How to Write a Career Change Resume? A Comprehensive Guide

Starting a new career is an exhilarating journey, but one that comes with many challenges. One of the most difficult challenges is persuading a hiring manager in a new field that you are capable of succeeding when your history of work is not necessarily “the obvious fit”.

It is there that you hold a carefully crafted career change resume in your hands, which is your most powerful weapon. You can tell your story, you can connect the dots for recruiters, and you can prove that your atypical experience, training, and background serve to benefit you in the new career rather than be viewed as a detriment.

This tutorial is meant to take you through everything you need to know about how to write a career change resume, from the strategy portion to the nitty-gritty details of wording and formatting. We will cover how to frame your experience, what to write in your summary, and how to make sure your resume gets past the gatekeepers and into the hands of an actual person.

How to Write a Resume for a Career Change

If you’re thinking about transitioning into a new career, then a standard chronological resume may not be appropriate. It’s a time to think like a marketer, you are the product, and the hiring manager in your presumably new industry is your customer.

Each of your resume sections must tell them what they care about, speak their language, meet their requirements, include your transferable skills, accomplishments, make sense, etc., and that they can also follow your perception of how you are transitioning into a different career.

You might use something like a Resume checker to ensure that you are following the conventional format before personalizing the content.

Resume Summary for a Career Change

Ditch the traditional objective statement. A resume summary for career change is your introduction – your elevator pitch in 30 seconds or less. This brief paragraph at the start of your resume should immediately convey who you are, what you have accomplished in your career to date, and what you would like to do next, and evidence as to why.

An excellent summary can grab the attention of the reader and set the stage for the rest of your resume. 

What to put in a career change summary: 

• An impactful opening statement: You should open the summary with a compelling adjective that describes your professional self. 
• Years of relevant experience: Even if it is from another industry, this is where you should highlight how many years you have been in a professional realm. 
• Top 3 transferable skills: You are able to indicate two (2) to three (3) of your top skills that are relevant to the new role you are pursuing. 
• Career Goal: Clearly indicate, but briefly, what kind of role you are pursuing.

Here is an example for career change resume: 

Highly motivated and results-oriented professional with over 10 years managing projects and client relations in a fast-paced hospitality environment. Successful in leading cross-functional teams, managing complex projects from initiation to completion, and always exceeding client expectations. Eager to leverage these transferable skills to transition into a project coordinator role within the technology industry.

Resume Objective for a Career Change

A resume objective is normally not preferred, but there may be occasions where a resume objective might be useful, especially when you have little career experience or have made an extreme career change, because it is not purely a retrospective record but look forward to your career aspirations. A resume objective for career change is about your career aspirations. 

If you believe that an objective is necessary, it must be short and simple regarding the job. The objective illustrates your motivations and enthusiasm for the new career while making a great first impression to suggest that you will be a competitive employee for the same job as other career changers.

Here is an example:

A diligent and detail-oriented professional with a strong skillset in data analysis and a recent certification in UX design. Eager to apply a strong grasp of user-centered design principles and desire to create intuitive and compelling digital experiences to a junior UX designer role at [Company Name].

Spotlight Your Transferable Skills Up Front

As a career changer, your transferable skills are your currency. Transferable skills are the skills that you developed in past jobs, which are applicable to your target industry. Break it down into skills like:

• Communications (both written and verbal)
• Project Management
• Leadership and Collaboration
• Problem Solving and Critical Thinking
• Data collection and analysis
• Client Relationship Management
• Budgeting / Financial Management and Budgeting

Instead of burying these in your past job descriptions, just give them their own section for “Skills” or “Areas of Expertise” right below your summary. This lets the hiring manager know immediately that you have the basic skills to be successful.

Craft a Targeted Career Summary That Frames Your Transition

I have talked about the summary again, but again, it needs to be stated here due to its importance. A summary is not the place for waffly statements. The summary must be a short, personalized story covering the career transition. Use this area to help the reader understand the transition.

It is helpful to give the reader an idea of how your past life has led you to this new course. A compelling summary can be the difference between a confused recruiter and an interested one.

