So, let’s say you are a former flight attendant who wishes to switch careers, what do you think are your main selling points? Well, one might say customer service is what mainly a flight attendant excels at. Technically, it is not a wrong answer, perhaps it may serve well when you are applying as a hotline officer or sales person. But what if your dream career involves something outside the realm of hospitality? In fact, most jobs out there do not require you to have customer service skills. For example; digital marketer, product marketing or data analyst.
Worry not, this is not at all to suggest that a former flight attendant cannot be a future data analyst. What we are trying to argue here is that you have to sell the right words to the right ears, meaning you can still use your customer service skills as your main selling points but using different terms. Today, we are walking you through the process of transferring your current skills across jobs and occupations.
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Researching Your Target Company or Role
Before you even write your updated resume, you need to think carefully who is going to read this document. Likewise, if you want to appeal to certain people, you need to sell to their needs and interests. So, knowing what the recruiters from your target company or role are looking for should always be the first step before everything.
You can do this by scanning through the job listing post usually provided online. Copy and paste all the documents on websites such as MonkeyLearn to see what words are used most frequently. Then, carter your resume to suit those findings.
If teamwork is one of the top words, see if any experience you have had something to do with collaborating with other people. Surely, as a flight attendant, you deal with many people on a daily basis and that makes you the right candidate with the right experience as a team-player. Then, make sure you sprinkle the keyword all over your resume.
If you are feeling fancy, then you could research more deeply by going through the company’s LinkedIn page to learn their company culture and what sort of people they are looking for. If you couldn’t find anything definitive here, then reach out to one of their HR and ask one or two questions. This goes to show your proactiveness and prove you are a problem solver long before you apply for the job and certainly will impress the recruiters.
Use CARL Method to Explain Your Transferable Skills
When you are done with your research and have found all the keywords you need. The next step is to write your experience in a way that appeals to the readers. In this step, we recommend you to use the CARL method (instead of STAR method) because it focuses more on the process rather than the results.
CARL method is an abbreviation for Context, Action, Result and Learnings. To briefly explain each point:
- Context: Describe the context of you experience
- Action: Explain what actions you took
- Results: Explain what happened as a result of your actions
- Learning: Identify what you have learned
While trying to come up with the answer, our tip is to make sure you ask yourself the right questions, such as why and how the things happened the way they did. This way, it would help you move it from descriptions to reflections.
Wrapping up, writing a resume is a constant effort. You need to revisit it several times in the future to finally have the perfect version that you and the recruiters want and are happy with. Surely, there will be times where you might feel frustrated, but let us remind you in advance that there is no success without failures. So, good luck!
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