When things come to a career change, a job seeker will have to face several obstacles prior to applying to a certain position, even if one is a brilliantly qualified person for the job.
The first and the main obstacle in a job application process is resume writing. Any working occupation place will demand a resume, where you will have to list your contact information, hard and soft skills, educational background, internships, and, of course, relevant work experience. And that is exactly the point at which many people get stuck: what is considered to be relevant and what is irrelevant work experience?
In this brief article, we will cover how to identify irrelevant work experience and whether one should include it in their resume or not.
What is Considered an Irrelevant Work Experience?
To put it in a nutshell, irrelevant experience in work is the experience that is not directly connected with the working occupation one is applying for. Imagine a case in which you worked as a diver last summer, but certainly, it won’t suit you if you apply for a business analytic job position. Of course, if you have been a diver, for example, for five years, it is a huge work experience, but driving did not teach you the skills applicable for the analysis of data.
In this way, irrelevant experience is the thing that usually receives zero attention while the HR manager is looking at your resume, but the appropriate working experience will catch their sight and will force them to look into your candidacy more attentively.
What Should One Pay Attention To While Writing a Resume?
There are many things to focus on while crafting a perfect resume. Here are the essentials:
- To start with, not many organizations would be willing to hire somebody who has zero understanding and experience for the job position that they are applying for. They would more likely hire a worker who will simplify the workflow rather than someone who will seek additional help and thus will create more work for other employees or head HR. People who need to be trained are usually accepted into some internships, not real-life work.
- Most job descriptions demand at least three years of relevant experience in the field. This implies that the organization searches for a well-educated person with the needed hard and soft skills for the job position. It should be present on your resume.
- The job requirements and skills the organizations mentioned in the job description are the fields they would like you to have experience in, so you could be a competitive candidate for the position. In this way, the best strategy to draw attention to your resume is to include as many of those job requirements and qualifications as you can.
- It is worth mentioning that it is important to omit lies in the resume. It would not be beneficial to write about the skills and qualifications that you do not really possess, as it would be really easy to check them. Nonetheless, many people still tend to lie in their resumes, as research indicates.
- It is also crucial to avoid simply rewriting the job description on your resume.
- If there are skills in the job description that you do not actually have, check how many of them you do possess. If the number is big, the best strategy is to search for some other job offer. If there are not so many of them, then you would probably proceed through the interview stage with them.
Resume Builder for Your Perfect Resume
As already mentioned, when a job seeker applies for a job, it is necessary to write a worthy resume so that your candidacy would be noticed. We offer you to use our resume builder ResumeBuilderPro to ensure the best result in your resume-writing process.
Resume Builder Pro will help one to efficiently and effortlessly boost the quality of the resume. We guarantee that by utilizing our easy resume builder, your resume will be noticed by the HRs.
ResumeBuilerPro has helped just over a thousand people to apply for their dream job! The templates provided by this online resume builder are approved by professional and competent HRs. The platform offers job seekers to use well-crafted drafts of resumes that provide an outstanding way to express one’s experience and qualifications in an intelligent language.
How to create a powerful and persuasive resume in case you are not strong at formulating your thoughts and writing efficiently? Just follow the guidance provided by the ResumeBuilderPro: Smart Resume Builder, a perfect helper for an excellent-looking resume.
As for the key features of the program:
- Jobseekers can pick any template they want
- Change the background and font colors
- Modify the style or pick exemplary lines for your particular job field.
- Add selected text examples that are editable for your own case and situation.
The resume creation process is simple and easy, and we are sure that this tool will help one to eliminate the stress of writing a resume!
Should One Include Irrelevant Work Experience or Not?
Now, let us cover the main question. The answer is simple: in most cases, yes. It can be beneficial to incorporate some irrelevant work experience if you can present them in connection with the job requirements. That is because you would not want to have gaps in your resume.
For example, you studied at the university till 2010, and then you were working till 2020 as a teacher, so in total, it is ten years. And if you would like to change your working field, it is not a good idea to exclude the teaching experience from your CV, as ten years is such a huge gap in terms of workflow. Moreover, most frequently, some experience is better than no experience at all.
In other words, consider adding your irrelevant work experience if it would add up to your value as an employee.
How to Transform Irrelevant Work Experience to Relevant?
For the purpose of showing your irrelevant experience as the applicable one, you would need creativity and tact. The main thing is to stand out among the crowd, but at the same time, you should not sound over-enhanced.
Your main goal here is to mention the features and real-life cases of your work experience that will help you in the chosen job position. You shouldn’t represent your past working experience as something more impressive than it was in reality. You can also add full detail, sharing the relevant cases and writing about the results of the work, rather than just mentioning something like “I have great analytical skills.”
Soft Skills are of High Importance
When some of the skills from your previous job are not applicable to your new job position, you can easily transform them into soft skills.
For example, soft skills like leadership, time management, interaction with customers, some lavished proficiency, and AGILE management are great to mention on your resume, as they are of real value to HR managers.
This is especially important if you’ve been in the workforce for a while and are looking for a career change. If you’ve won any professional recognitions or awards, be sure to include those as well, as they will also speak highly of your abilities.
What to do With Irrelevant Hard Skills?
While it is really easy to transform irrelevant skills into soft skills, it becomes more difficult with hard technical ones. Here you will need even more creativity. For instance, start with writing about the hard skills that are more or less applicable; for example, mention your MS Office user experience. It is always beneficial in any kind of work these days.
Conclusion
We wish you good fortune in your search for a new job! Use the tips and advice we mentioned in our article, apply proper strategy and modern tools to optimize the process, and be sure the desired job will be yours.
