Career advice for you: How to know what you're worth on the job market + resume strategy for your job search.
Resume Worded

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Hey, it's Rohan from Resume Worded — with another week of career strategy you won't find anywhere else. Spend the next 4 minutes & 40 seconds reading this and your future self will thank you for it!

Here's what I'll cover today:

  • How to figure out your market value
  • How to update your resume if you're changing careers

💡 Level up your career

Every week, I'll write one bite-sized, practical career lesson you can use at all stages of your career.

Today's insight: How to figure out your market value.

💸  A big negotiation and career 'hack' is knowing your market value — i.e. how much you're really worth on the job market and what you should be paid. 

Here's why:

💼  Knowing what you can get paid outside your company helps with promotions and raises.

If you know you're underpaid, you'll be more confident asking your employer for more and be able to back it up.

🕵🏻  Similarly, if you get offered a new job, knowing your market value gives you the upper hand the first time you negotiate your starting salary with a new employer.

If you know how strong your offer is, you'll know when to push for more and when to stay put.

You should always try to stay up-to-date with your industry and your market value.

Here are four ways to figure out your 'market value' — the more often you do these things, the more data points you'll have, and the more informed you'll be:

📩  Ask recruiters who contact you about openings

The next time a recruiter contacts you on LinkedIn about a position, simply ask "What's the salary range?" If you aren't getting a lot of messages from recruiters on LinkedIn yet, optimize your profile using this free tool. 

🧑‍💼   Actually interview at other companies

Even if you like your job, apply to other companies. You might even find a job you'd want to move to in the process. Put simply, if you can land an offer for $X, your market value is at least $X. 

🧭  Use salary websites, like PayScale or Glassdoor 

These are useful for a basic range, but not the most accurate for your individual case.

👥  Ask peers in your industry

Friends and colleagues in your industry, especially those senior to you, can give you accurate data points of what they're seeing. 

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🚀 If you're job searching, read this!

The most helpful stuff from the web to help you hack your job search. My goal is to make you stop having to read this part of this email!

Today's topic: How To Update Your Resume for a Career Change

🔄  If you're thinking about a career change — or are in the middle of one — here's some resume advice for you.

🚩  One of the biggest mistakes I see career changers making is they simply reuse their old resume for new job applications.

🤷  The problem with that is their old resume is tailored to the very career they want to get out of!

👉  It highlights different skills and accomplishments — many of which aren't relevant to the career you want to break into.

🤦‍♂️  The result? Hiring managers think you're not a fit for the new career, role or industry.

Remember, hiring managers are probably going to have questions if your experience doesn't align to the traditional career path they're used to: "Does this applicant have relevant experience?", "Do they have the right skills?", "Can they do the job?". 

It's your job to answer those questions. So, let's look at two things that need special attention on your resume if you're working on changing your career (read the full guide here):

🎯  Tailor your resume to your new role or industry with keywords.

Remove skills and terminology that are only used in your old industry (i.e. the one you want to move out of).

Let's take an example: If you're moving from a customer support role to a marketing role, remove mentions of customer support skills like helpdesk software from your resume. Try to focus your resume on marketing software instead. 

🗣️   Emphasize your transferable skills.

You might feel like the work you’ve done in the past isn’t relevant to the work you want to do.

But, there are transferrable skills that are relevant to all industries — think of things like teamwork or leadership. If you're a strong leader in one industry, you're going to be a strong leader in another; and hiring managers know that.

So, emphasize times you've worked in a team, led people, used your analytical chops and made an impact.

I'd recommend reading the full article. It goes into a lot more detail and gives you  examples that you can use for inspiration. 

If you have a version of your resume ready, remember to get it checked using a tool like Score My Resume — it'll tell you if you've shown enough transferrable skills, and point out any mistakes you may have overlooked — so you can fix them before a recruiter sees them. Try it now for free.

Share this resource on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, or via email.
You should also make sure your resume has the right keywords that recruiters in your industry want to see. Use Targeted Resume to do this.
Want to grow your network and get more opportunities on LinkedIn? Optimize your profile using LinkedIn Review.
 
If you've read this far, shoot me a one-line reply and tell me which part of the email you found most helpful — it's nice to know when these emails resonate with you. Or, leave a short review on my emails here. 
 
Take care and see you next week,
- Rohan

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