How should my resume be constructed when i am new to the field and have little 
real world experieance?

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Request for Question Clarification by trailhead-ga on 23 Apr 2002 20:22 PDT

Do you have any work experience?  Are you entering the work force for the first 
time?  Or are you presently working, but thinking of switching to a different 
field?  Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by jobprowler-ga on 24 Apr 2002 09:07 PDT

My question was lacking in detail.  Here is some more information.


I will be searching for entry level jobs in IS/IT.  After 7 years in restaurant 
management, plus the last 5 managing the day to day operations for my wife's 
consulting business, I have decided that I would like to get a job in the tech 
industry.  Of course, my timing is less than perfect.

I have passed on exam in the MS MCSE track, will take more shortly. My computer 
experience is self taught, hands on work.  I teach a class on building PCs one 
day a week to teens from a local high school.  

I also have a small consulting business with 10-12 SOHO clients handling there 
computer issues.  These tasks range from buying advice; hardware upgrades and 
repair; peer to peer LANs; OS & application training; build to order systems 
(no profit there anymore).
While these clients can keep me busy, they do not provide a full time workload 
or income.

It is important to add that I do not have a degree.

Hi Jobprowler,

Thanks for your clarification.  It will certainly help me formulate an answer.

Having job experience helps, regardless of changing your career.  Employers 
look for applicants with previous experience, however, they are comfortable 
hiring entry-level employees who have applicable skills.

Many of the resources I found online, in regards to resume building for career 
changes, suggest creating a functional resume.  This type of resume will 
highlight your skills and achievements, as opposed to your former employment 
history:

“They are organized so the employer can see how your skills relate to the job 
position you are applying for.  It may take more effort to write a Functional 
resume, but you are free to highlight your talents instead of your recent job 
experience.”

CareerBuilder.com
How to Guide: Resume Formats
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_format.html

Functional resumes will highlight skills that are applicable for the position 
(such as your MS MCSE qualifications, building PCs with teenagers, computer 
consulting) and also draw attention to skills that are transferable regardless 
of what industry you are in (in your case- communication skills, management 
experience, training ability, technical expertise).  

Examples of functional resumes can be found here:

Monster.com
Functional Resume Page
http://resume.monster.com/samples/functional/

Careerbuilder.com
Functional Resume Page
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_exp_func_int.html

Jobstar.org
Functional Resume Sample Page
http://jobstar.org/tools/resume/samples.cfm

Since employers do not receive an overview of your employment history, many of 
the aforementioned resources offer caution when creating a functional resume.  
Looking at your work history (consulting business in IT and building PCs with 
teens) you might try combining a chronological and functional resume.

 “The Combination resume is simply a Functional resume with a brief employment 
history added. Skills and accomplishments are still listed first; the 
employment history follows. You need to reveal where you worked, when you 
worked, and what your job position was. This will allay an employer's worries 
about your experience, and it still allows you to emphasize your talents and 
how you would use them for the job you are applying for. While most employers 
might still prefer a Chronological resume, this is a good alternative to the 
Functional resume.”

Careerbuilder.com
Chronological/Functional Resume Combination
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_format.html

A combination resume will show your transferable skills and also highlight your 
related work experience in the IT field.  Here are good examples of a 
chronological/functional resumes:

Careerbuilder.com
Beginner Chronological/Functional Resume
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_exp_comb_beg.html

Careerbuilder.com
Intermediate Chronological/Functional Resume
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_exp_comb_int.html

Careerbuilder.com
Advanced Chronological/Functional Resume
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_exp_comb_adv.html

Websites that may interest you:

CareerBuilder.com
How to Guide: Resume Formats
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_format.html

Monster.com
Functional Resume Page
http://resume.monster.com/samples/functional/

Careerbuilder.com
Functional Resume Page
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_exp_func_int.html

Jobstar.org
Functional Resume Sample Page
http://jobstar.org/tools/resume/samples.cfm

Careerbuilder.com
Chronological/Functional Resume Combination
http://www.careerbuilder.com/gh_res_htg_format.html

MSN Careers
Retooling Your Resume to Change Fields
http://editorial.careers.msn.com/articles/retoolingresume/

Keywords Used:

career change
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=career+change

functional resume
://www.google.com/search?
sourceid=navclient&querytime=AN8_B&q=functional+resume

changing career resume
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=changing+career+resume


Categories Used:

Business > Employment > Careers > Changing Careers
http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Employment/Careers/Changing_Careers/?
tc=1

Thanks and good luck with building your resume,

Trailhead

Try to define a "career objective" based on the motivation that led
you to choose your area of study; build the resume on how much you
achieved and got
closer to your initial goal adding quick & enthusiastic comments on
papers you did, training, seminars, conferences, internships,
leadrership, dean list,
community service,... all this to convince the potential employer of
what do you have to offer and how much of an asset you will be for his
company.
When you read an ad for an opening position: try to read the
"requirements" carefully, and reflect each element in your resume.
Once you have the "substance" for the resume text, you add the dates
for each section in a chronological order.
Search the web site of the universities, usually they do have a job
resource center and sample of cover letter, recume,... et
Good luck.

Greetings!

It can be difficult breaking into a field, but with a resume, a little 
ingenuity can go a long way.  Work experience and education can be determining 
factors, of course, but you may have experience in your choosen field from 
other endeavors.  It is difficult to advise you without knowing what your 
career path is, but try to reflect on situations that you've been in that may 
relate to the kind of work that you want to do, and try to extract something 
out of that that could go on your resume.  Odd jobs that you've had, classes or 
extracirricular activities from school, papers that you've written;  things of 
that nature.  Here are some sites that may help you with your resume:

TIPS ON RESUME WRITING
http://www.montana.edu/~wwwcp/tips.html

Jobs, careers, resume, employment, and more
http://www.careercraft.com/

JobStar--Resumes & Cover Letters
http://jobsmart.org/tools/resume/index.cfm

The Leslie Corporation - Crafting Your Resume
http://www.lesliecorp.com/resume.html

More information on writing a resume may be found here:

://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=resume+tips

Hope this helps!

watershed

If your need for a resume stems from, ultimately, the desire for a job which 
better suits your lifegoals, then it can change the answer you need.

The best jobs I've gotten have been from simply walking into the door, and 
offering my services.  This doesn't work for large corporations, but it will 
work for smaller businesses.

Also, getting temporary work is a good way to get your "foot in the door" if a 
larger corporation is your goal.  This also helps in building your resume.

At a higher pay-scale than temporary work is becoming what is called 
a "contractor".  Being a contractor is similar to "temp work" - but it carries 
a higher prestige, and paycheck.  But in each case, you do not have to prove 
yourself to your future employer, but rather, to the agency whose existance 
depends upon getting you a job.  They will walk you through the process of 
clarifying who you are, and what you can do, because it is in their best 
interests.

If you are marketing yourself directly to the company, it depends on the 
mindset of the person responsible for hiring.  If you walk in the door of a 
potential place of future employment, and the person responsible for hiring is 
sitting 20 feet away from the front door, then you have just raised your 
changes of being hired exponentially, especially in a 5-100 person business.

What is it about working for someone else which entices you?

A fantastic resource is the book: What Color Is Your Parachute?, which is 
available in any library.

I hope this comment helps.

Ken