How to write a CV for a career change

For someone making a career change, a strong CV can play a huge role in the success of their application and ultimately help them get hired. This article will cover four main tips to keep in mind for the creation of a curriculum vitae with the goal of making a career change.

Start with a strong personal profile

It can be confusing to hiring managers if they see an abundancy of experience in another industry, as they may wonder why the applicant is after a seemingly unrelated role. To make the intentions clear right off the bat, add a personal profile to the top of the CV that outlines the career change plans.

The personal profile should be a few sentences that cover the applicant’s current position, their career goals, their strongest skills and their greatest accomplishments. This is the first opportunity to capture a hiring manager’s interest and convince them to continue reading the rest of the CV.

Highlight transferable skills

Throughout the CV, be sure to highlight any transferable skills. These can be either hard or soft skills, although soft skills are often more readily transferable. Hard skills typically include technical abilities that are fairly job specific and relatively easy to learn and measure. Soft skills, on the other hand, are usually not specific to any one job and they are more difficult to teach, learn and assess.

Read the job description carefully and identify all desired skills that you already possess. Be sure to showcase these prominently on the CV, which will show the employer that you read the entire advert carefully and that you are a good fit for the position.

Quantify the relevant achievements

Whenever possible, use numbers and data to quantify the accomplishments. This is especially important when you are making a career change, since your previous work experience may be unfamiliar to a hiring manager. Quantifying your achievements is a great way to bridge this potential gap—even if you are discussing an unfamiliar industry, a 50% growth in revenue over six months as a result of your work will definitely be clear to a hiring manager.

Anyone can write on a CV that they are a great employee, but adding numbers and data can help lend credence to your claims and provide concrete, impressive statistics that the hiring manager can weigh when making their hiring decision.

Showcase pertinent personal interests, skills and experience

Especially if you don’t have a lot of crossover in your professional skills and experience to highlight on your CV, you may want to include personal interests and experience that you’ve gained outside the workplace, such as volunteer work, hobbies, internships, or courses that you’ve taken.

Perhaps you are passionate about animal welfare and spend all of your spare time volunteering at a shelter and now you want to make a career change from accounting to managing an animal shelter. Demonstrating that you have a proven, long-term passion for animals and experience working in a shelter setting can be enormously helpful for your application and it will make it clear to the hiring manager that you aren’t just making a career change on a whim.

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