Education and the road to Resume Success!

​“Training sucks”!  It’s a comment I often hear from people I help with their careers through Resume Writing Services and Interview Coaching.  They are pretty strong words and usually said with a degree of passion, but when you dig into it the reasons become evident.  Their frustrations usually stem from poor experiences relating to their own training and development.  

Two of the key reasons people seek out any form of education, training and professional development are:

1. Career Changes - Needing specific skills or qualifications to secure a position in a new industry; or,
2. Promotion – A promotion opportunity occurs in their current company and they need to acquire a particular skill as a prerequisite.    

Either way, the results then appear in their Resume document.  Invariably, it’s not that the actual training that ‘sucks’ per se, but the course or RTO may have failed to deliver on the skills they promised in their glossy marketing brochure. (A bit of the old misleading advertising)

Alternatively, the more common reason is the person chose the wrong course for the skillset they needed.  Essentially, they didn’t research their desired job very well.  They didn’t seek out the position description, or link up with people in the industry doing a similar role and talk about the ‘nuts and bolts’ of what the role actually does, and what actual skills are need to succeed.  

The position may also have very specific qualifications, accreditations or prerequisite skills, which will exclude you from consideration if you don’t have them.  It’s only when you have broken down a job into its key skill requirements, that can you match them to the screens of academic and vocational training courses available in the market that Google will present to you.  

It’s at this point that we equate all this back to your Resume document.  Employers will often list a specific qualification or accreditation in a job advertisement as a prerequisite.  However, they will sometimes end the sentence with something like “or other similar qualifications/accreditations”.  That little tag at the end of the sentence could save you!
Simply listing your ‘similar’ qualifications in the Resume wont suffice.  You need to reflect the relevant skills throughout the document and across your employment history as well as the Covering Letter.  That way, the employer or their recruitment specialist can make the connection and continue to read through the document as opposed to placing it on the ‘thanks but no thanks pile’.  Where it comes to accreditations, you may be able to match the ‘elements’ of the different competencies using information readily available on training.gov.au.  

If you are planning for future career changes, then make sure you explore education and training opportunities that meet the requirements of the industry or position you are seeking.  

Your Resume is snapshot of you at a given moment in time as well as being a historical record of skills and experience. Each section of the document builds a story that presents an overall picture of you as a prospective candidate.  Your education and training is vitally important, as is the way you present it in the Resume document.  

Anthony Ferro
 
Present Professionally serves customers across the Toowoomba Region and South East Queensland.  You can follow Anthony at https://au.linkedin.com/in/anthonyferro1  or view details at www.presentprofessionally.com.au and LIKE us on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/PresentProfessionallyAustralia/
 
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