Tag Archives: how to tailor your resume

August 9, 2016 · 2:43 pm

Is It Time to Overhaul Your Resume?

If you’re like many people, you only give your resume a second glance when you’re looking for a new job. That can backfire when you’re in a rush to apply for open positions and you may not give off the best impression or emphasize your strongest assets. Keeping your resume up-to-date even when you’re not actively seeking a job can help you to be more prepared when an opportunity comes along.

Here are a few signs that it might be time to give your resume an overhaul and spruce things up:

It’s been years since you’ve revised it. Resume formats and trends have changed over the years, so if you’re submitting the same resume you used 10 years ago (or even 5), it’s going to be pretty obvious to recruiters and employers. Long gone are the days of objectives and “references available upon request.” Say goodbye to that AOL email or the address you’ve been using since college if it isn’t something professional. You want to ensure your resume is in line with what employers are looking for today and isn’t dating you.

Your resume could apply to anyone or any position. If your resume is filled with generic copy that doesn’t set you apart from the next applicant and doesn’t strongly demonstrate your capabilities, you’re wasting the opportunity to make a memorable first impression. In fact, you may find that your resume is being passed over more often than you’d like. Your resume should be a reflection of you and what you have accomplished throughout your career. Focus on your achievements and what you bring to the table.

You’re not getting many – or any – responses. You’ve submitted your resume to dozens of jobs yet hear nothing back. While part of this may be the competitiveness of the market and the particular jobs you are applying for, your resume may also be to blame. If employers can’t quickly see that you are a good fit, you have the skills they seek, and you can benefit their company, they’ll move on to someone who does fit the bill. Now may be a good time to really evaluate your resume and give it a good updating so that it works in your favor.

You’re getting calls for the wrong types of jobs. Are you getting calls for jobs that aren’t in line with what you’re looking for? Your resume may not be presenting you in the way you’re hoping it does. To you it may seem obvious what type of job you’re seeking or why you’re a good match, but to employers it may not be. Spell it out on your resume. Don’t let there be any doubt about your abilities or how you’re branding yourself. This is where a solid summary of qualifications and core competencies section come into play.

If your resume is missing the mark, or you’re just not sure where to start, the team at Grammar Chic is here to help. We will work with you to create an up-to-date resume that reflects you in a positive light and generates attention for the right reasons. Contact Grammar Chic at (803) 831-7444 or www.grammarchic.net today!

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October 3, 2013 · 11:04 am

Looking to Leave Education? How to Tailor Your Resume

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If you’ve spent your career as a teacher and are looking to make a change, your education-focused resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile may be a source of stress. Teachers have a job description and set of skills that may seem unique to education, but many of these abilities are actually transferable to corporate fields. Here are some strategies you can use to take your skills from the classroom to the boardroom:

Rethink the way you see your abilities

Some teachers get panicked by a job search as they realize they’ve spent years entering grades into a grade book, monitoring other teachers, and keeping track of students’ progress. While these skills are unique to the education field, at their core they’re completely transferrable. Instead of using your cover letter to talk about how you entered grades into a computer program, focus on how you performed manual data entry. Instead of filling your resume with details about how you worked with your principal and other teachers to develop a curriculum, discuss how you worked collaboratively in a team environment to develop best practices and protocol.

Keep your cover letter short and sweet

You don’t need to spend paragraph after paragraph trying to illustrate how your skills as a teacher make you qualified for another job. Instead, keep it short and sweet. List your accomplishments and move on.

Don’t apologize

It’s common for a professional looking to make a career change to feel as if they have to apologize for or justify their past experiences, when in reality quite the opposite is true. Your experience managing a classroom, building a relationship with your students’ parents, and focusing on education plans that work for each child have taught you a lot. While the situations in which you learned these skills might be different from someone who has spent their life in advertising or finance, the skills are the same nonetheless. Instead of apologizing, focus on emphasizing your abilities.

Get an email specifically for the job hunt

If your LinkedIn profile lists your contact information as your school email address, now is a good time to establish another email account. Keep it simple and use an available combination of your first and last name. There are a number of reliable free email services for you to use as you create the account.

Rely on a skills-based resume

When it comes to making the switch from education to another profession, you may want to rethink the way you lay out your resume. A chronological resume is an effective tool for a person who is looking to move up or move on in their current field; however, it may not prove as effective for a person who is looking for an entirely different career. Instead of creating a document that focuses on your career progression, consider utilizing a skills-based or functional resume. A skills-based resume highlights the abilities that you’ve honed over the years. Shifting the focus from the jobs you’ve held to the skills you’ve mastered over the course of your career allows you to effectively demonstrate how you’d benefit a new organization, even if you haven’t worked directly in that field yet.

Though it may seem otherwise at first, the education field is totally relevant to other, more corporate professions. It simply takes a bit of finesse and wordsmithing in order to illustrate how the abilities honed as a teacher translate into other industries.

The team at Grammar Chic specializes in a variety of professional writing and editing services. For more information about how we can help you, visit www.grammarchic.net or call 803-831-7444. We also invite you to follow us on Twitter @GrammarChicInc for the latest in writing and editing tips and to give a “like” to our Facebook page. Text GRAMMARCHIC to 22828 for a special offer.

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