Question

Topic: Career/Training

How To Get Back?

Posted by Anonymous on 11/13/2008 at 10:09 PM ET 125 Points
After five years in corporate marketing, I decided I needed a change. I went back to school to be an esthetician/nail tech because I thought it would be a fulfilling career move.
When I finished school a year ago, the company I was working for moved the marketing department from Florida to NC and I had 7 weeks to find a new job. I had the opportunity to move into a full-time spa job at a very high-end hotel. For various reasons I've found the career move much less fulfilling and I miss being the marketing maverick I once was.
The job market is so limited right now, I'm finding it hard to even get a call back. The first interview I went on, I felt like an idiot when they asked what I was doing now even though it's in my resume, buried at the end.
Ummm...I do nails and skin care....
I went on another interview that went much better, but I still lacked the verbiage and marketing speak that once rolled of my tounge with ease and confidence. I kick myself while driving about what I should have said.
I guess what I want to know is if anyone else has taken a break and how you got back into it. I feel like I've abandoned a part of me that I might never get back. I never realized how much I enjoyed it or how much I identified myself with my career. I want to be seen as a professional again and I'm not sure where to start.
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by wnelson on 11/13/2008 at 10:24 PM Accepted
    First off, I'd encourage you to write your resume in a functional style versus a chronological style. See the sample from Monster: https://career-advice.monster.com/sample-resumes/Sample-of-a-Functional-Res...

    The functional resume will accentuate the things you did versus the titles. Even as a nail tech, you did marketing - of some sort. You just have to draw on it.

    Before you go on another resume, brush up on your marketing skills. Read some papers and/or books. Brush up on your skills. Review your experience and what you did in the past (pre-nail) and also review your experience over the last year and pick out the marketing activities you did as a nail tech.

    And if needed - go back to school to improve your marketing skills. If you were to get a degree in marketing as you were working as a nail tech, your resume would show you were going to school and took on a job as nail tech to provide support for your academic pursuits. From a hiring manager perspective, this is not unusual.

    I hope this helps.

    Wayde
  • Posted by michael on 11/14/2008 at 9:14 AM Member
    You may want to come back thru paul mitchel or opi or mario traccoci or one of those places. Having a marketing person on board who understands the front line (which you now do) can be very valuable.

    Michael
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 11/14/2008 at 12:43 PM Member
    You might consider "getting your chops" back by doing some marketing consulting for local businesses. At worst, donate your time to non-profits to build up your recent experience and skill set.
  • Posted by Mikee on 11/15/2008 at 11:07 AM Accepted
    Before reading other's repsonses, I thought that you need to do some small marketing projects.

    Put out feelers in your network of friends to find out if any of the employeers need some marketing help. It is great to get the creative juices flowing. You can do this work freelance and start building a poortfolio of recent projects. This will help greatly as you try to land a new job. You may find that you can get enough work on your own. Much of this can be done on the side while you keep your current job.

    I guess my main thought is doing this will help get your mind back into marketing.

    Good Luck,
    Mike
  • Posted on 11/17/2008 at 8:04 AM Author
    Thanks for your insightful comments. I will certainly get to work on updating my resume and looking for some projects to get my feet wet.
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