10 Resume tips to escape the call center and actually get recruiters to notice you!

It all started for me many years ago. I was a naive college student who thought a call center would be a great entry level job to get experience, and I could could then get promoted to other departments once I graduated. If you are reading this, you are likely to never have planned to make a career out of a customer service rep job (CSR). Because it’s no one's childhood dream to live a life talking to 80 random strangers each day while not forgetting to smile and pretending not to be human. It's impossible for anyone who has never been in a call center to understand how life drains out of you a little bit after each call. Science has shown that a lot of people do not accomplish their goals. I am here to give you actionable steps to help break those statistics. I am an example of someone who escaped the "hamster wheel" and so can you! After many years of recruiters exclusively considering my resume for call center roles, I escaped the vicious cycle and made it out alive! I promise you there is a whole world outside that headset ,and you are ready for it. Read this with me: "I am ready to take my life back and escape the call center prison forever"!

Here are the Resume writing tips that helped me actually get selected for interviews:

• Learn your market before selecting your next role. Get an idea of what the job market looks like to determine what job will best suit you and which one you can see yourself doing. Find jobs that are in demand so that you can have a chance to apply to more than one company. Do this research by using the most updated websites like LinkedIn, Indeed and Zip Recruiter. Make sure to use their smart search tool to filter jobs in the city you want (or remote), salary, experience level or others.

• Choose your industry - I will put myself as an example for this one. I was a CSR for a hospital company. My title was Central Scheduler, and I scheduled a variety of radiology procedures. I was familiar with insurance prior authorizations, customer service, hospital requirements, patient instructions etc. I wanted to stay in the healthcare field because of my knowledge and comfort level, but I did not want to be in a customer service or a front-desk role. I did some research and found out that surgery schedulers had similar backgrounds as me, had a better salary, and their daily duties involved other things that did not require being on the phone non-stop. So I applied for surgery scheduling roles. I had never scheduled a “surgery," but I had scheduled "procedures" at a hospital. Those terms are interchangeable sometimes! I looked at job descriptions and aligned my resume accordingly without lying. I would highly recommend that you choose an industry that you know of via your call center job to increase your chances.

• Take notes. Get a pen and paper, because the phone is too distracting. OK. Fine, don’t. But sit down and start writing down all the skills that you have learned. Bring out and polish things you know well and are comfortable talking about in depth. You might have learned them in college, high school, online, or at work. Think very hard about what skills you can transfer from this job to the next one. Look at job listings, and make sure to highlight some of the skills they are asking for!

• Be an early bird. You can create alerts so that once you are ready to start applying you have a chance to be an early applicant. I would not waste time applying to jobs that are more than two weeks old. The recruiters are likely to be overwhelmed or not updating the listings diligently. The faster you apply, the higher chances of getting noticed.

• Spice up your resume with keywords. This trick might get me in trouble, but it works! I know from recruiters that if you add words in white font to your resume (invisible words) your resume will likely be picked by their AI system. A real recruiter will then review your resume and contact you. This will increase your chances of getting a pair of eyes on your resume (vs. losing the battle against the “machine").

• Include on your resume only what's important. Do not mention the C word. Avoid at all costs mentioning "call center" on your resume unless you would like to get bombarded with those types of jobs. For me, instead of call center rep, I was a "Central Scheduler". If you work at bank then you might be a "Bank Representative.” If you support a shipping company then say "Logistics Expert"... you get the deal. Your time is money, and these tips will make your job search more efficient.

• Network Baby! If you are a CSR, chances are you are an awesome person. It takes one to know one! Reach out to your family and friends, and let them know you are looking for a job in X industry. Send the message to the universe, and your friends and/or family might surprise you! If you have the chance, reach out to those that already do what want to do or work in the industry you choose. They can give you further insight into what your future job will be like and even tell you about job openings before they are posted anywhere.

• LinkedIn is your second resume. Speaking of networking.... don't sleep on this amazing tool! LinkedIn is a powerful social media tool for job searching and every thing career related. Stay active there by looking for jobs, liking/following companies you want to be a part of, and interacting with their posts. Make sure to have a professional photo, and organize your profile as a resume. Add your job titles and description there. I have gotten so many hits on my profile and appeared on many recruiter searches since following this tip.

• Don't forget the most important step of all - getting started. I hope you are going to use all, or some, of these tips today! There is no better moment than the present.

Please let me know how your job search goes. Until next time, remember: "you are worth it!”

References and Resources:

Inc Article on science behind goals

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/science-says-92-percent-of-people-dont-achieve-goals-heres-how-the-other-8-perce.html

Entry Level Career Ideas

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/15-entry-level-jobs-that-pay-well?aceid=&gclid=Cj0KCQiA09eQBhCxARIsAAYRiynB3vItTaTtXVY9-XnWy83NDjMWIryqpQOCIYhP78ideNvUZRq_n6caAoYYEALw_wcB

How to find your next steps

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-find-your-next-step-andrew-seaman-1f/