5 Tips to Create a Remote Resume for Service Industry Employees

The service sector is the largest sector of the U.S. economy and consists of a wide variety of service-providing jobs from customer service to nursing to auto mechanics. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, service-providing sectors are projected to contribute the majority of new jobs through 2024. Strong growth combined with falling unemployment and labor shortages means that this is a great time to look for a new job in the service industry.

Many service industry employees successfully transitioned to remote during the COVID pandemic. Meanwhile, others have been stuck working in person. This is due to the nature of their positions and their frequent designation as “essential” workers. If this is you, are you ready to take advantage of the current labor market? Do you want to get your piece of the remote work pie? Read on for tips and techniques to create a remote-friendly resume that will take you from an in-person job to a remote work lifestyle.

1. Identify Potential Jobs

The first thing is to identify the type of remote service industry job you want. Although many positions can translate easily into a remote environment, others may require a shift in career focus.

For example, if you are a nurse working in a clinic, you can look for telehealth positions. Pretty much the same job, but healthcare service delivery is via video chat instead of in-person. Alternatively, perhaps you are a landscaper. Moving to a remote position in this instance will require a change in focus. Perhaps, a shift to writing articles that provide landscaping advice or delivering support to customers purchasing landscaping products.

With just a little tweak, you can find the perfect remote service industry job to fit your skills. Below are a few questions to ask yourself as you search for remote-friendly service industry positions:

Use your responses to develop search terms for finding remote positions that appeal to you and use as many of your current skills as possible. Finding a good database of open remote positions can be helpful in finding relevant positions. The Virtual Vocations jobs database features tens of thousands of hand-vetted, remote positions and is a great place to start. Narrow them down to five or six similar positions that you want to apply for.

Pro Tip: It’s important to pick similar positions in order to create a targeted resume and avoid a scattershot approach to your job search. Your chances of success increase the more closely you can target your resume to meet the position requirements.

2. Deconstruct Your Target Jobs

The next step to creating a remote resume for service industry employees is to analyze the job ads you’ve selected to identify commonalities in the job requirements and responsibilities. To do this, deconstruct the job descriptions in order to identify what employers need most.

Start by going through each ad and list the skills, education, and experience found in all the ads. These are the most important for your resume as they are the most likely to be required in your target jobs.

Pro Tip: If you cannot make a good argument for securing a new position based on this list, you might want to return to searching for a more suitable job target. Alternatively, you may want to identify how you could become qualified, whether it’s education, training, or working up from a more junior position. It may be worth it to take a longer view and remediate your skill set.

Keep going through the ads to identify requirements and preferred skills common to most job descriptions. Then find those that are common to a few, and so on. These will highlight areas of lower priority to address on your resume depending on your strengths and skill set.   

Once you are done with your analysis, it should be a quick job to create a list of keywords. Implementing well-chosen keywords throughout your document can improve the chances of your resume being selected by applicant tracking software (ATS) systems.

3. Map Your Transferable Skills

Now that you know what skills are most important to employers from your analysis, it’s time to map your skills to your target job requirements. Your new remote resume for service industry employees will be based on this content.

To do this, take the prioritized list of requirements you developed above, and create a chart to match each item to examples of your experience, education, and training to your target jobs. In addition to describing your job duties in relation to the requirements, also identify situations where you excelled in executing those responsibilities. For example:

Target Job: Remote Telephone Customer Service Specialist

Requirement: Candidates must enjoy making outbound calls and talking to people with the ability to make every incoming caller feel special.

Match:

4. Other Areas of Focus

Besides the specific skills and experience important for your target job, there are other areas of concern to address on your remote resume for service industry employees. These areas include showing you have the technical know-how, communication skills, and overall emotional intelligence to be productive and happy when working at home. This is especially true if you have no prior remote experience. In this case, you’ll be able to indicate your potential for succeeding in a remote work environment.

List Your Computer Skills

Include a technical skills section at the end of your resume. List all the software applications and computer/network equipment that you work with and be sure to include any listed in your target job ads.

Specifically, include experience with commonly used remote collaboration and project management tools, such as Slack, Zoom, MS Teams, Basecamp, and so on. It can also be helpful to indicate if you have a home office outfitted with any technology necessary to complete the position responsibilities.

Include Communication Talents

Where appropriate, include information regarding your written and oral communication experience, skills, and strengths. Add examples of team building, successes in sales, and the ability to resolve problems.

Be sure to highlight any remote service provision and collaboration experience. This can include making telephone calls, composing emails, providing chat support, and participating in Zoom meetings. Even if you are working on-site, these are examples of communication skills easily transferred to a remote job.

Demonstrate Your Discipline

One of the biggest worries of employers when hiring remote employees is productivity. Working remotely requires a level of self-discipline, resourcefulness, and independence to be successful. Weakness in any of these areas can lead to stress, overwhelm, and mistakes.

As appropriate, include information in your new remote resume for service industry employees that illustrates your ability to work independently. For example, if you completed a project without supervision, if you perform tasks without being asked, or if you resolved a customer conflict.  

5. Put It All Together

Now you have identified the information you need to include on your new remote resume for service industry employees. To target your new remote job, it’s time to put it all together in a concise one- or two-page document. Below are the key resume sections.

Personal Information

In this section, add your name and contact information. Remote positions don’t require street addresses, but they do require LinkedIn profile addresses and online portfolios links.

Career Summary

Begin this section with your target job title or a closely-related functional title. Examples can include a remote bookkeeper or virtual customer service representative. Then, in your career summary, concisely show you meet the requirements of your target job in terms of experience and skill set.

Be sure to include a sentence or phrase to supply an overview of any remote experience. This section is also the place to add signature achievements or list key competencies.

Professional Experience

The meat of your remote resume for service industry employees is a description of your current and previous jobs. Listed in reverse chronological order, each position should include a brief description of the job scope, duties, and responsibilities. Include experience that is related to your target job and also anything that highlights your technical, communication, and interpersonal talents.

Following each job description, add a short list of your top achievements. Accomplishments should focus on the impact of your actions and the benefits you brought to your organization. Quantify wherever possible to provide an objective indication of your success.

Volunteer Experience

In most situations, you do not need or want to list your volunteer experience on your resume. Especially if your experience is not directly tied to your previous jobs or your target job. This type of volunteer experience includes professional associations and conferences. However, if you lack work experience or your skills are better demonstrated through volunteer experience, it is good to include.

Education & Credentials

The last section of your new remote resume for service industry employees should list your career-related credentials. These include your highest level of formal education, professional development, technical skills, and professional affiliations. Highlight any customer service or job target-specific training you have undertaken, or certificates earned.

Along with listing your remote technical skills, indicate if you have completed online education or training. This experience can demonstrate your ability to be productive remotely.  

Ready, Set, Start Applying for Your New Remote Service Job!

With your new resume in hand, you are ready to start applying for new remote service industry jobs. By identifying what’s important to potential employers and directly showing how you can meet the job demands, you are sure to secure the perfect remote service position for you.

Which of these tips inspired you to polish your resume? Why did you decide to transition to a remote service industry job? Connect with Virtual Vocations on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube to share your thoughts and tips. We’d love to hear from you!