The Career-Switch Résumé: Writing Your Way into a New Profession

So, you’ve come to a crucial turning point in your career. After some serious soul-searching, you’ve decided to that you’re ready to break out of your professional rut and move on in a new direction. Now what?

Believe it or not, what you’ve already accomplished is likely to be the most difficult part of the process. It takes courage and confidence to make a bold career move, so kudos to you for your chutzpah. Once your mental commitment to making a career change is in place, the rest is just details.

You’ve Made the Leap, Now Get Your Résumé Ready

You’ve decided that you’re looking for a professional change, and now it’s time to convince the rest of the world. The first thing you’ve got to do is update your résumé to reflect your new career goals.

If you’re worried about what you should list under the “Experience” heading on your career-change résumé, don’t despair. Although we’ve been trained to look at résumés as mere laundry lists of our professional experiences and accomplishments, they’re actually much more flexible than that.

According to Karen Hofferber, Microsoft’s in-house résumé expert, you can slant your core qualifications to sell yourself in many different ways, depending on the industry you’re looking to break into. The trick lies in developing a persuasive narrative in which you show how your skills match up with those most in demand in your new industry. Use these guidelines to help write yourself right into a brand-new profession.

§         Start from scratch.

It can be tempting to create your career-switch résumé by simply cutting and pasting from your current résumé, but you’ll be far better off if you can manage to avoid this urge and just force yourself to get a fresh start. You need to ensure that every word and every formatting decision you make is focused on persuading hiring managers that you’re a risk worth taking, and the only way you can be certain of that is to create an entirely new document.

§         Show off your industry knowledge.

Chances are, your interest in this field didn’t just spring into existence overnight. If you’re like most job seekers, you’ve been dabbling in your new field for years on the side and in your spare time. Make use of the knowledge you’ve gained in your résumé, demonstrating your familiarity with the field by adding in a few well-placed facts and lingo.

§         Use a format that highlights your transferable skills.

The traditional experience-centered résumé isn’t going to do you any favors in the career-change process. Instead, opt for a skills-based or “functional” format. Make a separate heading for each skill, such as “Customer Service” or “Personnel Management,” and then list your relevant experience in each category. That way, you can showcase your skills without drawing too much attention to where you earned them.

§         Broaden your definition of “experience.”

Paid positions are only one way to gain experience. Volunteering, internships, college coursework, workshops, lectures, conferences, and industry events are all great ways to break into a new field. Be sure to list relevant activities such as these on your career-change résumé. Many recent grads use this strategy to help snag their first entry-level positions right out of college, with little or no “real” experience to speak of.

§         Don’t sell yourself short.

Experts say that job seekers looking to make a career change often have low levels of confidence – and that can translate into a timid, lackluster résumé. You have to be bold and sell your transferable skills if you want to convince prospective employers to take a gamble on you. Remember, you have something positive to offer, even if the bulk of your experience was earned in a different field. Make sure your career-change résumé exudes self-assurance, even if you’re secretly feeling a bit nervous about your prospects.

If you’re looking to change careers, you’ve first got to radically remake your résumé to reflect your new ambitions. With a rewritten version of your career history in hand, you’ll be well on your way to forging a new professional path.

Source : http://www.hcareers.com/us/resourcecenter/tabid/306/articleid/464/default.aspx

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A guide to writing a CV if you are changing career

If you're changing your career, you'll need to give your CV a facelift, too. Clare Whitmell explores how you can tailor the content to land an interview

One of the biggest challenges career changers face is demonstrating how their career history is relevant. The key is to downplay a lack of direct experience, while highlighting the skills and accomplishments which apply.

Standard advice for career changers is generally to adopt a functional or skills-based CV: a detailed skills section followed by a briefer experience section. The reasoning behind this is that your reader will be wowed by your 'transferable' skills, skipping over the who, what and how of your work history. But employers often want – and expect – the detail found in a standard chronological CV, and not providing it puts you at a disadvantage. One solution is to develop a 'hybrid' CV with an expanded profile and skills section, and a chronological employment history.

View your career history through an employer's eyes

A successful career-change CV clearly shows how your career path to date is a consistent, natural progression of your talents and interests, leading you to the point where you've amassed the necessary skills and experience for your next move. You can avoid giving the impression that you're a directionless job-hopper or that you're floundering around for a career change by finding an underlying career theme and writing your career history around this. For example, if you're going for a marketing role, select and highlight any marketing elements from previous roles, downplaying all other, less relevant aspects.

Sell your strengths

Show confidence in your abilities. You may be at a disadvantage compared to others with more extensive, relevant experience, so showcase everything that positions you for the role. Quantifiable achievements; community, voluntary, part-time or temporary work; specific skills or added qualifications all count. Be selective: only include information that supports your new goals, otherwise you'll blur the focus of your CV.

However, don't be tempted to leave out work history. Gaps can raise questions, so either account for the dates with a brief summary, or find something relevant to highlight. If you've been pursuing two different careers (perhaps in preparation for a career move) you can choose which roles to include and which to delete. Or you can keep in concurrent roles if you've gained relevant skills or experience from both.

Be flexible with layout

Prioritise key details such as qualifications, blue-chip company experience, or even a glowing testimonial. These can go near the beginning of your CV. Consider splitting your professional history into two or more sections, with anything relevant (including voluntary or part-time roles) positioned more prominently.

There is no single way to format a CV. The job description can help you decide what needs to be most prominent. One possibility is to use your skills as broad headings, giving supporting details under each skill, then following with a reverse chronological work history section. So if you were applying for an office administration role, organisational or communication skills could be broad headings, with experience and achievements listed under each, then your employment history. If your new career is not too different from your previous one, you could even use a standard chronological format, angling the details to match the requirements of the new role (without stretching the truth).

Adding a profile can help you outline broad strengths such as management or leadership experience. You can follow this with a key results section to illustrate those strengths, or leave your achievements in your work history section. You can label CV sections as you find appropriate or even include new ones. For example, adding relevant civic or community service, ongoing education or leadership sections can help you stand out.

Pay attention to language

Don't use industry-specific jargon that might not be understood in a different sector. Consider including an explanatory sentence next to job titles.

Include a cover letter

This is the ideal opportunity to explain your career change and highlight what you bring to the role or company.

Suggested layout for a career-change CV

Name/contact details (plus LinkedIn url)

The role you're applying for as the title of your CV

Profile (summarising your strengths and value)

(Optional) extras such as community or voluntary work, professional qualifications, testimonials, and so on.

Skills/areas of expertise followed by work history

Educational history

 Source : http://careers.guardian.co.uk/writing-a-cv-changing-career

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