Unique qualifiers win over obligatory credentials
Dear Sam: I have been struggling for the last four years to find a teaching job. I know the market is saturated and there are hundreds of people competing for the same job. I want to find a way to make myself stand out over the rest of the crowd and I was hoping to be able to do that with my résumé. I would love suggestions you have to make these more powerful. – Kendra
Dear Kendra: Let me ask you a question. If almost everyone competing for the same jobs have the same licenses and educational qualifications, then why open your résumé, and spend half of the first page, presenting qualifications that do nothing to differentiate you from your competitors? I see this all the time and while those credentials are some of the most important qualifiers for the jobs you want, it would be much stronger to open your résumé with a summary presenting all your key qualifiers in addition to information about what makes your background unique.
In the summary present a blend of your core qualifications, highlights of your teaching experience, and some information about the skills you possess that facilitate your ability to do the job well. By presenting this executive summary type section, you can highlight all your most notable qualifications without wasting very valuable real estate on page one basically stating the obvious.
In your professional experience section you have a good start on explaining what you did in each role, but I’d like to see more complete thoughts. I detest four and five word bullet points as they appear as incomplete statements, which due to their brevity, hold little weight on paper or in the mind of the reader. A lot of your bullet points can be combined to create much stronger statements.
For example, consider the following four bullets appearing in one section of your résumé: “Collaborated with teachers & therapists; Wrote IEP progress reports; Involved in IEP goal writing and IEP meetings; Created weekly parent newsletters.”
Now, let’s rewrite: “Fostered open, proactive, and productive communication amongst teachers, therapists, and parents by creating weekly newsletters, updating progress reports, and developing IEP goals.”
The rewritten statement is more complete and instead of taking up four very valuable lines on your résumé, will now only consume two.
I’d also recommend taking a look at the design of your résumé. You truly have almost limitless possibilities to be creative in the design of your résumé when you are in the early education field. Your résumé, while uncluttered and clean, has no personality…and isn’t that part of what you need to “sell” as a teacher? Open with your teaching name (Ms. Kendra?), a tasteful graphic (ABC blocks, a chalkboard, etc.), and a fun (could even be colorful) design. Check out the teaching résumé samples in the case studies section of my website for some inspiration!
The great news is you have a fantastic background to present. I don’t see any disqualifying factors, just qualifications that aren’t optimized solely based on the choices you have made with your résumé. Rework and I think you will yield much success.
Dear Sam: I’ll be really brief, I hope you can help. I have had two jobs in my life and I’ve never had a job interview or required a résumé. Now I find myself in need of a job. I was a police officer for thirty years, with a variety of assignments. I have been a private investigator for eight years. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice, decent computer skills and I’m reliable, dependable, and honest. Where do I begin? – Tom
Dear Tom: The first and most important step at this juncture in your career is to determine what you want to do. While that may be a gargantuan task, it is critical to setting the stage for effective résumé development. Once you do that you will be able to ascertain what transferable skills are most important to highlight on your résumé. If you are staying in the law enforcement/investigation field it will be much easier of course, a standard reverse chronological résumé will likely suffice. If however you decide to make a significant career change, a combination résumé would be best in highlighting related skills over positions held. If the latter is the case, you’ll also want to be a little more careful about presenting the amount of experience you possess, minimizing the potential of unnecessarily aging your candidacy by including maybe only 15-20 years of experience. You can note earlier experiences, or your progression as a police officer, as accomplishment statements (i.e. “Quickly promoted through the ranks, accepting increased levels of responsibility as a patrol officer and detective, heightening case management, investigation, fact-finding, and communication skills.”) without including dates back into the 1970s, thereby not aging your candidacy and potentially disqualifying you from opportunities for fear of you being overqualified and expensive. Hope that helps!
Dear Sam: I left my previous employer and took a temp-to-perm job offering better career and financial opportunities. After four weeks, with things not working out, I was released from my new job. So, during interviews, when asked why I left my last job, I’m answering based on the job I held before the temp position, not mentioning I was since let go from a more recent job. When answering this question I state that the hours were too demanding for my family and myself as I worked non-stop and was on call 24/7 365 days a year. If they ask if I have been doing anything since, I mention I did some temporary contract work last month, which is not noted on my résumé. Is my response to the question, "why did you leave your last job?" a good answer? – Ed
Dear Ed: I think your omission strategy is correct in that you are not mentioning a very brief engagement that did not end well, and of course that would translate to the interview in that you wouldn’t be focusing on that engagement but instead the position you held previous. I’m not in love with your answer though as I’d start to wonder about how much work is considered too much for you and your family. I’d instead say something like, “I really enjoyed my position, evidenced by the value I contributed during my tenure, however I felt the potential to turn my position into a career was limited. Additionally, while I have been fully vested in all of my positions, the 24/7/365 on-call schedule grew tiresome as I am sure you can imagine. I therefore felt it was time to step into a new position, and a new company, where I could build a career, and with my background and proven contributions, this opportunity was a perfect fit.” I think an answer like that (tailor as you wish) is much more positive, focuses more on what you offer now, and doesn’t suggest a family or personal situation precluding full engagement. I wish you all the best.
