Resume tips to cover your survival work

So you’ve got a survival job —- congratulations. Right? Right. It’s good to have (any) income, and much better to be working than not. It’s also important to stay busy and connected. So yes, congratulations.

But since this is a survival job, you’re probably still looking for something in your original career path. The problem is your resume. How do you avoid either leading with the most unrelated thing possible (the survival job), or leaving a giant gap in your work history (by using the end date of your last career-related position)?

These are good days for resume writers. I’ve been practically chortling over the opportunity to stitch up so many career stories, making the workers look whole again.

One of the most common career problems I’m seeing right now is the disjointed story presented by an interlude of contract or survival work. Common tricks of the trade, such as a switch to a skills-based format, may not be enough to overcome the gap since the last job in the field.

Every resume is different, but I can share some common points to help make this process easier for you.

Follow these guidelines:

1. Throw away the templates. Don’t you know that you’re special? The only people who can use a resume template are those whose work histories sell themselves. If you have anything unusual in your background, including a gap in work history or a career change, the templates won’t work.

2. Define your goal. What is your targeted field or job? If you don’t have one, get one. Not having a target will keep you from accessing the unadvertised, unposted jobs —- estimated to be 80 percent or more of the openings.

3. Use a headline. If your career path is in marketing, say so. Perhaps you have some account management experience as well. Try putting this in bold, italic, maybe 14 point type just under your name and address. The headline’s job is to direct attention to your key message immediately.

4. Keep profiles short. Starting your resume with a lengthy paragraph is a bad idea. One or two sentences to support the headline are all that’s needed.

5. Move to a bulleted section next. Accomplishments, Achievements, Key Strengths —- any of these headings will provide an opportunity to present your career highlights.

6. Rename the Work section. Instead of Work History or Professional Experience, which indicate a complete listing is about to follow, go with a selected heading, such as Marketing / Account Management Experience. Now include the work experiences in your field, starting with the most recent.

7. Use an Other Work section to capture the unrelated jobs. Your current survival position goes here, as do other gap-filling positions that are not in your primary field. Use only one line per job, to keep the focus away from this section while still providing an answer to the key question: What have you been doing?

8. End with Professional Affiliations or with a short selection of quotes from your letters of reference. The idea is to go out with something stronger than your current job at the coffee shop.

Troubleshooting tips:

> If your degree is quite old, or unrelated to your work, or when there is no degree, you need to add something current and relevant in your training section —- start with at least an online webinar.

> Ready or not, send your resume out. Resumes don’t garner interviews by sitting on your hard drive.