Career Change - Machinist to Quality

[Wes Bucey]

Thank you for responses and encouragement
[snip]
Wes Bucey:
Thank you so much for your advice. I had actually only looked at the BOK for the CQA and CQE. I never thought of the CMQ/OE. After looking at it, almost everything in the BOK was familiar to me from my business studies. It's been a few years already so I've forgotten some things, but the BOK gives me an outline of things I can review. I may look at CMQ/OE as a goal.

There's one other thing that I have not brought up yet that I would like some advice on when I'm ready to type up a resume. This may belong in a separate thread, but I'll ask it here first:

On the side, the last few years I have been working on an unrelated Master of Arts Degree in Humanities. Honestly, it is just something I'm doing for fun and my own satisfaction because I like to read literature, philosophy, etc. I never had any specific career goals with this. Would it be proper to add this to my resume or should I leave it out since it is not directly related to quality. All I have left to do is finish my thesis and I hope to graduate in May 2015.

If you have more specific questions about resumes after reading through Resume and cover letter - How good are yours? I suggest you add them to that thread.

In general, though, it is not good to distract a person reading your resume with anything that is not focused on the VALUE the candidate can offer to the organization. If you can find a "hook" to convince a prospective employer your personal quest in the humanities will ultimately deliver more value to his organization, then add it. If not, or in doubt, leave it out.

The resume and cover letter are sales tools designed to get the candidate to an interview. If you can't draw a direct line for the reader to the value of each point to his organization, then you are wasting his [and your] time and effort by including that point. Do not expect a reader to connect the dots unless you provide a road map.

Whatever method of resume structure a candidate uses, it is imperative the candidate explain how each item contributes to the value a candidate has to offer.

Sometimes, in seminars on job hunting, I have students look at random resumes I've pulled off the internet to rework them, adding a value explanation for each point in that resume. Then we discuss those explanations in class, deciding whether the explanation made the resume more compelling. Trust me, most students don't make a compelling story with their first few attempts. After a few trials, though, they are able to look at ANY resume (before or after their tinkering) and determine dispassionately whether an employer (or first reader) is compelled to pass the resume up the line or put it in the "round file."