How To Write A Successful Career Change Resume (With Examples)

So you’ve decided to change jobs. After all, the average salary increase when making the switch is 14.8% (the wage growth while staying put is only 5.8%).

Of course, to land that high-paying new job, you’ll need a successful resume. This is especially true in a career change situation, where you’ll have to compete with more experienced applicants.

In many ways, your resume is like your first interview, as it will provide a crucial introduction and first impression to a hiring manager. Knowing that it’s easy to see why nailing it is your first and potentially last opportunity to outline what makes you an ideal candidate.

So how do you make a career change resume impressive and successful?

In general, you’ll want to showcase your accomplishments, skills, and qualifications without sacrificing readability. Odds are, if you’re changing careers, you’ve got some specialized and high-quality skills that should take the forefront, but it’s still important that you include whatever you feel makes you a more attractive candidate.

Fortunately, this article will discuss what makes a successful career change resume, as well as provide examples and other valuable tips.

The Basics: What You Should Include in a Career Change Resume

We know you know the rodeo, but it’s always good to get a refresher. Just in case you don’t have access to one of your old resumes, it’s good to know how to start from scratch.

First and foremost, never underestimate the power of a good resume summary. Regardless of how much experience you’ll have in your new field, a clever resume summary will still pull the hiring manager in. That way, you can avoid being added to the discard pile.

Here are some other crucial elements to include in your resume:

• Contact information. What good in any job application if the employer doesn’t know how to reply to you? When writing your resume, always be sure to include your full legal name, email, phone number, and other relevant contact information at the top of the page. This will ensure that the employer has several methods of contacting you.

• Accomplishments. Briefly mention what makes you the best candidate for the job. Employers love a simple outline of your accomplishments because it’s fast and easy to read.

• Highest level of education. Often, one of your best ways of landing a job you don’t have experience for is through your education.

  Regardless of whether you only graduated high school or have a Master’s Degree, you should include any relevant classes you’ve taken, your major, your GPA (if sufficient), and any other educational achievements you can think of.

• Prior work experience. Whether or not your current career is relevant to the new one you’re after, be sure to include information about it. Briefly mention what you do and a few of your accomplishments (preferably in bullet notes). If you can make your experience and accomplishments relevant to the new career, even better.

• Volunteer work and other activities. Similarly to work experience, it can be valuable to include any volunteer work you’ve done. For instance, if you’ve volunteered at an animal shelter, school, homeless shelter, or food bank, employers will be interested in your ability to serve your community.

• Personal projects. If you’ve ever had your own small business or made something that’s relevant for the job you’re applying to, you can include that in your resume. For example, if you started up an Etsy shop last year and are starting to turn a profit, that experience will show your employers that you can be a creative, savvy business owner.

• Relevant skills and qualifications. Overall, the more relevant skills and qualifications you can include in your resume, the better. From personality traits to languages and computer programs to medical certifications. Think of anything useful you can add.

• Keywords. Hiring managers typically don’t have a lot of time to review your resume, so including keywords can be an easy way to catch their eye. When you read a job description, be sure to analyze the position requirements so you can use similar language in your resume.

  For example, if there’s a position that requires you to have experience using Microsoft Word, you should mention that you have experience using Microsoft Word in your resume.

How to Edit and Update Your Old Resume

Now you might be thinking, “well, I already have a resume,” and while that is a good thing, you should still make some changes. After all, you may have a lot to update if you haven’t touched your old resume in a while. That’s why it’s important to review the entire document, even if you were satisfied with it in the past.

When it comes to revising your old resume, here are our top tips:

• Specialize your intro. Changing careers means you might have to hone in on a different skill set. Do so effectively. It’s a good idea to alter your intro. For instance, if you’re moving to a career that requires more interpersonal skills, you can edit your intro to include a sentence about your ability to communicate.

• Update job descriptions. If you have a new, impressive accomplishment to include, you should add it to your job description. This is also a good time to refresh the dates and times you have listed for your current job.

• Add relevant skills. You might be surprised to learn that less can be more. If you find that you have a lot of skills listed that are completely irrelevant to your career change, you should update them. Only focus on the skills that will show promise to a potential employer.

• Cut out unnecessary info. While you’re updating job descriptions, you should look over some of your older jobs and remove anything that seems outdated or irrelevant. That also goes for anything else on your resume.

• Spelling and grammar. You’d be surprised what you can miss. Re-read your old resume and keep an eye out for spelling and grammar issues. Plus, if you feel like you can improve the wording of a sentence or two, go for it.

What Hiring Managers Are Looking for on a Career Change Resume

Now that you know what to include in your resume, it’s also important to cater to your key achievements and experiences to fit what potential employers will be looking for.

In general, being able to base the information in your resume around what a hiring manager wants to hear will bring you one step closer to landing the position. Just think of it as looking at things from their perspective.

One of the biggest frustrations when making a career change is beating out the competition that has years of experience in the field. To do so, you’ll need to know what the hiring manager is looking for.

With that in mind, here are some of the major things that will catch a hiring manager’s eye:

• Readability. Hiring managers are busy people, and therefore, they don’t have endless time to review your resume. Typically, the average employer only spends less than ten seconds reviewing your resume, so making all of your key points easy to read can be a crucial part of making anything stick.

  When in doubt, use keywords, stick to streamlined formatting and keep your word count low.

• Positivity. While there are several personality traits employers look out for, positivity is one of the most important ones. Your ability to make light of any situation, stay motivated, and bring good vibes to the workplace cannot be understated.

  Try to radiate positivity when you craft your sentences, so the employer will sense that you’d have that same energy in the workplace.

