Want to change to a new career? You need a career change resume

Here’s 5 things your career change resume should include

So you’ve decided you want to change careers. Fantastic. You’ve found your old resume, dusted it off, and sent it out into the ether hoping to land that new dream job. But you’re not getting any responses. It feels like your career change job search is going nowhere.

So what’s the problem? Chances are, your resume is not telling your career change story or showing your potential new employer that while you don’t have experience in the job you are applying for, you bring valuable and relevant skills from other jobs and life experiences.

The solution to this is to write a career change resume that will help you transition careers by showing hiring managers who you are, the relevant skills and experience you bring, and the results you’ve achieved.

Here’s 5 essential things to include in your career change resume:

Your career objective and the reason you are changing careers

The first section of your resume should clearly state your career objective. Your career objective tells the reader why you are changing and then what type of role you are looking for. This is particularly important when you’re changing careers and seeking a role that’s different to the ones you’ve previously done. Use a conversational human voice to clearly and honestly tell them in 3-4 sentences what you are looking for in your next role. You need to be specific and don’t use business-speak or jargon. You can specifically state that you’re changing careers as well as talking about your interest in the industry, the value and strengths you bring, and the type of role you are seeking.

Your employment history at a glance

You should also include on the first page a concise list of all of the roles you have undertaken over the last 10-15 years, the organisations you’ve worked for, and the relevant years you worked there. Do not include any other details here, just keep it simple. This will provide the reader with a broad overview of your career to date, and ensures they don’t dismiss your application immediately because they focused too much on your most recent job. The career summary also demonstrates any promotions or growth in your career which signals to potential employers that you work hard and adapt to new roles.

The transferable skills you have that make you a good match for the new career

An effective career change resume must help the hiring manager understand that you have the skills needed to do the job. Because you don’t have experience in the job, you need to help them see how the skills you have from other jobs are relevant to the job you are applying for. These are called transferable skills.

Your resume needs to highlight the transferable skills you bring to the role that best match skills listed in the job advertisement. Some examples of transferable skills might include stakeholder engagement, customer service, data analytics, or project management. Broad skills such as these can apply and be transferred across a range of jobs and industries.

Stories that demonstrate the results you’ve delivered in previous roles.

Once you have identified your transferable skills, you need to include short statements that tell a story that shows how you have used these skills in your work and the results you have produced. For example, if the job you are seeking requires analytical skills, you can describe how you have used your analytical skills in a previous job to solve a specific business problem.  Be specific about what the problem was, the skills you used, and the outcome you achieved. You will need to provide a short real life story for each of the transferable skills in your career change resume.

Your detailed career history

Hiring managers skim through resumes very quickly. You only have about six seconds to grab their attention. This is why I strongly recommend leaving the detailed career history to the end of your resume. Usually from around page 2 onwards. It is actually the least relevant part of your career change resume. Reserve the first page of your resume to highlight the elements we’ve already discussed – your career objective, transferrable skills, career summary, and stories that show results.

Your detailed career history should provide details of the responsibilities you’ve undertaken for each previous job and your achievements. I recommend only including the last 10-15 years of your career history, unless a job that you undertook over 15 years ago is relevant to the job you’re applying for then you might include it.

This detailed career history shows the full range of your experience, skills and knowledge. However, if you’ve nailed the first section, chances are the hiring manager will have used their six seconds on that section, and won’t spend a whole lot of time reading your detailed career history.

If you are wanting a career change but have no experience, book a free call with me today. I offer career change resume writing services and a specialised career transition package to help you land your new dream career.  I can help you come up with your ‘leaving story’!