Changing Careers? 7 Details to Include on Your Resume

Have you been considering a change in your career path? If so, you’re not alone. The average American worker changes jobs about a dozen times over the course of their working years, and those job changes often involve significant career switches. 

To make the most of your job search efforts, you need to make sure that you have a career change resume that can showcase your unique talents and experience and help your resume stand out from the competition. 

How to write a career change resume

Career change resumes are usually a little different than the standard reverse chronological resume most job seekers rely on for job search success. Since you’ll likely need to focus on transferable skills to demonstrate your qualifications, it’s usually a good idea to use a combination format that allows you to emphasize those key abilities. 

Here’s how to create a stellar resume for a career change:

Begin with a summary statement

This brief resume summary should highlight your experience and most relevant skills, as well as a major achievement that demonstrates your potential value to a new employer. It could also be beneficial to include a sentence that helps the employer understand why you’re interested in a career change. For example:

Customer-focused marketing professional with more than 10 years of experience in creative copywriting, client account management, and market share development. Leverage superior communication, organization, and team-building skills in sales management. Proven results with average 39% improvement in market expansion for client campaigns.

Highlight transferable skills

Next, you should create a section that focuses on your key skills – including important transferable skills. You should review the job description for the position you’re seeking to help you match your skills to the role’s qualifications. You can either use a list of skills separated by  commas, or list the most important skills and add bullet point examples of how you’ve used those skills in your previous jobs. For example:

• Skill #1

• Skill #2

• Skill #3

• Skill #4

• Skill #5

• Skill #6

• Skill #7

• Skill #8

• Skill #9

Add a work experience section

Your work experience section should be included after your skill section. Here, you only need to include the most relevant positions – jobs in which you used relevant transferable skills, and positions that involved responsibilities similar to your desired role. You can use a simple format for these job listings. For example:

Job Title, Dates of Employment

Company Name, City and State

• Quantifiable achievement #1

• Quantifiable achievement #2

• Quantifiable achievement #3

• Quantifiable achievement #4

List your educational credentials

In your educational section, you should include information about your degree, relevant coursework, and certificates or other key academic accomplishments.

Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Marketing | University of Iowa, 2008-2012

• Relevant Coursework: Sales and Consumer Behavior, Strategic Management, Social Media Strategy, Digital Analytics, Global Business Economies

Include relevant projects and achievements

You may also want to include a section devoted to relevant projects, volunteer work, and notable achievements that showcase your abilities. Again, focus only on achievements and projects that demonstrate your qualifications for the job you’re seeking.

Key details to emphasize in your career change resume

With those important career change resume steps in mind, it’s time to consider some key details that you should focus on as you’re crafting your new resume.

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1.      Make sure your goals are clear

When you’re developing your summary, skills, and experience section, try to make your career goals as clear as possible. By focusing on transferable skills and experiences, you can help the employer identify your qualifications and demonstrate your commitment to success in your new career path.

2.      Quantify your achievements

Wherever possible, use numbers when you’re listing employment accomplishment examples. This helps quantify your contributions in a way that employers can easily understand. It also demonstrates that you understand how your work adds value to your company’s bottom line.

3.      Separate yourself from the competition

Always focus on highlighting the things that make you different from other candidates. Include skills that showcase your adaptability and ability to learn. Remember to emphasize your qualifications and other key traits that make you the best candidate for the job.

4.      Include relevant keywords

Many companies now rely on applicant tracking systems to screen resumes. To get past the ATS, your resume needs to be optimized for the keywords those machines will be looking for in their scans. You can find relevant keywords by searching the job posting. Try to identify skill descriptions and other qualification-related words and phrases and then include them in various sections of your resume.

5.      Use consistent formatting

There are an endless number of formats people choose for their resumes. The key is to be consistent with details like capitalization, numbers, dates, and abbreviations. For example, if you spell out a state in one job role, don't abbreviate it in another. A resume that has consistent formatting and is free of grammatical errors will look more polished and professional.

6.      Always include your most recent job experience

While you should try to limit your work experience to only the most relevant positions, it’s important to include some details about your current or most recent employment. Most employers will focus their attention on that recent work, so make sure that you highlight relevant responsibilities, skills, and achievements that have some relevance to the job you’re seeking.

7.      Focus on demonstrating value

Make sure that your entire career change resume is focused on showcasing your potential value as an employee. Use your summary statement, work experience, and education sections to highlight your unique value proposition for employers by focusing on those transferable skills and quantifiable achievements.

Optimize your career change resume for job search success

Changing careers isn’t always as easy as it sounds, but you can increase your chances for success by crafting a resume that tells the right story to employers. By focusing on transferable skills, relevant experience and achievements, and the right resume format, your career change resume can help you demonstrate your qualifications and differentiate yourself from the competition!

Are you still not sure whether your career change resume has what it takes to attract an employer’s attention? Get your free resume review from our team of experts today to start your career change the right way.