5 Important Steps To Remember While Writing A Resume For A Career Change

There can come a time in your life when you feel like you want to change your career. This can be due to a newly acquired skill or interest or it might be because of what you’ve gained throughout the years in your job. This phase is very important to endure and go through. Some people fear the loss of the stability that they’ve gained. But by doing that, they’re gambling all the vast array of possibilities they could have explored in the new sector. 

A very common question while people think about changing careers is whether they’ll have to start from scratch. Nobody wants to spend years of his life working in one department, wanting to start working in another only to realize that all the work that he’s done is useless. But contrary to what is believed, a career change resume, even for a starter can’t be blank. It can contain a lot of information even if you haven’t worked in the industry before. You have to only focus on writing the right resume summary for a career change. 

5 Important Steps to Write Career Change Resume

Here are the detailed steps that you need to follow for writing a resume for career change:  

Evaluate Skills Over Experience

The first thing that could bother you while preparing your resume for a career change can be the fact that you have no real-time experience in this new job sector. But does that mean that you can’t get a job in the new sector or will get only a fresher job?  The answer is no. The one thing that you should remember about your resume for a career change is that you have to put your skills above your experience. This ensures that the interviewer sees what is relevant and what you are capable of doing and is not left confused due to your varied and possibly irrelevant experience skills. 

This can be done by placing the section of skills over the section of experience. Generally, when you’re writing a resume, the format places the experience and then the skills based on the chronological occurrence. However, if you’re writing a resume for a career change you can change the format to put the skills above the experience panel.

Use an Objective Panel

You can also add an objective panel right at the beginning of your resume (after the contact information) since it will allow the interviewer to see what you’re about and what you’re trying to achieve. In the objective panel, you can explain clearly what kind of skills you have that are relevant to the job that you’re looking for. 

Additionally, if you’re confused about what skills to add, you can just visit the job responsibilities and add those skills which are required by the employer for that job. The benefit of this is that when the employer is going through so many resumes at a time when he will see yours he’ll realize that you are the one who completely fits the criteria thereby increasing your chances of getting hired. However, ensure that you don’t add a lot of skills in the objective panel as you have a dedicated skills section for that. Just write down what is necessary and let the rest of your resume do the work. 

Add More Skills

In your skills section don’t forget to add more skills and revise them from the last time you used them. Now that you’ve thought about changing careers, you’d also have focused on some skills that are relevant for that course. 

So, in the skills section be sure to add all of those skills. They can be especially useful especially when you don’t have much relevant experience in these fields. With the skills, the employer will have something solid to build his trust around you, and therefore the chances of him hiring you would increase. In the case that you don’t add sufficient skills in your career change resume, chances are that the people with even the bare minimum quality over you will get the job. 

Indicate any Relevant Formal Education

If you have any relevant formal education that applies to the new course of work that you’re trying to pursue, ensure that you add that too. Now you might ask that if I’ve already studied for a job that I’m no longer interested in, how will I have formal education in something that I like now? The answer would be simple. 

When you’re in college, you often have to do additional subjects with those that you pursue as a job later on. So maybe one of those subjects plays a great role in what you’re now trying to do. Figure it out since it will help you to create better assurance and lay down a nice candidacy in front of other candidates. 

Use Skills from Previous Employment

You might not think about it, but your previous employment might also have skills that you can use now. For example, if you’ve worked in a sales job before and now want to enter the education sector, you can do that easily by listing people handling and communication skills as a part of your skill set. 

As a sales representative, you must have good communication skills and would be able to deal with people very easily. Also, you might be able to perform under pressure and in front of a big audience. For a teacher as well, these skills are of much use. These skills can help in teaching, and interacting with students and parents as well. Therefore, reuse the skills obtained from previous employment to enter your resume for a career change.

Conclusion

If you want to pursue a new career, don’t let anything stop you. No, it will not be like starting from scratch and your resume won’t fit a post-it note. If you’re able to explain all your skills with efficiency and care, you’ll have a lot of your career change resume than you think there is. All you need is a little bit of creativity and insight into what you’ve been doing and how you can apply it to the new field that you’re beginning to enter.