Is it time to re-skill?
If you’ve been in a particular job for years and need a drastic career change, consider re-skilling your resume. When looking at skills and those that are in high-demand, you will notice that this consistently changes. Developments in technology, AI, pandemics, recessions, economic instability or diversification requires individuals to either adopt or outsource a new repertoire of skills. If you’re aiming to enhance your existing skill repertoire on your resume, careful consideration must be taken to learn, practice and document these skills appropriately.
What is re-skilling?
Re-skilling essentially means upgrading your resume to reflect the competencies modern employers value. As far as your resume is concerned, re-skilling implies learning and including capabilities which are useful to employers.
Skilled individuals are always in high-demand, but the nature of skills valued by employers do change. Nevertheless, companies desire candidates who are useful, who solve problems and make a valuable impact. If you’re considering a drastic career change, being a useful person should be high priority.
In making this a priority, a resume with actively sought and highly-demanded skills will be at the top for shortlisting.
Why is re-skilling critical in these times?
Being a useful employee is one thing, but whenever you’re making important career decisions, it is vital that you think long-term. Your skills should take you far and allow you to be adaptable. Re-skilling your resume should:
Enhance your marketability
If you’re seeking a job in a competitive field, or aiming to work in a company that has a rigorous hiring process, your marketability is going to be an asset. Marketability refers to how well you sell your value to employers and the extent to which they believe in the value you bring to the table. A highly-skilled person, whose resume demonstrates active use of today’s most in-demand competencies will be able to market themselves to multiple employers across multiple industries.
Help attract new opportunities
When you can demonstrate on your resume that you have the skills modern companies or customers desire, opportunities will inevitably come your way. People will want to work and compensate you for your expertise from which they can expect a useful service, valuable knowledge, increased sales revenue, customer loyalty, brand reputation, lowered operating costs or whatever benefit your skills can bring to their organisation. By upgrading your current skill set with high-demand ones, you as an individual will automatically become in high demand.
Attract the right people
Skills are valuable, but very often being the most competent person may not always lead to the right career opportunities you want. Getting those opportunities usually means knowing the right people and having a solid relationship with them. When you work for an organisation, you don’t only associate with the job duties but also its people. Re-skilling your resume can help you to meet the right persons, who are aware of your potential and value, so that you can build solid working relationships with them.
Provide a sense of security
While risk-taking and stepping out of your comfort zone are inevitably part of the job searches, as individuals we do like to feel secured and certain to some degree. Re-skilling your resume can provide you with the security knowing that your competency is, desired and will be compensated for by multiple potential employers. Therefore, should you choose to switch companies, industries or even countries, your skill repertoire has been re-skilled to the point where gaining employment is a very real possibility for you in the future.
Personal growth
We as people are usually growth-minded and driven by a need to better ourselves. Learning new skills provides a sense of achievement, allows us to develop our self-worth as individuals and provides a strong sense of motivation to achieve our goals.
Re-skilling vs. Upskilling
When re-skilling your resume, it is important to make a clear distinction between an upskill and re-skill. Upskilling involves an employee improving their skills to perform better at their current job. For example, an accountant learning a new accounting software or an engineer looking to operate new machinery.
A re-skill involves a larger career change. Individuals normally re-skill when they are seeking employment in a new position or industry. This involves a sales executive learning about executive management or a legal professional learning about business operations to start a company.
How do I re-skill my resume?
Re-skilling can take various forms and largely depends on your schedule, budget and overall commitment towards learning a new skill. Start re-skilling your resume by:
Identifying the skills, you want to learn.
It is important to research what skills are currently in high-demand and what employers across the board are compensating highly for. Just because a skill may be valuable to one employer doesn’t mean it’s in widespread demand. It could be relevant only to one industry but may be obsolete elsewhere.
Seek credible resources.
When you’ve identified a high-demand skill you want in your resume, you need to search thoroughly for the most reliable resources to train yourself. It is critical to identify your learning style. This heavily impacts which training resource is suitable for you.
For example, some people learn through visual styles, some can learn via audio and some a mixture of both. Some individuals are also pragmatic types where they learn best through mentorship and a hands-on-approach. Identify what’s your preferred learning style to decide which certificate program, course, book, seminar or approach is right for you.
Put your skills into action
You’ve truly learnt a skill when you’re able to put it into practice. Your resume’s skills should be demonstrated to potential employers. Employers will be wondering how were you able to use these capabilities to produce some benefit. Put your skills to use to show the benefit you provide.
For example, if you’re learning video editing, edit some videos and have them in a portfolio. If you’re learning how to sell, make some sales and gather some client testimonials. This type of proof is the best way to ensure your re-skilled resume speaks volumes.
Keep learning.
Re-skilling is not a one-time feat. Remember, skills in the labour market are always evolving. Keep yourself useful and marketable by always building on your skills and re-skilling your resume periodically.
