Presenting a new you, positioning yourself for a career change

Dear Sam: I have been in the computer service business for 30 years and I want to make a major career change. I just completed a dog training course and would like to train dogs or work in or run a kennel. My question is, how do I compose a résumé that states my current job desires while still reflecting my many years of computer service. One issue is that employers look at the salary differences between my previous positions and what they can pay for a current trainer, and immediately reject my application, thinking I am not serious about the career change. Any advice will be appreciated. – Stu

Dear Stu: To develop an effective career change résumé you first have to understand the qualifications sought for such positions. Once you have a good idea of the desired skill set for dog trainers or kennel managers, look at your experience and identify where you possess transferable skills. For example, to manage a kennel I imagine you would need strong operations management, customer relations, workflow coordination, and communication skills, just to name a few. Knowing this, you would then look at your computer services experience and identify what you have done and what skills you have developed that fulfill these requirements. You would then highlight these aspects more prominently than other less related experiences or skills, hence positioning you effectively to market yourself for the types of jobs you want, not the types of jobs you have held. In addition, you would highlight your recent training and go into detail about the areas of study within the course.

As far as the salary issue, unless specifically requested, never present anything related to your salary history. In fact, when asked for a salary history you may want to provide a salary requirement instead, a strategy you can use to still provide the general information the hiring manager is seeking, without immediately disqualifying your candidacy based on a past trend in compensation. Additionally, unless you have worked in the same position with the same employer for 30 years, there is no need to present all of your experience. I’ve never read a job posting that asks for 30 years of experience, so typically by presenting this amount of experience you detract from your candidacy by seeming overqualified and potentially too expensive. To curtail these assumptions, present about 10-15 years of experience, focus on your accomplishments versus daily responsibilities, and really sell the value you contributed during your career.

Highlighting transferable skills is really the key to a career change résumé, and for you, minimizing the impact of having 30 years of experience through strategic inclusion / omission and a focus on achievements. Lastly, I’d suggest you develop a creative format for your résumé (include imagery related to the field and an engaging design), one that is immediately recognizable as a résumé for a dog trainer / kennel manager. Doing so will reinforce your passion for the field and the fact you are indeed very serious about taking your career in this direction.

Dear Sam: My work experience in advertising / marketing communications is very strong but it's been scattered between employers - actually 7 employers since 1994. Of those jobs, I only left one because I wanted to, all the other jobs were lost to restructures and downsizing. I know I can drop off any employer past 10 years ago, but, if I do that, I risk not showing very important skills. What would be the best way to showcase my skill set and talents while minimizing the potential impact of too many employers? – Angela

Dear Angela: Think about including an “Additional experience” note on your résumé, placed within the professional experience section, which simply presents the employers / titles of note from 10+ years ago. Then, present the achievements / skills you developed in these roles. You can chose to present this in two different ways. You can develop a “Career Highlights” section preceding your professional experience, including only your most notable achievements and experiences, creating what we call a combination résumé. By doing this you don’t have to include the more mundane aspects of each earlier position, but still create a reference for the hiring manager as to where the experience occurred. Alternatively, you can note the highlights directly underneath the titles you are including from that time, a simpler strategy that can be just as effective when you don’t want to necessarily pull out all your highlights into their own section. As you are presenting these experiences in a different manner, you can also use this as a reason to break formatting, meaning you don’t have to present dates for these position if you don’t want to. You’ll have dates for your more recent experiences listed, but when it comes to experiences that could potentially date you, it might be best to treat them in this manner so the aspects you want to highlight don’t immediately lose credibility due to when they occurred.

Dear Sam: I read your column this past weekend. I was very impressed with the résumé that was printed in the paper and wanted to transform mine into that format. I was using Word 2003 and had some difficulty putting it into that format. Do you have any advice on how to format my résumé to look similar to the one printed in the paper? – Bradley

Dear Bradley: I’m glad the example showed you how important formatting and aesthetics can be in engaging a reader, igniting their interest to read your résumé. A great résumé starts with great targeted content, but I am a firm believer that the design of a résumé plays possibly an even more important role in piquing a reader’s interest and getting them to spend time reviewing your candidacy.

The format you are referring to is very simple to create. To reference this format again, just take a look at my post from 11/25. The resume uses a Garamond font for a sophisticated and easy-to-read look. The section headings are created by inserting a 3-column table, hiding borders, and inserting a horizontal line in the far left and far right columns. If you look at your ‘Borders’ menu you will see this option. The company names are presented in small caps, followed by a fully justified paragraph presenting daily responsibilities, and a key initiatives statement that is simply bordered with a line above and below. Highlights of the position are presented in a 2-column format with functional subheadings on the left and key notes on the right. To do this, insert a 2-column table, make the left column much thinner than the right, and hide borders. You’ll see on your formatting menu you can insert a line between the columns, this will create the visual separation of the two pieces of information. Next, present highlights in bullet points in the right column, pressing tab when you want to add a new functional subheading in the left column. If you press enter after a bullet point your cursor will stay in the right column and you will be able to keep entering highlights under the same functional subheading. I hope this helps!