Career Tools - Your Career Change CV

Preparing a Career Change CV

When making a big career change, it can often be difficult to re-write your CV in way that appeals to a completely different industry to the one you’ve been working in. However, lots of people make the jump successfully – it may tough but it’s not impossible. If you’re looking to make an impression in a new field then the steps below will help to create a CV that will get your foot in the door.

Highlight transferable skills

The main disadvantage you will face when changing career is likely to be your lack of experience within the industry that you are trying to break in to. But it’s quite likely that you’ve picked up lots of skills and knowledge in your current and previous roles that could be applied to your new chosen line of work. Do some research into the most sought after skills in that field (this can be done from simply looking through job adverts) and make a list of those skills which relate to work that you have done in the past. When writing your CV; highlight those skills as much as possible throughout the CV to make yourself a more attractive prospect to your new sought-after employers.

Do some voluntary work

Nobody likes to work for nothing but if you can pick up some experience in your desired field and make some contacts; then voluntary work can be absolutely invaluable to you. Simply contact relevant firms and offer your services free of charge (you can offer on a part time or even remote working basis to work around your current commitments). Most businesses (especially small businesses) will jump at the chance of having an unpaid volunteer. You may not find yourself performing the most glamorous or exciting jobs on offer but you’ll get a great insight into how the industry works, build some good relationships… and best of all, you can add the work experience to your CV.

Cut down on irrelevant details

You probably have a wealth of achievements from your current career but you won’t need to include them all when writing a career change CV – Some of them just won’t matter to your new target employers. So try to cut down or summarise some of the less relevant details to make room for more transferable skills that are more likely to impress.

State your intention

When moving into a new industry you need to make it very clear that you are serious about making a change otherwise your CV could just be dismissed as instantly unsuitable, or even an erroneous application. Make sure you include details about the field you are looking to move into along and your reasons why, both at the top of your CV and in your cover note.

Author: Andrew Fennell is the Director of London based CV Writing Service - StandOut CV