Career Changers: Guide to Resume Writing

If you are considering a career change, your resume can feel like a barrier to geng an interview. But that

doesn’t need to be true! Much (if not all) of your experience is transferrable and useful, if presented in the

right way. Here are some steps for strategically revamping your resume:

STEP 1: What do they want?

While there are obstacles for any career changer, you can tackle them by re-packaging your experiences and

skills on your resume to address the audience’s needs. This requires some audience analysis.

Make a list of what the company is looking for using these three “audience analysis” techniques:

1. Review the job descripon:

This is true for any job seeker, but even more so for a career changer. Write down the obvious things that

the company is looking for (qualicaons secon) but also read between the lines in the job dues and

write down things you think they would desire from the person in that role.

2. Review the company website:

Look at the company’s mission statement, values, recent press releases and other job descripons. What

are some common threads you noce? This will help you target your resume and cover leer.

3. Speak to people within the organizaon:

Not only will this give you an inside scoop as to what the organizaon looks for and how to approach your

resume, but it will build your professional network!

STEP 2: How do you meet those needs?

A person making a lateral move or seeking a promoon within the same eld has an easier me

communicang how they meet the recruiter’s needs, but that doesn’t mean they are a beer t than you!

Using the following techniques will help you communicate why you bring a unique skill set and sll meet the

criteria for the job.

Use the list you made above to implement the following strategies on your resume:

1. Transferable skills

Transferable skills are skills you have acquired during any acvity in your life—jobs, classes, projects,

hobbies, volunteering, virtually anything—that are transferable and applicable to what you want to do in

your next job. Transferable skills are important for the career changer because many of your

qualicaons may not be from your work experience but from other facets of your life (volunteer

experience, personal accomplishments, educaon, etc.). Using the job descripon, pull out various skills

that you believe you have and then generate examples of mes you have demonstrated these abilies in

your life.

2. Keywords

Keywords are important because many organizaons are now using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to

lter through resumes. An ATS will throw out resumes that do not have enough keywords in common

with what they are looking for. This can be the biggest hurdle for career changers because your resume

may not naturally contain the right keywords. But you can work with the system and not against it by

seeking out these keywords and including them in your resume.

An eecve way to come up with keywords is to look at the job descripon and highlight words –

specically those words that are more technical in nature (specic soware, industry-specic knowledge,

etc.). Then include them in your resume if you can do so while remaining honest about your experiences

and skills. Here is an example of a job descripon with the keywords highlighted:

3. Strategic organizaon

Seasoned professionals oen order the secons of their resume with work experience on top followed by

educaon and cercaons and then volunteer or leadership experience. This order can cause some of the most

relevant experiences to end up on the second page and hidden from the recruiter. For example, If you are

transioning from higher educaon administraon to counseling and you earned a license in Marriage and Family

Therapy, don’t force yourself to sck to the “typical” organizaon of a resume. Put your license on the top! Ulize

an order that demonstrates you are the best person for the job.

4. Markeng using resume format

While a resume should always contain honest informaon, formang can drascally change the way this

informaon is communicated and perceived. Any of the following formats can work for career changers as long as

it is used strategically:

 Chronological – Experiences are listed in the order in which they happened; most recent to oldest. This

format is generally used by applicants with extensive related experience, or for those applying within their

organizaon for a lateral move or promoon. If done well, it can be an eecve format for career changers,

but it is generally not recommended because it highlights experiences not transferable skills.

 Funconal – A funconal resume highlights transferable skills and simply lists work experiences without

addional detail. This format is oen recommended for people with lile to no work experience.

 Combinaon – A combinaon resume is just what it sounds like; a combinaon of the chronological and

funconal formats. Combinaon resumes highlight transferable skills while sll featuring work experience.

STEP 3: Cover Leer

For a career changer, a solid cover leer is vital. Many of the principles introduced here apply to the cover leer, as

well. Please see our handout “Career Changers: Wring an Eecve Cover Leer” for assistance!

Case Study: Career changer from program director to medical sales

Below is an example of a chronological resume. It is chronological because he listed his work experience in

backward chronological order rst, with lile aenon given to transferable skills.

While this is a good resume for a job within the athlec eld, “Jay” came to Career Development wanng to

break into medical sales. This resume would likely be thrown out by a sales recruiter because it provides lile

evidence that Jay could transion well into a sales role. See the next page for Jay’s new resume.

Below is an example of a combinaon resume. It is considered a combinaon resume because it contains

aributes of both a funconal resume (transferable skills listed within the paragraph in the top and the key

knowledge secon) and a chronological resume (the experience secon).

Because Jay thought in-depth about his audience (a medical sales recruiter and/or manager), his new resume

contains many key words and pays special aenon to numbers and measurable results. He did this because

he knew that sales is a very results-driven eld. Jay also used his educaonal background to his advantage by

highlighng knowledge areas that would be pernent to medical sales.