If you hope to transition your skills to a new industry, your resume must show that you understand the industry. To build that understanding, you should read job advertisements and relevant company websites. You are looking to find out:
- The challenges your target industry faces and what skills you have that might transfer well to meeting those challenges.
- Where gaps exist in your knowledge and how you might fill those gaps, perhaps through adult education or community college courses or through an internship or volunteer work.
- The new information that should appear on your resume. For example, you might know a second language but not use it in your current job; however, if international travel is important in your target industry, your second language is now a critical addition to your resume.
- The words that you need to understand, especially for the interview. If you are applying for a job in the healthcare industry, for example, do you know what HIPAA stands for?
As a Job and Career Transition Coach and someone who has reinvented her own career many times (from MIT student to engineer to project manager to professional resume writer), I understand the challenges of writing a resume for a new industry. Contact me today.