As hard as it sounds, we have to accept that the COVID-19 is going to stay with us a while longer than anticipated. At the beginning, many businesses where forced to close due to the lack of customers/clients, workers, or due to goverment regulations. The immediate effect of all this was that many people lost their jobs and livelihood. The long term effect is that many people don't want to go back to their previous jobs, or go back to work altogether. For some it is for safety reasons, for others it is because they have to (or want to) take care of their families. But no matter the reason, this has opened up an opportunity for many. For the first time in a long time, there are more job opennings than candidates in many industries. This means that people are starting to rethink their career paths, because it is easier to get hired for a job that few people are applying for. 

With the reopening of the economy, people are going back to work, but not necessarily to what they were doing before the COVID-19 pandemic started. If you are in this situation, there are two pieces of advice I can give you:
 
1) Be clear as to why you are changing careers;
2) Have something to back up this career change.
 
The way I see it, people don’t just wake-up one day and say, “I want to work on this, not on that!” You need to have a clear reason why are you starting along a new career path. It will likely come up in a job interview, and you don’t want to be caught off-guard.

You are also going to need something to back up this career change: have you studied something that allows you to work in this new field? Have you had any exposure to the profession (like volunteer work, a side job, or maybe you have worked closely with professionals from that field?), maybe you already have some experience. This needs to be included in your resume.

If you don’t have that kind of evidence for why you’re making this career change, seek out opportunities now to show your commitment, whether it’s volunteer work, enrolling in classes, or even independent research. Without this to support your career change, you won’t be able to catch a recruiter’s or hiring manager's eye. The education industry is a good example of this. There is a shortage of teachers, substitutes and staff all over the country. 

When writing a resume, there are many variables to have in mind. Whether your resume is going to be screened by a person or a piece of software, you want to write it in a way that attracts attention for the right reasons. Many people try to include words that they deem relevant to the position they are applying for. Some of these words qualify as keywords, others as buzzwords. But what's the difference and which ones should we use?

Keywords are relevant words that show you have certain skills and knowledge specific to a job, like if they ask for experience using a certain type of software, or proficiency in a specific language.  You can find keywords in the job posting, and you should include them in your resume organically.

Buzzwords are words that everybody is using and that usually don't mean anything out of context or without an explanation or example. 

​Take this statement, for example:

​"I see myself as a strong, flexible, and employee-oriented leader. I am skilled in creating, managing, and directing high performance internal customer service teams for competitive and dynamic markets. My focus is on providing solutions and creating value through innovation and development. I have 10+ years of experience in multinational corporations and I’m 100% customer centric."

It is full of buzzwords and cliche phrases like "strong, flexible, and employee-oriented leader," "high performance," "competitive and dynamic markets," "creating value through innovation and development," "100% customer centric" These words and phrases not only lack meaning on thier own (without context), but they are also so common that they have become almost chringeworthy. 

The best way to select which keywords to include in your resume, is by reading the job advertisement and the job description provided in it.

There is a growing trend about asking questions at the end of a job interview. Some say to always ask questions after an interview because "it shows interest." Others will tell you what is the most important question to ask to interviewers when they ask if you have any questions for them. The truth is "don't ask questions if you don't feel comfortable asking them, or if you trully have nothing to ask." Job interviews are difficult, stressful and takes a lot of energy to get through them. If you prepeared youself in advance, you probably aced that intervew. So why ruin it by doing something unnecesary, or by making it awkward beacuse you uncomforatbly asked a question just to try to show interest?

Only ask questions if you feel comfortable doing so, and if it flows organically in the conversation. Something you could say is "I don't have any questions at the moment, but if hired, I'm sure I will have many." that not only shows that you aren't trying to impress them with "rehearsed questions," but also that you know that no matter how smart, skilled and prepared you are, you recognize that are still going to guidance when starting your new possition and that you are open to learn and grow as a professional.