Resume Tips – Transitioning from Self-Employment to the Workforce

Making a career change is both challenging and exciting. You have to adjust to the requirements of the workforce while working for someone else. Making the preparations is another issue because you are going to trade the freedom, control, and comfort from working on your own to the structure, stability, and collaboration of being an employee with colleagues and a supervisor. 

Below we provide three helpful resume writing tips to help you match your existing skills with a whole new set of requirements in a different industry.  Since you will work full-time after being self-employed, becoming fully knowledgeable about the process of this transition can help make it easier to cope with.
 
1. Research and carefully select the industry/job that you want to pursue
 
Evaluate your skillset and conduct comprehensive research of the emerging industry trends in your targeted area that are aligned with your recent work experience. You may ask your former colleagues if you are not sure where to transfer. You can enumerate the skills you gained from being self-employed and match them with your target industry.
 
You can ask similar questions, including what are the industries that are growing today? What firms have accepted your former colleagues’ earlier experience? Once you’ve determined what industry you want, engage yourself in their language.
 
You may also participate in professional groups online and subscribe to industry-specific blogs to stay abreast of the industry trends. Getting involved in trading shows or networking events while allowing yourself to gain knowledge of your targeted industry will also let you meet new people.
 
2. Choose one target, focus on the job requirements, and match your qualifications
 
Check your resume; when was the last time you updated it? Since you have been working self-employed, you have to prepare the necessary career tools for your next step. Do you have the ability to deliver results? Do you have soft and hard skills?
 
Similarly, if your previous experience is not directly relevant to your target job, downplay the industry of your previous positions in your resume and play up other aspects of the firm that may be similar to the firms you’re now targeting. These may include the company’s revenue, the number of people, ranking, among others.
 
Another area you have to take note of is making your resume specific to your target job and industry. If you are going to make a career change, you must do a lot of research to familiarize yourself with that industry. Do your market research and identify one main trade to pursue your switch.
 
Likewise, if you’re changing industries, stay in the same role. For instance, if you’re in sales now, aim for a sales job in your targeted industry, not some other position such as corporate finance.
 
3. Show perseverance and build your networks
 
Since the job market competition career change is becoming new normal, you must let your passion for this new industry excel. Why are you interested in this industry? Why is this company appealing to you? How does this job market relate to your former work?
 
Keep that in mind: This is your niche; you must identify what’s interesting in your targeted company or industry and play that up in your elevator pitch and during interviews.
 
You may have challenges getting a callback, even with a tailored resume and excellent cover letter, if you’re only sending out applications online. So, you have to exercise social networking because you need people to guarantee your past work experience and get you past the recruiters. Your networks in the industry can help you learn about job openings not published anywhere.
 
Transitioning from self-employed to the workforce can be a long-term commitment, especially in this tough job market. Thereby, preparing yourself to be on the job hunt for several months will help you survive. The excessive gap between your most recent experience and job goals will be a challenge to your career transition. So, you may need to bargain on the role and wage in your next job to get you on the right track towards your targeted position.
 
. Meanwhile, if you need assistance in preparing your career tools, Contact us! We’ll help you.

To learn more about how to Transition from Self-Employment to the Workforce, schedule a call today to speak with one of our career experts. 
 
(P.S. Tired of spinning your wheels with your career? If you're ready to turn your resume into a hard-hitting marketing tool then take our FREE resume quiz today to see exactly which services are right for you!