I want to speak specifically to some resume do's and don'ts and things that I think are important to keep in mind when you're crafting a resume for a new job. This is especially important for my teacher peeps who are looking to change professional career lanes all together. Many of them mistakenly think that listing all the things they've ever done as a teacher will somehow translate into a new career path and that is just not how it works. The dilemma is to distill to the extent that you can, the skills that you've developed as a teacher or as an educator and translate them into verbiage that a non-educator person outside of the world of education, whether it's in business or in the nonprofit sector, translate those skills into terms that the individual receiving the resume will understand.
Offer: To buy the "Resume Mini-Course" referenced in today's episode for a special price of only $75, click here: https://boitnottcoach.samcart.com/products/resume-mini-course.
I want to speak specifically to some resume do's and don'ts and things that I think are important to keep in mind when you're crafting a resume for a new job. This is especially important for my teacher peeps who are looking to change professional career lanes all together. Many of them mistakenly think that listing all the things they've ever done as a teacher will somehow translate into a new career path and that is just not how it works. The dilemma is to distill to the extent that you can, the skills that you've developed as a teacher or as an educator and translate them into verbiage that a non-educator person outside of the world of education, whether it's in business or in the nonprofit sector, translate those skills into terms that the individual receiving the resume will understand.
Offer: To buy the "Resume Mini-Course" referenced in today's episode for a special price of only $75, click here: https://boitnottcoach.samcart.com/products/resume-mini-course.
Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt out teachers just like you deal not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for"Teachers in Transition." In some episodes I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track? These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is Kitty Boitnott. Welcome to"Teachers in Transition." Hi, this is Kitty Boitnott. This is"Episode 35 of"Teachers in Transition." And today I want to talk a little bit about your resume. I've touched on resumes in the past, but today I want to speak specifically to some Do's and Don'ts and things that I think are important to keep in mind when you're crafting a resume for a new job. This is especially important for my teacher peeps who are looking to change professional career lanes all together. Uh, many of them mistakenly--because they don't know any better and why would they? They mistakenly think that listing all the things they've ever done as a teacher will somehow translate into a new career path, and that is just not how it works. The dilemma is to distill to the extent that you can, the skills that you've developed as a teacher or as an educator and translate them into verbiage that a non-educator person outside of the world of education, whether it's in business or in the nonprofit sector, translate those skills into terms that the individual receiving the resume will understand. Uh, what just recently I saw somebody who had put"grade level leader" on their resume well at, unless they're looking to become another teacher in a teacher in another school,"grade" means nothing to somebody outside of the war, a world of education. The same goes for a"Facilitator of PD." Well, that's great, but what does PD stand for? A lot of people might think it's"police department." When teachers certainly know it's professional development, but you need to spell that out. You need to avoid any kind of jargon or acronyms that people are not likely to understand. The other misconception about the resume, unfortunately is that people seem to think that there's a magic format. I know I fell into, I fell into this trap if there was some sort of magical formula for putting the resume together. And what I learned is that it's really not that complicated. What you need to do is to create a resume as a document that speaks to the job that you are applying for. And this is why I think it's so important that you learn how to write your own resume and not depend on someone else to write it for you. A professionally written resume will only at its best be generic in its tone. It will not speak to the specific job that you are applying for, and in this day and age you cannot afford to send in something that sounds bland or generic. You've got to make yourself stand out and you've got to speak to the job that you are applying for, which means you have to be very careful to tweak your resume for every single job you plan to apply for. And certainly every cover letter needs to be written specifically for that job. Not a generic you know, something that covers a whole lot of general areas specific. The more specific you can be, the better. And what you want to do is highlight your relevant experience and forget about all the rest. They don't care about all the stuff that you've done that doesn't have anything to do with the job that they're looking to fill. So forget about stuff that doesn't have anything to do with the job at hand. And you will need to study that job description far more carefully than you've probably been used to up until now. A quick glance over, picking out cherry, picking the things that you think you could do and ignoring the things that you don't have any qualifications for will not get you considered for a telephone interview, much less a face to face interview. And at the end of the day, the whole purpose of the resume is to get you invited for an interview so you don't have to tell them everything you've ever done. You pique their in, you explain what you can do. That's relevant to the job that they're looking to feel in the cover letter. Then you use as a companion piece not to regurgitate what's in the resume, but to offer why you think you are a particularly good candidate for the job that is at hand. And then you