Reorganize Experience by Relevance, Not Chronology

If the most recent job on your chronological resume for a career change is the least relevant to your new career path, it will not help you while your resume works against you. Consider using a combination or functional resume for a career change to showcase your skills or qualifications. A combination resume includes a summary and skills section on top and you define your “Relevant Experience” section by placing your most relevant jobs from the last 15 years or so.

You pick what jobs are most relevant – it could be jobs you held in 2002. A functional resume for a career change is more restrictive – where you place your experience under topic headings. You could use a short heading about your experience like “Project Management Experience” or “Marketing and Communications Experience.” A functional format is great for those who have gaps in their career or variety of work experiences.

Translate Past Achievements Into New-Industry Value

Rather than just listing your job duties, think about what you actually accomplished, and as much as

realistically possible, quantify those accomplishments. This is especially vexing for a change-of-career resume for a career change,

because in addition to having to show (not just tell) your impact, you’ll have to translate those achievements (as you’ve described them) into the lingo of your new industry and format it for a wider audience.

For example, you may have said:

Managed the hotel’s front desk.

and instead, you could say:

Streamlined front desk operations resulting in guest check-in time decreasing by 15% and an increase of 10% in positive guest reviews.

Viewing your accomplishments through this lens shows you have a track record for improving processes, resulting in positive impacts wherever you go; skills that can be applicable everywhere.

Showcase Continuous Learning and Certifications

If you are changing careers, you have to show that you are serious about the change. You have to show that you are taking the right steps to gain some familiarity with your new field. An “Education and Certifications” section is just the way to help you have documentation of your knowledge and efforts. Include:

• Relevant coursework: Even if you have not finished a degree, don’t let that stop you from listing the relevant classes you have taken. 
• Certifications: On career change resumes, certifications are a gold mine. Certifications show that you took the time and initiative to attend and complete certification classes and that you are serious about your new career. 
• Workshops and seminars: Also, if you’ve had professional development that is related or relevant to a new career, include that too.

Use Strategic Keywords to Pass ATS and Impress Recruiters

Numerous organizations utilize Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to electronically sort or slice resumes before they are physically read by a person. Applicant Tracking Systems can run through thousands of resumes and search for keywords that match the job description. If you wish for your resume to surpass the ATS, you will need to optimize your resume or your keyword strategy to get through the ATS.

There are 3 steps to do this: 

Step 1: Analyze the job description: Read the job description carefully. Find the critical skills, qualifications, and responsibilities.

Step 2: Insert keywords, organically: Insert those keywords throughout your resume as you write each section of the resume, most importantly in the summary, skills, or experience descriptions.

Step 3: Use a Resume Parser: A Resume Parser is another tool to show how an ATS may parse your resume. It may also help you discover any sections of your resume that need improvement. For peace of mind, use the Best Ats Resume Checker to maximize your resume’s full potential.

Embrace a Hybrid Resume Format

If you are like most people making a job transition, your best choice is going to be a hybrid, or combination, resume format. A hybrid resume allows you to highlight your strengths, your transferable skills, and summary, while still being able to outline your chronological experience that most recruiters prefer to see. A hybrid format generally has the following sections:

• Contact Information
• Resume Summary
• Skills section
• Relevant Experience
• Additional Experience
• Education and Certifications

A hybrid resume allows you to focus on your relevance to what is likely to be most important for your new career, while still being professional and straight to the point.

Tell a Compelling Story with Your Cover Letter

Your resumé provides a summary of what you can do (and have done), while your cover letter provides the narrative of your story. A strong cover letter can animate your career change resumé. You need to think of your cover letter as an important element of your career change resumé, which does several things for you: 

• Explain your “why”: Why are you changing careers? What excites you about this new career field and organization? 
• Connect the dots: Make explicit the connections between your previous experiences and the requirements of the new role.
• Share your personality: Share your excitement and let your personality shine through.

Conclusion: Writing a resume for a career change

Writing a resume for a career change means a completely new mindset, because now you are no longer writing for the past, but you are writing for the potential future.

You are making the argument for a career you would like to have. You can prepare a good career change resume by focusing on your transferable skills, building a narrative from your past job and the position you desire, and by presenting your resume strategically. Above all, you have to be patient, persistent, and have faith in the worth you have to offer that is unique to you.

Common Questions About Career Change Resume