Broaden Your Appeal:
Does your resume show your versatility?

The glow from holiday celebrations has worn off as we face a sobering national unemployment rate of 9.4%, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The report goes on to say,

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 6.4 million and accounted for 44.3 percent of the unemployed.

If you are among these millions, it is time to consider marketing yourself to industries or areas off the beaten career track.

Success in business these days requires the ability to restructure, refocus and respond rapidly to volatile conditions. This means, not simply countering challenges, but recognizing and exploiting opportunities. You can do the same with your resume. The following points will help you turn your existing resume into a flexible and results-getting performer.

Review and take stock. Assess your current work situation and career progress against your goals and timelines. Presuming recent events have sabotaged your original plans, list all your assets. Now study them and dream a little. List job titles you've never held and/or industries in which you've never worked, but where you know you could make important contributions. Use the career section of the city newspaper for ideas. Next, read over your resume. How well does it promote you for wider ranging opportunities that may now be vital to keep you financially solvent?

Does it emphasize a single industry, or a single job function throughout?
Do the job titles convey the level of responsibility you held?
Do the job descriptions prioritize the most meaningful tasks?

Build a core profile. Rather than launch directly into details of job positions (which may not be directly relevant to your new objective), open the resume with a concise and powerfully written section that states key assets (a degree, specialized training, or years of experience) and which clearly illustrates transferable skills.

This device will help hiring officers to quickly locate basic qualifications. It will also serve to deflect attention from a job history that may seem inconsistent with the position you seek.

Remove jargon. This is critical to avoid being typecast in a single industry. Men and women leaving the military often hobble themselves by filling their resumes with incomprehensible acronyms and position titles that do not translate to the private sector. However, every field, finance…manufacturing…technology… et cetera, has its own terms and acronyms that should be excised. Ask a person outside your field to read your new draft to make sure the language is clear.

Highlight achievements. Nothing impresses more than the quantified results (dollar amounts, time saved, or other performance measurement) of contributions you have made to past employers. Employer awards and recognitions should also appear. Even if these accomplishments were in other fields, you establish the fact that you are an outstanding performer who would be an asset to any organization.

Growth and renewal

Please don't mistake the message here. While it is true that, whatever your experience, you can make changes that will vastly improve your chances of getting job interviews, a revised resume cannot solve career problems. You will have to work on those.

Once you have taken stock of what's past, and considered your future, you may realize you want to pursue a path different from the one you set in college. Maybe you will plan to get the education you missed out on when you entered the workforce right out of high school. Perhaps you recognize you need training to develop new skills.

These are good things. Whenever you exercise your brain, as with your body, you create flexibility and build strength that will help you, not merely to adapt, but to grow and to thrive in times of change.