How Can We Edit Resumes For A Career Change? 7 Steps

If you are looking to make a major career change in your life, you might have all the questions rising in your mind. One of the major ones will be how to pull it off in CVs. Whether you’re a law enforcement officer who is looking to pursue an IT career or a high school teacher dreaming of becoming a pastry chef.

This might be because different fields may offer better benefits as well. Some of the benefits include more opportunities for advancement or a better work-life balance. There is no harm in doing so, but one of the biggest mistakes career changers often make is reusing their old resumes. The old resumes are tailored to the very career you want to get out of! It highlights all the skills and accomplishments that are not relevant to the job you are moving. Then what happens? The hiring managers think that you are not a good fit for this new career, role, or industry.

How to update your resume for a career change

When you are switching careers, you must make changes to your skills. Make sure your resume highlights the skills that will help you break into your new career or industry. For this, you can ask for help from top CV editing services UAE. These services will help and guide you in the best way.

Here are some of the steps that you should follow when writing a resume so that you get hired, even without direct experience in your new target field.

Use a combination resume format

Using this resume format is ideal for changing careers. This is because it allows you to prioritize your relevant and transferable skills over experience. This directly addresses the main challenge of changing careers. For instance, you might not have enough or any traditional employment experience in the new field.

A combination of the functional and chronological resume formats will highlight the skills and achievements sections first. Followed by chronological work experience. Follow this order to attract the hiring manager:

• Contact information
• Resume objective
• Skills Summary
• Course/Certification
• Work experience
• Education

Include a resume summary or objective

Adding an objective is essential because it quickly summarizes your skills and experience. This will save the time of the employer who is reviewing your resume. Placing the objective or summary section directly below the contact details is the best choice. 

The skills and qualifications you will include in this section must be relevant to the job you are applying. Be brief but specific about these skills. You can elaborate on them in the skill section. Here, a question may arise in your mind, which skills to add? Add your skills after reviewing the job description. Use those keywords that employers have included to describe the ideal candidate. You can include any certificates or your transferable industry knowledge in this section. In this way, you can grab the attention of the employer as your resume is relevant to the requirements.

Add a skills section

This section should be immediately followed after the objective section. The skill section is often the most prominent section of the CV. Here, you can expand your skills, which are briefly discussed in the summary section. Like the previous part, here, the skills should align with the job description.

You can add both soft and hard skills. However, you need to prioritize the required or desired hard skills. Hard skills include technical, job-specific skills that can be easily taught. Studies have shown that people learn these skills in formal settings. Add these hard skills to your resume, portraying to your employer that you are developing them. This will increase your chances of making it through the company. Even if you don’t have these skills, you will show the hiring team that you are actively working on them.

Soft skills can be developed in a wide variety of settings. They are linked to your interpersonal and individual success. Some of them are communication, work ethics, motivation, and the ability to handle pressure. Add them to your resume even if they are not mentioned in the job description.

Showcase certifications/courses

This part of the resume is a turning point for you. If you have obtained a certificate or taken any relevant courses to develop skills that align with your new job, showcase them. This will worldly tell the employers that even though you may not have hands-on experience in the field you’re pursuing, you have still taken steps to gain the fundamentals or get certified.

You can even add a dedicated certifications or courses section and all those documents that you wish in this section.  

Revise your professional experience

Cover letters are even essential part of your resume. Search for cover letter writing help online to design the best cover for your CV. Moreover, you should revise your professional experience in the CV. The best way to revise your employment section is to add bullet points. This will highlight transferable skills that are relevant to your new career. The employers will change their focus to the skills you have in your career rather than your job duties. This way, you can get the most out of your employment section by highlighting skills that an employer in your new field would find appealing. For instance, if you are a teacher and wish to change fields and apply for a data associate position working on a voice-operated human interface device, This is something new, and the job would be more technology-focused than what you used to do. As you were a teacher previously, you had strong grammar and communication skills. This is something that will align with the new job description. 

Include projects

When you add personal or professional projects to your resume, your employer will come to know about the hands-on experience you had with the relevant job skills. For instance, if you have completed a side project from past work experience that used the skills relevant to this job. This will be a positive point in your resume.

Follow these steps to format your project section:

• Project name, role, date
• A brief description of the project
• Describe your experience
• Conclude with a recap of the skills you utilized.

Update your education

Revising your education section will help you. Your college’s major and minor might be more relevant to your original field, but you still have taken different classes that are not the same as the major or minor. If these classes are relevant to your new career, you can indicate it in this part. For instance, in university, you might have conducted research and written down your thesis. This is an edge that might not be reflected in your previous job description. But this skill might be required in your new job. The best idea is to provide bullet points after each educational listing to indicate your relevant transferable skills.

FAQs

How can a new person justify the career change?

Justifying career change is not a daunting task. You can easily do this by:

• Knowing your value
• Show your skills smartly
• Highlight your strengths
• Be adaptable

How can we write a resume when we are changing careers?

The best idea is to write the resume in reverse chronological order. Add your recent job at the top, followed by other work experiences. You don’t need to add all the experiences to your CVs. No need to highlight your junior positions or irrelevant skills. Highlight only those skills that are required for the role.

The final thought

After reading through the complete blog, you might have concluded that changing careers is nothing new. People often do this. This is because they find more value in a new career than in their previous job. The tip is to just make changes in your resume.

Follow these steps: design your resume in chronological order, add certificates that align with the new job description, and use many other tricks to make changes to your CV and get hired by the new company with the new position.