Career Advice: How to Tailor Your Resume for a New Occupation

Changing occupations mid-career is a little like planning a cross-country trip and abandoning your planned route halfway into it, with no roadmaps to guide you. An executive's education, length of experience in a given field and moves up a specific career ladder all make changing occupations seem like a daunting challenge.

The current downturn in the economy has affected many different sectors, and executive jobs have not been immune to cutbacks. If an executive's chosen industry as a whole has been hit hard, there may be very few options available within it. On the bright side, executives who revamp their resumes and personal brands can successfully change industries entirely by following the right career advice.

To find an executive position that capitalizes on your skills and experience, make a list of accomplishments, duties and skills you’ll need to emphasize in the resume writing process.

Whether it's in a new industry or function, the first step in tailoring your resume to the job listing is to find your skills and strengths that can translate into transferable skills. Scouring keywords in job listings can lead in the right direction. For example, consider this scenario:

John Q. Public is a development manager at a software company. His has a bachelor's degree in computer engineering and a master's degree in business administration. In the three years in his current position, he successfully managed a new software application from the research and development (R&D) stages to the market.

If John wants to look for a position in the same field, he could likely focus attention on his specialized background in computer engineering. But for this scenario, let's assume that software-development jobs have taken a big hit in the area where John lives and he'd rather not relocate. He can successfully look for alternatives if he figures out the key aspects of personal branding.

By separating duties from skills, John can rebrand himself into a career with a different focus. Rather than focus on duties specific to software development, John could list product R&D as an asset that can be translated into other industries. By looking at job listings, John can see that his experience in project management and management skills are in demand in other product-development capacities that have no connection to software.

Personal branding includes not only turning duties into skills but also highlighting personal expertise in a subject. Let’s say John had developed a tax accounting program specifically for the needs of small corporations. In order to create the application, John had to learn all of the ins and outs of tax requirements for small businesses. That expertise could open doors in several fields, including positions in the financial sector, if John leverages his expertise effectively.

The top of your resume, that is. A resume doesn't have to be written from scratch in order to send it out to a variety of positions in different fields. By customizing the headline and bullet points that list skills applicable to each job listing, it's a simple task to alter resumes and cover letters as new positions arise.

The first stop for most resumes in this tech-savvy climate is an applicant tracking system (ATS). Because the ATS often performs a Boolean search with an unforgiving set of rules, a resume that doesn't optimize to match keywords from the job listing may never been seen by human eyes.

Since most recruiters rely on an ATS to narrow down the pool of resumes they receive, it's essential to sort through one's list of skills and decide which ones are relevant to the position. Choose one or two of the keyword requirements from the job listing to add to your headline. These include so-called 'soft skills' that can't be measured.

 “Soft skills” such as attention to detail, excellent time management and being a team player can sometimes prompt employers to take a chance on a candidate from outside the industry rather than someone coming from a direct competitor. It can be easier to bring an executive up to speed when she is learning the company culture from a fresh perspective rather than having to retrain someone who has come from a similar background.

Under a headline that draws keywords from the job listing, choose a bullet point of four to six skills that match the job ad's qualifications.

Customizing your resume to fit keywords from the job listing can help secure a first interview, but it's important to keep track of each version of your resume that is sent out. While employers expect candidates to make some tweaks to highlight their qualifications for the specific job, too dramatic an overhaul may be seen as overselling yourself. But how can the hiring manager make that call?

Picture this: A job seeker answers a job listing for a position and fills out an application online, which goes to a recruiter as requested. The recruiter calls the candidate for a pre-screening interview and asks the candidate to come in for an interview with key decision-makers. The applicant takes his resume to the interview to present to the interviewer(s), but doesn't recall which version he uploaded. If the recruiter and interviewer were to put different versions of the resume in a personnel file, the difference might be glaring. It's probably unlikely that it would prevent an offer, but it could easily be mistaken as a lack of attention to detail.

In order to prevent this scenario from happening, job seekers are wise to create an Excel spreadsheet to track which keywords each job listing targets. Separate worksheet tabs can be added for jobs in various industries. The spreadsheet should have columns for:

·         The URL to the job listing, if online

·         Job title

·         Contact information for recruiter/company

·         Keywords from the job listing

·         The headline for each resume

·         Bullet points from the resume that was sent

·         The date that the resume was uploaded or sent

·         Status (to keep track of responses and interviews)

·         Designated cover letter file name

In addition to keeping track of each resume and cover letter in Excel, it's a good habit to save each version of a resume with the name of the company, position and date in the document name.

Changing industries often means learning the new lingo associated with a specific business sector. A job that has identical responsibilities and skills may differ from industry to industry. Figuring out key executive positions in each field is a good first step to searching for a new position in a given industry. Here are the most common executive titles for several industries that are frequently used in keyword searches by recruiters:

Finance:

• CFO (Chief Financial Officer)
• Controller
• CPA (Certified Public Accountant)
• Senior Financial Analyst

HR (Human Resources):

• VP of Human Resources
• Director of Human Resources
• Compensation Director
• Executive Recruiter

HR (Human Resources):

• VP of Human Resources
• Director of Human Resources
• Compensation Director
• Executive Recruiter

Law:

• Corporate Attorney
• Senior Counsel
• Litigation Associate
• Patent Attorney

Marketing:

• CMO
• Product Manager
• VP of Sales and Marketing
• Marketing Manager

Operations:

• COO (Chief Operations Officer)
• Mechanical Engineer
• Manufacturing
• Business Owner

Sales:

• Software Sales
• Sales Manager
• Pharmaceutical Sales
• Medical Sales

Technology:

• CTO (Chief Technical Officer)
• Software Architect
• Development Manager
• SAP + Oracle (systems, application and products in data processing)

Construction:

• Construction Manager
• Project Executive
• Civil Engineer
• Construction Estimator

Be Open to Change

It seems obvious enough, but being open to change can revive a career or create a new sense of enthusiasm. By keeping an open mind and leveraging their most important qualities and traits, executives can move seamlessly from one industry to another.

Often companies who consider taking a chance on someone from the outside turn to unique ways to gauge the candidate’s viability in a position. Being open to taking personality assessments as well as behavioral and cognitive testing can increase the odds that potential employers will like what they see and invest in someone who lacks industry-specific experience.

Companies often administer personality tests for positions that require strategic thinking and complex decision-making. Testing is usually done early in the interview process to confirm that the candidate is viable for the position within the company. Assessments allow recruiters to avoid expensive and potentially embarrassing hiring errors, especially at the executive level.

Confidence in your own skills and experience ultimately is what can help land the job, regardless of industry experience. By exploring skills and talents that translate easily across the board such as project management, managing staff, meeting sales goals or sticking within a budget, executives may find that navigating a new career just requires an updated roadmap.