How to Present a Career Change on your Resume
Approaching a job search when you know you are pivoting into a new role or industry can feel overwhelming. Presenting a career change on your resume definitely requires a little finesse but it’s totally a solvable problem!
Scroll down and check out my best tips for tailoring your resume to a career change. I’ve also included a personal example of when I used the same tips in this post for my own industry pivot.
Why Tailoring your Resume for a Career Change is Crucial
Before we dive in, I’d like to quickly highlight why taking the time to tailor your resume to a career change is important. According to Indeed, hiring managers spend on average 6 to 7 seconds reviewing a resume. That’s not much time! Especially if they’re not seeing anything of relevance to the job they’re interviewing for.
The main goal of tailoring your resume for a career pivot is to make your resume relevant for the job you’re applying for. While it might take more time up front, your chances of catching the hiring manager’s eye will be much higher. This is a situation where quality will definitely pay off.
Key steps to preparing your resume for a career change:
Below are my top 5 recommendations when updating your resume for a career change. I used all of these steps when pivoting from a role in healthcare quality to project management.
1. Consider a functional resume format
I’m starting with this recommendation right off the bat because it may change how you work on the rest of the steps. A functional resume is a format that highlights work experience by skills and abilities, rather than work experience by role.
Your brain might be a little jumbled with this idea so I will break it down. Rather than organizing your accomplishments/experience under each role, you would instead organize the same information under skill or ability.
The skill or ability would be something critical of the role you’re applying for. Here is an example of an actual resume I used to land a job in 2020. Some information has been changed for privacy and I’ve left the Education/Certifications and Hard Skills sections out of this image.
The role I was in for the prior 4 years was in a different industry than the job I was applying for. I wanted the hiring manager to focus on the value I had to offer vs. what I was doing in the time leading up to applying.
2. Create a strong resume summary
My next tip is to craft a compelling summary at the top of your resume that highlights what you have to offer. Show off the goods!
This brief summary will pull out the relevant work experience and skills you want to highlight for the new role. Tell them why they should read through the rest of your resume. Bonus points here if you are able to incorporate keywords from the job description of the role you are applying for.
3. Highlight transferrable skills
Another critical step in making yourself marketable to a new role, is highlighting skills that will transfer well to the new role. This is where a functional resume format can come in handy.
Let’s use the example from above of my transition from working in the automotive industry back into healthcare. I chose to highlight ‘written & verbal communication’. This is an example of a transferable skill.
I pulled out examples from previous work experience where I was required to use written & verbal communication to accomplish an objective. I carefully selected the examples I used to highlight experience/terms that overlapped with the job description of the role I was applying for (see more on framing experience below).
4. Frame previous job experience to highlight relevant skills
Alright, I’m just going to state the (hopefully) obvious- your potential new employer does not care about the things you are doing at your current job that are unrelated to the role you are applying for. Don’t take up precious real estate on your resume with irrelevant things (even if they are impressive to someone).
My recommendation here is to brain dump all of the work experience you have. (Side note- I make this easy on myself and keep a “master resume” document updated with all of my work experience by role.) Once you have your list, sift through it to select the things that are relevant to the role you are applying for. Include and highlight those things.
5. Showcase any specific training, experience, certification etc. to support the new role
Lastly, make sure you highlight any effort you have taken to close gaps in skills or work experience. In 2023, I pivoted our of healthcare quality into project management. To prepare for this pivot, I obtained a PMP Certification and wanted to make sure that was clear on my resume. Don’t underestimate how valuable it can be to demonstrate your willingness to learn new skills.
Summary
Pivoting to a new career path can feel overwhelming but it can also be exciting and fun! Whatever “gap” you are feeling, just remember that it is likely a gap you can bridge. I’m rooting for you. 
Still have questions? Drop them in the comments below!
