One year ago, I was completely lost. I was working as a paralegal for a major law firm and while the pay was fine, I was sort of miserable. I didn't mind it in the beginning, but I had no intention of becoming a lawyer. Honestly, I was just good at taking notes and writing up reports; so it felt like a good fit.
Seven years later and I was doing the same mind-numbing work. Fiddling with stacks of forms and PowerPoint slides, while working with some of the most obnoxious people I ever met.
To be honest, I never wanted to work in law. Sure, it was my major in college, but I was never really passionate about it. There was always this creative itch that just yearned to be scratched whereas law always felt so clinical.
That's why, last year, I finally quit and decided to try my hand at something new. The first question was, "what other job is my skill set best suited for?" But after some thinking, I realized that it wasn't about which skills were transferable (although that is important), rather what I found appealing about law in the first place.
I thought about it and realized that I was drawn to law because of my knack for storytelling. I remembered that in college I was really into my marketing and customer behavior classes. Considering my experience in law, it wasn't too far-fetched to make the career switch.
The only issue was that I didn't know where to begin. My resume was completely out of date and honestly hadn't been updated since I graduated. Even then, I wasn't sure how I'd re-frame my law experience to make it relevant for a marketing position. I was at a complete loss, so I decided that I may as well try out a resume writing service.
After a cursory search online and reading through two dozen reviews, I decided that TopResume would give me the most bang for my buck. TopResume is one of the leading resume-writing services and the easiest way to craft a unique career story that is guaranteed to garner more interviews. The website gave me the option to submit my resume for a free review, so I figured I may as well try it out.
Once I submitted my resume, I heard back from a resume-writing specialist named Nina who sent me an email with a few brief tips on how I could improve my resume and see if I'd be interested in the service. While I was really only thinking about my career swap, Nina made a few recommendations that I found incredibly helpful.
I tried to figure out whether or not the paid service would be worth it and eventually came to the conclusion that for every day I was unemployed, I was actually losing money. Therefore, I shouldn't feel bad about shelling out a bit of cash as an investment in my career.
From there, I decided to sign-up for their paid service and was matched with a one-on-one specialist named Arnold. He was a wiz when it came to recruiting and actually worked in HR at an advertising agency before he joined TopResume. It was a perfect fit!
We figured out which of my skills were the most transferable. We built a story around my experience with clients and managing large teams of people. Once we figured out the content, Arnold recommended that I reformat my resume in a combination resume format (which I had never heard of before) and add a few keywords to optimize it for Applicant Tracking Systems.
Apparently, these algorithms filter resumes based on keywords and experience. I had no idea this even existed! Arnold told me that if I couldn't get past the ATS, then there was no point in updating my resume.
Once everything was said and done, I thanked Arnold and began what I thought would be a never-ending job search. I felt slightly better knowing that I would get a free re-write of my resume if I wasn't receiving any interviews within the next 60 days, but that definitely was not the case.
From the get-go, I received 8 different interviews and made it to the final round for 3 of them. In fact, I ended up getting 2 offers and was able to use both offers to leverage a higher salary. Now I'm working as a Creative Strategist for a mid-level marketing agency with much more hands-on work than my previous job. My coworkers are awesome and I just love coming into work.
I almost didn't take this leap because of how comfortable I felt in my old job. But this just goes to show that with a little bit of help and perseverance anything is possible. If you're feeling stuck in a job or are looking to change up careers, you need to check out TopResume. Sometimes a little bit of help can go a long way.
