningful and empowering Most all large organizations have been on a journey to more broadly support diversity and inclusion. The support for the LGBTQ community has been profound over the past years, said Martin. As an LGBTQ Ally, I was able to see the joy and fulfillment that happen when a person can be his or her full self. With this comes greater fulfillment at work, promotions, and overall satisfaction.Enable individuality. Martin suggests using the following tactic at the end of meetings to ensure all voices are being heard go around to each attendee and request their response to one of the following questions or statements, which she notes will yield amazing and sometimes critical input that would have been gelbkreuzgas if everyone was not in the game, contributing their unique insightsWhat are you still thinking about as we cl ose the session?Share something we should have addressed and did not during the meeting.Express appreciation for a contribution of another team member.Its a personal decision, but a smart approach is to blend an awareness of who you are and your career goals with a sense of the companys culture. If you sense that you cant comfortably be who you are with a particular organization, would you really want to work there day-in and day-out under false pretenses? Your answer to this question can guide your choices around how you present yourself in interviews as well as the office. As you determine what you want to share, keep in mind these words from Martin The ability to bring your full self is empowering and freeing. You will be at your best and get the best from the teams you are leading.Find a job that fits your lifestyle Browse Open Flexible Jobs

What to Do if You Made a Lot of Mistakes at Work - The Muse

What to Do if You Made a Lot of Mistakes at Work - The MuseWhat to Do if You Made a Lot of Mistakes at Work When things go wrong at work, its hard to keep them from spiraling out of control. And when one thing after anotlageher seems to break, you cant help but wonder if all youre good for anymore is messing up. But even though youve had a tough go of it lately, there are a few things you can do to set yourself up to have more successful days at the office- even as soon as next week. Here are a few things I found helpful in a recent rough patch1. Own Up to All of the MistakesFor me, one of the most difficult things about being a professional is acknowlumineszenzdiodeging that I missed a deadline or didnt follow all the instructions I was given. It sucks knowing that you let people down- and it feels even worse when you know what impact your mistakes had. But the first step I find helps me begin the comeback process is simply fessing up to everything I know I did (or didnt do). Someti mes its an informal conversation with your boss. Other times it requires a sit-down meeting in which you lay it all out. (And if youre not sure what to do, check out the just right reaction for when you mess up.) This is a productive activity because not only do you get a option to review everything that went wrong, but you also show your manager and your team that youre not the type of person to hide behind your shortcomings. Plus, being this transparent will tip those people off to the fact that you probably need a little help.2. Identify the Things You Couldve Done DifferentlyUnless youre actively trying to get fired, Im willing to bet that youre not going out of your way to do a bad job. Sometimes work is overwhelming and you cant focus on anything for too long before you start distracting yourself with cat memes on the internet .Take the work youve done in the first step a little further by walking back all the circumstances that led to you dropping the ball. Was a project inco mplete because you werent careful enough about the execution? Were you overwhelmed by all the things you said yes to? Did you actually not understand the project as well as you thought you did? Think about what happened to lead up to your rough week, because the chances are that it wasnt just one thing that led to the ultimate result. 3. Create an Action Plan for Correcting Your MistakesNow that you know what you did and why those things happened, you can start to think about how to prevent them from occurring in the future. Of course, youll make more mistakes at work down the road- and you shouldnt expect anything more of yourself. But this activity will help you grow in a few areas in which you know that you havent been awesome at lately.If you werent careful enough about your project, make yourself a checklist to refer to in the future so that all of the details are addressed. If you were overwhelmed by everything you volunteered for, make a note of how long your to-do list was t his time- then when it gets to that point again, dont be afraid to ask for help. And if you didnt understand the instructions as well as you thought, get clarity from the stakeholders you need it from to ensure that its crystal clear next time. If youre down on yourself after dropping the ball for the past week, dont worry- most (if not all) of us have been there. Theres nothing you can do to erase those rough days from the record books, but you can bounce back faster than you might think. It will take a little work- and a big dose of honesty with yourself- but youre talented and resilient enough to get back on track. And trust me, if I can do it, you can pull it off, too.