Make your experience count – creating a CV for your career change

It’s a common worry amongst career changers:

I have no experience in my target role, so how can I create a CV that shows me to be a credible candidate?

Writing a highly relevant and compelling CV for your new career is a bit of an art form. This is something you can learn to do well with some focused refinements, so I’ve collected my best advice later in this article.

However, your CV is just one small part of the career change puzzle and is nothing without your own personal clarity on WHY this is the direction for you. When the rationale behind your move is well defined and you’re able to clearly articulate it, you’ll also be able to convey that story in your CV and application documents.

Show the WHY >> demonstrate important values, your deeper purpose, key strengths, driving passions, and motivating interests

Show the HOW >> reveal what led you to this change of direction, what brought you to this organization and this role

A compelling career change CV

The basics

Let’s start with three fundamental CV principles:

1. Your CV needs to answer 3 basic questions for your reader:

Can you do the job?

>> include relevant skills, qualifications, and experience

Will you do the job?

>> demonstrate your record of success across your career

Can we work with you?

>> how well you fit the culture, team and clients

2. Whether changing careers or not, your CV is an adaptable document – never send the same CV to more than one recruiter. Always tailor it to showcase the skills, experience, interests, personal and professional qualities that are most relevant to this role

3. The story behind this vacancy – why is it being advertised and why now?

The more you understand about the advertised role the better equipped you’ll be to address the REAL reason for the vacancy in your application. If you can speak to someone in the same organization, do it. This is best achieved through existing contacts or an introduction, but advertised roles will sometimes carry a contact email address – take advantage of this to gain a clearer idea of what they’re looking for and to start a valuable relationship with an influential professional.

Then use that insider knowledge to emphasize the skills, character or experience that are most pertinent to this opportunity.

The career change edits

I’m assuming that you have an up to date CV that lists your career history, relevant qualifications and training, and demonstrates your main career achievements. This is your starting point.

Use the following advice to adapt this CV to present yourself as a credible candidate for the role you are applying for.

1. Transferable skills

This is one of the most persuasive elements of your CV in showing that you are a strong match for the role, even though your experience is from another sector, field or profession. Start by identifying technical, communication, management, leadership, personal and relationship skills you have developed in previous roles.

Which of these are most relevant to the role you’re applying for? Use the job description and person specification to identify them and scatter them within your work history listings, your profile statement, or in a skills/achievements section if you have one.

The idea is that in a keyword search – whether by human or software eyes – your CV will score high on relevance.

E.g. If one of the requirements for the role is managing client social media accounts, one of the bullet points in your work history might read:

· Managed multiple client social media accounts over three years, resulting in increased rates of customer engagement, satisfaction, and lead generation

2. Your WHY story – purpose, motivations, values

Whether in your CV or accompanying application documents, make it easy for the reader to understand your career story and what has driven this move to a new profession, sector or field.

You might include this rationale as the final part of your profile statement, linking past experience to this opportunity. Enthusiasm and purpose can be conveyed through the tone of your personal statement and for this reason alone it’s worth crafting something that conveys a well-considered and focused move.

Your career change story will also be expanded through relevant hints in entries relating to training, qualifications, projects, responsibilities, interests, hobbies or voluntary and community activity.

An accompanying application statement or letter will allow you to expand and clarify why you are making this change in direction and what in your experience, skills, values, strengths and sense of deeper purpose has led you to this point.

Not all application procedures allow for supporting material, so ensure your CV speaks your relevance and motivation for itself.

3. Personal qualities

Don’t assume the recruiter is only interested in technical expertise. HR teams and leaders are increasingly aware of the value of your character. This can make all the difference to how well you will do the work and fit comfortably and effectively into the team and the organisation.

Qualities like relationship-building, communication, adaptability, collaboration, resilience, and flexibility are finally being seen as vital to successful team performance and productivity.

Covid has highlighted this more than ever with the increased demands on distanced teams to manage their wellbeing, work well together while apart, and remain productive.

