Career change after earning degree

by Mary
(San Diego)

I have always worked in administrative support positions but now that I just earned by Bachelors in Business, I am ready for a new career that does not have the word "secretary" or "admin assistant" in the job title.

However, I don't know how to approach it in terms of making my resume stand out for my past achievements instead of job descriptions. Also, I am not sure what to look for when searching for jobs.

Any tips?
Thanks!

Reply by Peter Fisher

The important point here is to treat this as a career change, you're not just moving up a little, you're playing a whole new ball game.

Your career change is best supported by a well written career change resume and the way to do that is to realize that a career change resume is a very specific tool, quite unlike a 'normal' resume so you must approach it's creation differently.

Here are some of my resume writing and layout tips to make sure that this new style resume is up to the job of getting you to interview.

Now, because the aim of this document is very different from that of a normal chronological resume, in other words the aim is to help you move into a different career, then the recent career history becomes less important than the skills you developed and so the emphasis is different.

Your skills must be presented in a way that supports your career objective, so starting at the top:

Under your name, address and contact details you MUST add a targeted, job-specific career objective statement. This is a clear statement of intent, so spell it out by saying exactly what job you are pursuing. This way there is no confusion about what you want to do from the start of the resume.

You should think about why you earned your degree, why did you go that way, what was your eventual intention?

Next on your career change resume it is best to add a bulleted skills section. This is a short list that helps hiring managers quickly see that you have the requisite skills for the job. Only include those skills that are directly relevant to the new job and leave out any that you may have but are unrelated to your new objective.

Write a personal profile summary. Focus clearly on the skills and qualifications that are required for the new job. Get as much information about the intended role as you can so that you can understand the depth and level of skills and personal attributes needed. When you are clear weave your own qualifications into the personal profile statement of your career change resume. Remember any experience that is relevant, regardless of where it comes from such as volunteering or even hobby work, can add significantly to your presentation and thus increase your chances of getting the role you want.

Many jobs, although different on the surface, have common skills requirements and these core skills are also your most transferable skills. For example you may include: communication skills, project management skills, customer service delivery, and excellent organizational skills as these would apply to so many jobs. The most important part of this though is not to just claim the skill but to provide evidence to substantiate the claim, quantify your resume results wherever possible.

Stick to these tips for your career change resume and you will be very pleased with the outcome of your efforts.

You can download some free sample resumes here which may help you to get started.