How to Simplify a Résumé for Changing Careers
According to the Job Star website, a résumé is a selling tool outlining your skills and experience. An effective résumé is always short and to the point. Just put yourself in an employer's shoes: After a long day of reviewing résumés, the short résumés are probably the only ones that are read. Simplifying a résumé is not a difficult task. The key to tailoring a résumé for a new career is brainstorming.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Consider the new career and the qualifications that the position requires. Obtain a sheet of paper and a pen to do some brainstorming. Write an objective or a reason you feel you could be an asset to the company. Make the objective short and direct. Write down every quality, job experience, internship or encounter that relates to the new career.
-
2
Ensure that you create the résumé categories in this order: objective, experience summary, education, professional experience and activities. Focus on perfecting the professional experience section, because this is the area where employers focus. Create four statements for the experience summary section, briefly summarizing your responsibilities for pertinent experiences.
-
-
3
Choose, at most, four job experiences and four activities that relate to the career. Keep in mind that employers value a terse and direct résumé. Emphasize specific courses you have taken or certifications pertinent to the job.
-
4
Open the old résumé file that you want to simplify. Prepare to make several adjustments to your old résumé. Use a word processor with a built-in résumé outline. Select a résumé outline to guide you. Give detail to jobs and experiences that relate to the new job. Begin the professional experience section with the most recent jobs to the old. Refer back to your notes and brainstorming for the names and order of the résumé categories.
-
5
Review the résumé for grammatical and punctuation errors. Run the spell-check several times. Use bullets, lists and italics to organize the résumé. Bold the categories to make each one standout. Let someone else look at the résumé before you print it out.
-
1
References
Resources
- Photo Credit resume image by Danil Vachegin from Fotolia.com
