The key to surviving and succeeding in a volatile job market is to maintain and showcase your flexibility. Even if you had previously worked only one job for several years before finding yourself unemployed and in need of work, you can build upon your experiences and skills to creatively display more than one resume to distribute to employers.
Think of your work history, what have you done since college? Do you volunteer or belong to any civic groups or fraternities? What computer or labor skills have you perfected since entering the workforce? It's certain you will include every skill that makes you employable on your current resume, but if your plate is too varied you might find that could work against you with companies seeking a specfic person. Creating multiple resumes, each of which is built to focus on specific attributes, could better market yourself to employers.
Let's say over the last ten years you have worked in customer service, inventory control, and online media and marketing. Your education is mainly in writing and language skills, and your current aim is to find more work in online publishing. Your resume, therefore should focus mainly on the work appropriate to the job you seek. General rules of thumb on resume writing call for no more than one page to sell your abilities, so if you are especially seasoned in writing and journalism you can structure this paper to distribute to those who want to know what you have done.
List the work relative to the job sought, in addition to all freelance work and affiliations. Provide links to online samples of your writing, and list skills applicable to online and print media, including software and HTML languages. For jobs with a focus placed elsewhere, work a second resume to highlight work you've done in that area. Having a secondary resume can be helpful in finding work to bridge your search for your first choice position.
Keeping more than one resume, each worked to allow different aspects of your expertise to shine, could help you stand out in a sea of candidates.
Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on jobs in Newport News and Williamsburg web design.
No comments:
Post a Comment