Use the person specification for the role to understand the qualities they’re seeking – if these describe you, be sure you have examples in your work history, personal statement, or related experience.

4. The Success Story

This is not the time to hide your successes. Your CV needs to show a record of achievement and learning. Think about the difference YOU made in each role – what did you accomplish that others in the same role couldn’t or didn’t?

It’s essential that you demonstrate what you have achieved in your career so far, whether by listing additional training, how you improved processes, brought about increases (or decreases) related to your specific role, awards won, innovations, collaborations, and regional or national recognition.

Where possible, include quantifiable examples. One format to use is to start with a relevant active verb, show the outcome and how success was measured.

Here’s an example:

· Introduced customer engagement policies resulting in 35% increased retention and 42% increased engagement year on year

You might also include an Achievements section early in your CV to highlight 5-6 specific and most relevant accomplishments to prime further reading through a lens of success. Have a stock of up to 10 and choose the most relevant for each application – this is the power of a tailored CV.

Don’t be over concerned that your achievements so far have been in a different profession or sector. Success is the result of commitment, focus, application and a strong work ethic. These are still with you as you move into your new career and will reassure the reader of your CV that you have a good record behind you and can apply yourself to new challenges.

5. Learning and development, qualifications and involvement

One ‘hidden’ quality that most employers will be scanning your CV for is your ability to learn, develop and progress. When changing career direction, include evidence of learning, professional activity including conferences, reading, memberships, engagement in LinkedIn groups, and professional associations.

Evidence that you have developed your new focus over time, through training, involvement in relevant professional bodies, community organisations or activities will help convey a serious and committed approach to this new venture.

Be sure to include any qualifications earned, conferences attended, or articles written to demonstrate your interest, knowledge and involvement in relevant subject matter. This will help the reader to understand your credibility for this role.

6. Related experience: voluntary, interests, sector, organization

By now I’m guessing you’re on board the tailored CV train. When you start thinking about what you can bring from your reader’s perspective, you’re in a great place to improve your CV. (I’ve written about a ‘helpful’ CV here.)

When you’re changing direction you need to foreground everything you can that enhances your relevance for the role. And yes, that includes activities outside work, which is often where this new direction originated. Include community activities, positions of responsibility, committees, learning, and volunteering – they can all demonstrate relevant:

· Skills

· Knowledge

· Involvement

· Achievement

· Interest

· Commitment

· Personal qualities

They can also build interest and the chance for your reader to relate – or even remember – your CV.

Your previous work history will also attract the right attention when it includes experience gained in related sectors or organisations. Show the links and common ground – think about how you can make that clear to the person reading your CV.

The Interests section comes into its own when you’re changing career direction because it can demonstrate more about your career development and the specific shift towards your new direction. It’s an important element of telling your career story and clarifying the reasons for this change.

On a human level, it’s also more likely to connect with the reader and may even be the starting point for an interview question.

Even if your interests don’t seem directly relevant to the role you’re applying for, they also exhibit something about who you are and therefore help answer the ‘Can we work with you?’ part of the puzzle for the recruiter. A life outside work is recognized as an important part of managing wellbeing, so don’t omit this section.

To sum up:

Anchor to WHY Set time-limited task Reward yourself Boost your energy Chunk down your next goal Inspire yourself Try a new approach Envision the benefots Harness your passion Cross each achievemnt off your list.png

What does your CV really say about you?

When you’ve finished adapting your CV for the role you’re applying for, here’s a final set of questions to ask yourself.

Does this document show you to be someone who:

· Has clearly achieved something over your career

· Is capable of learning, change and adapting

· Is interested in the subject matter of your target role

· Has many of the skills required

· Has linked past experience to the role in question

· Has made it easy for the recruiter to tick off as many personal, professional and technical boxes as possible

· Is professional, committed, hard-working

The alternative is that it merely shows that you have stayed in several jobs over a number of years without any evidence of success, interest or development. (Not the way to stand out.)