submit your resume and your cover letter. Now, what you have to hope for is that you get through the applicant tracking system, which is the first gateway. If you haven't paid attention to the key words and the specific requirements that are included in the job description, then you will probably have blown it and you won't even get through the applicant tracking system. The purpose of the applicant tracking system is to delete from the running any candidate who's not a 60 to 70% match for the job that they're looking to fill. So, assuming that you can make it through the applicant tracking system, then the individual who receives your resume and starts to look, look at it, it's only going to scan it. They're not going to read it. So don't make it a long narrative. Don't put a whole lot of words together without bullets to separate out the important points that you want to make. Because if they don't see something that sparks their interest or grabs their attention in the first six to 11 seconds, Boom, you go into the no pile. There's no question about it. That's what's going to happen. So keep all of that in mind as you start to write a resume that may, hopefully, get you considered for the job that you're interested in. So here's some specific do's that I want you to keep in mind. Do highlight your most relevant experience as it pertains to the job to which you are applying. Target specific, a specific position, and tailor your resume to that. Make sure that you use as many of the key words from the job description as you possibly can without simply, I mean you need to be careful about just plucking out of the job description and putting into your resume every single keyword if they're, if they're not pertinent to your experience. So don't do that. You do absolutely need to be truthful in every aspect of your resume. But do use as many of the keywords as you possibly can. Include achievements, future success can be predicted by past success. So if you can offer that you've received accolades or that you've achieved certain levels in your profession, even if that profession is not completely in sync with what you're looking to apply for now or in the future, still include the accolades and the relevant achievements because they can be predictors of future success. Use powerful verbs, things that indicate things that you've done, things that you've accomplished, things that you've managed to get, um, to get through so that whatever it is, it's in your resume. It indicates that you are somebody who is a doer, an achiever, somebody who is looking to be, um, translating what you've been doing into a future job where you will be just as successful and just as powerful. Um, do make sure that you avoid extra verbiage that isn't relevant to the job at hand. Don't try to include every single thing you've ever done and be very, very careful about separating out, uh, activities and duties and responsibilities from t ransferable skills that you have. There's a difference between having been a lead teacher in your fourth grade team and being, u m, a leader in any setting where you can transfer the leadership skills that you've been using in your current position into a future position. So keep your eye on the ball as far as what your future position is going to be and don't feel like you have to include every single thing you've ever done in your previous work. This is especially true if you are a veteran, seasoned educator or seasoned in any profession. Frankly. Um, the HR directors and recruiters of today are only interested in your last 10 to 15 years of experience. So you don't have to go all the way back to the beginning of your, the, the, the genesis of your career. In my case, for example, none of what I did from 1975 when I started teaching to 2012 when I left education is pertinent to what I'm doing today. So I might include my four years as president of the Virginia Education Association because that's something that I'm proud of and indicates that I'm an achiever and that I was able to be a leader in in that arena. But I wouldn't go much farther back than 2008 because none of what I did as, as as an elementary school librarian or even as a sixth grade language arts teacher is pertinent to what I'm doing today or what I would want to be doing if I were to change lanes again and do something new in the future. So make sure that you make yourself relevant. That's the most important thing I think I want to convey to you today. Your resume needs to be relevant to the job that you are applying for. Now as a special Thanksgiving, early Black Friday special. I'm offering my resume course as a standalone, not my whole entire packaged program, just the resume course by itself, along with a comprehensive list of"Resume Do's and Don'ts" that you need to be aware of and a video review of your resume once you've written one a, I'm offering that instead of the regular$150 that I've been offering it for, I'm offering it for$75. So if you'd be interested in that, you link in the show notes. Order the course, I'll send it to you and you can work your way through it. There you get lifetime access to the video tutorial so you don't have to worry about rushing to get it done. But whenever you're ready, you can send me your, your resume draft. It helps if you send me a job description along with it and I will offer a 20-minute video review with ideas and suggestions on how to make the resume even stronger. So if you're interested in doing that and you want to take advantage of a savings and you're perhaps not interested in my whole full blown"Jumpstart Your Job Search Program" but you are interested in getting a resume written quickly, you might be interested in taking advantage of that special. Pay attention to the show notes if you're interested. And that's it for today. This is Kitty Boitnott of"Teachers in Transition." Happy resume writing. So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to"Teachers in Transition" so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode. I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitnott@BoitnottCoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. Hi, I'm Kitty Boitnott and this is"Teachers in Transition."