Best Resume Tips for a Successful Career Change

Have you come to a point where you want to change your career direction, pursue a job in a new industry, or switch over totally to another profession? Many persons are planning to make a major career switch but don’t know how to go about it.

The most crucial thing to sort out is how to highlight your skills and experiences from your previous position to fit into your new career or industry. It is not impossible, and we can help you achieve this. 

1. Define Your New Career Focus 

According to professional resume writers, when making a career change, you need to define what your plan is. This is the first step before to start to create your resume. Do you plan to apply for a promotion in your current company? Or you plan to move to another industry that has a position for your current job role? Or perhaps it is a total change, and you want to change both your profession and industry for a new career? Getting clarity of what job title and position you are going after will help you plan the other stages properly.

2. Carry Out Research

The next step after defining what position you want to switch into is to discover the relevant experiences, skills, and keywords for that industry or job position. When you understand these requirements, you can best place yourself to fit into the employer’s needs. 

You can access this information by searching for job listings and requirements online or offline. Look for the job title you are interested in, find the mutual or common prerequisites across several vacancies, and compare them to your current experience levels.

3. Identify your skills that fit the new position

If you look through your skills and experiences from your previous jobs, you will likely find some that are necessary for your new industry or position. Such skills are transferrable skills that you gain in the course of whatever career you pursue.

Some transferrable skills include research and analytical skills, communication, organizational abilities, project coordination and planning, management of time and resources, etc.

You can tweak and present these otherwise general skills in a way that makes them relevant to the new job position. 

4. Amplify your Best Skills 

After identifying your best skills and experiences that fit into your new career, you need to work hard to amplify and highlight them appropriately. It is not enough to use the common words and descriptions you find in every resume template you find online. 

Remember that you want to get an invite for an interview where you will compete with many candidates who have experience in the industry and role. The aim is to get noticed just like these persons so you can have a foot in the door.

Learn how to amplify your strengths and to add to your resume and to downplay your weaknesses to get the response you want.

Use techniques and strategies like bullet points, headings, and subheadings, statements of value, textboxes, italics, and bold prints. 

More important than using them is ensuring you use them strategically so that they attract attention, and highlight your suitability for the job.

You can create a section for a professional experience where you can place your experiences from volunteering and testimonials. You can also add another section for professional development to highlight your credentials or training you achieved in your field.

Final Thoughts 

Your resume must adequately communicate your skills, ability, knowledge, and relevance for your new career, whether you are applying for an entry-level job or an executive position. 

Work hard on your resume to ensure it represents you as the best candidate for your new job.