Dear Kendra: Let me ask you a question. If almost everyone competing for the same jobs have the same licenses and educational qualifications, then why open your résumé, and spend half of the first page, presenting qualifications that do nothing to differentiate you from your competitors? I see this all the time and while those credentials are some of the most important qualifiers for the jobs you want, it would be much stronger to open your résumé with a summary presenting all your key qualifiers in addition to information about what makes your background unique.
In the summary present a blend of your core qualifications, highlights of your teaching experience, and some information about the skills you possess that facilitate your ability to do the job well. By presenting this executive summary type section, you can highlight all your most notable qualifications without wasting very valuable real estate on page one basically stating the obvious.
In your professional experience section you have a good start on explaining what you did in each role, but I’d like to see more complete thoughts. I detest four and five word bullet points as they appear as incomplete statements, which due to their brevity, hold little weight on paper or in the mind of the reader. A lot of your bullet points can be combined to create much stronger statements.
For example, consider the following four bullets appearing in one section of your résumé: “Collaborated with teachers & therapists; Wrote IEP progress reports; Involved in IEP goal writing and IEP meetings; Created weekly parent newsletters.”
Now, let’s rewrite: “Fostered open, proactive, and productive communication amongst teachers, therapists, and parents by creating weekly newsletters, updating progress reports, and developing IEP goals.”
The rewritten statement is more complete and instead of taking up four very valuable lines on your résumé, will now only consume two.
I’d also recommend taking a look at the design of your résumé. You truly have almost limitless possibilities to be creative in the design of your résumé when you are in the early education field. Your résumé, while uncluttered and clean, has no personality…and isn’t that part of what you need to “sell” as a teacher? Open with your teaching name (Ms. Kendra?), a tasteful graphic (ABC blocks, a chalkboard, etc.), and a fun (could even be colorful) design. Check out the teaching résumé samples in the case studies section of my website for some inspiration!
The great news is you have a fantastic background to present. I don’t see any disqualifying factors, just qualifications that aren’t optimized solely based on the choices you have made with your résumé. Rework and I think you will yield much success.
Dear Sam: I’ll be really brief, I hope you can help. I have had two jobs in my life and I’ve never had a job interview or required a résumé. Now I find myself in need of a job. I was a police officer for thirty years, with a variety of assignments. I have been a private investigator for eight years. I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice, decent computer skills and I’m reliable, dependable, and honest. Where do I begin? – Tom
Dear Tom: The first and most important step at this juncture in your career is to determine what you want to do. While that may be a gargantuan task, it is critical to setting the stage for effective résumé development. Once you do that you will be able to ascertain what transferable skills are most important to highlight on your résumé. If you are staying in the law enforcement/investigation field it will be much easier of course, a standard reverse chronological résumé will likely suffice. If however you decide to make a significant career change, a combination résumé would be best in highlighting related skills over positions held. If the latter is the case, you’ll also want to be a little more careful about presenting the amount of experience you possess, minimizing the potential of unnecessarily aging your candidacy by including maybe only 15-20 years of experience. You can note earlier experiences, or your progression as a police officer, as accomplishment statements (i.e. “Quickly promoted through the ranks, accepting increased levels of responsibility as a patrol officer and detective, heightening case management, investigation, fact-finding, and communication skills.”) without including dates back into the 1970s, thereby not aging your candidacy and potentially disqualifying you from opportunities for fear of you being overqualified and expensive. Hope that helps!
Dear Sam: I left my previous employer and took a temp-to-perm job offering better career and financial opportunities. After four weeks, with things not working out, I was released from my new job. So, during interviews, when asked why I left my last job, I’m answering based on the job I held before the temp position, not mentioning I was since let go from a more recent job. When answering this question I state that the hours were too demanding for my family and myself as I worked non-stop and was on call 24/7 365 days a year. If they ask if I have been doing anything since, I mention I did some temporary contract work last month, which is not noted on my résumé. Is my response to the question, "why did you leave your last job?" a good answer? – Ed
Dear Ed: I think your omission strategy is correct in that you are not mentioning a very brief engagement that did not end well, and of course that would translate to the interview in that you wouldn’t be focusing on that engagement but instead the position you held previous. I’m not in love with your answer though as I’d start to wonder about how much work is considered too much for you and your family. I’d instead say something like, “I really enjoyed my position, evidenced by the value I contributed during my tenure, however I felt the potential to turn my position into a career was limited. Additionally, while I have been fully vested in all of my positions, the 24/7/365 on-call schedule grew tiresome as I am sure you can imagine. I therefore felt it was time to step into a new position, and a new company, where I could build a career, and with my background and proven contributions, this opportunity was a perfect fit.” I think an answer like that (tailor as you wish) is much more positive, focuses more on what you offer now, and doesn’t suggest a family or personal situation precluding full engagement. I wish you all the best.
posted by Dear Sam at Monday, June 09, 2008
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