• Leadership and Teamwork. While leadership and teamwork may seem like opposing forces, having both is a crucial part of any workplace. When possible, use examples to outline why you’re an effective leader and a thoughtful team player. Generally speaking, these two skills come down to confidence and adept communication.

• Relevancy. If you’re applying to a new career, employers want to know why exactly you applied in the first place. Show why you’re interested in the position and include as many relevant skills, experiences, and qualifications as possible.

How to Structure a Career Change Resume

When you begin writing or updating your resume, you should try your best to perfect the formatting. As mentioned previously, be sure to list your contact information at the top of the page, and then a brief summary about yourself. The more you can specialize your intro for the career change, the better.

As you may know, resumes are split up into sections to make them more digestible. Common sections include:

• Summary

• Accomplishments

• Skills

• Experience Highlights

• Education

• Certifications or Projects

While you can add more sections if you choose, you should be mindful of your resume’s length and readability. Another effective way to maintain flow is to organize the information in your sections as bullet notes, so any employer can simply take a glance and receive all the information they need. Any section written in sentences should be no more than a short paragraph.

If you’re looking over an old resume and you notice a lot of blocky paragraphs or long-winded descriptions, find ways to trim those sections down.

Remember that as a professional document, your resume should also pull from a group of acceptable font types, which are sized and spaced appropriately. If you don’t know or don’t remember, here is a list of ten potential fonts you can use:

• Arial

• Calibri

• Corbel

• Garamond

• Georgia

• Gill Sans

• Helvetica

• Open Sans

• Roboto

• Times New Roman

Overall, pay attention to the simplicity of the style. If a font seems simple and easy to read, it is probably acceptable. Simple fonts are preferred in part because heavily stylized fonts might be difficult for someone to read, and ideally, the reader should be able to skim the most important information from your resume quickly and efficiently.

After you select a font, you should choose your font size based on the same logic as the font type. Therefore, select the smallest size that is still easily readable — typically between ten and 12. The font type you chose may alter the size slightly, but be sure to avoid oversizing your font, as your resume may appear unprofessional.

When in doubt, don’t go overboard. Keep everything simple, and to the point so you can retain the employer’s attention.

Career Change Resume Examples

Put together, all of these tips culminate in creating easy-to-read, relevant, and effective resumes. Here are a few examples:

1. From In-Home Caregiver to Teacher resume.

   Jane Hindsdale

   ---

   Portland, ME 04101
   Cell: (555) 555-5555
   [email protected]

   Summary

   Experienced State Employee with nearly six years of In-Home Caretaking experience. HCC graduate with a degree in Early Childhood Education. Enthusiastic and hard worker with unparalleled devotion to assignments, tasks, and clients. Complimented by adept communication and patience gained from years of caretaking and customer service experience.

   Accomplishments

   • Has managed four different individuals with mental developmental disabilities while alone on shifts, keeping everyone on schedule and taking care of.

   • Successfully de-escalated a situation where a client intended to harm himself through adept and careful communication skills.

   • Decreased food costs by 25% using effective meal plans, grocery lists, and staff scheduling.

   • Increased client’s abilities to complete tasks on time by 40% through communication and organization initiatives.

   Skills

   • De-escalation

   • Communication

   • Babysitting

   • Critical thinking

   • Patience

   • Caretaking

   • Microsoft Word and Office

   • Problem-Solving

   • Customer Service

   • Team Leadership

   • Extremely organized

   • Time management

   • Ability to Work Under Pressure

   Work History

   Developmental Service Worker, 09/2015 to Current

   State of Maine (DDS Portland Service Group) — Portland, ME 04101

   • Responsible for managing four individuals with mental developmental disabilities.

   • Provides individuals with engaging educational activities and community integration services.

   • Organizes and conducts effective group activities that keep everyone engaged.

   • Maintains the community living space through cleaning, organizing, and performing other related tasks.

   • De-escalates arguments and other potentially harmful situations through adept communication.

   Babysitter, 09/2017 to Current

   Care.com — Portland, ME 04101

   • Has successfully cared for over 50 different children between the ages of three to 12.

   • Has aided in homeschooling lessons to help children and parents achieve their goals.

   • Organizes activities to keep children entertained and engaged.

   • Compiles daily reports for parents to review and for effective communication purposes.

   Waitress, 03/2014 to 12/2015

   Smokey’s Pub N’ Grill — Portland, ME 04101

   • Provided professional and positive customer service at registers and on the sales floor.

   • Mediated interpersonal difficulties between store managers and customers.

   • Checked and counted inventory.

   Education

   Bachelor of Education: Early Childhood, Graduated

   University of Maine – Portland, ME 04101

   Final Project:

   • Served as a TA in a kindergarten class for three months. Successfully created presentations and worked as a team with the teacher to conduct group activities.

   • Wrote a thesis about attention and childhood development, with an emphasis on how to keep children with disabilities engaged.

   High School Diploma: General Studies

   Portland High School – Portland, ME 04101

   Distinctions

   • Passed EAS test

   • MAP Certified

   • CPR Certified

   • ME State Driver’s License

   • American Red Cross Babysitting Certification

2. From Graphic Designer to Web Designer.

   James Parker

   ---

   Pittsfield, MA 01201
   Cell: (555) 555-5555
   [email protected]

   Summary

   Creative and results-driven Graphic Designer looking to bring those skills to the web. Exceptionally strong work ethic outlined by a 98% customer service and satisfaction record. Adaptable worker with the ability to function well independently and effectively coordinate within a team of other professionals.

   Accomplishments

   • Has successfully used Canva, Photoshop, and Flash to complete over 150 projects for clients.

   • Earned a 98% customer satisfaction record from over 100 different clients.

   • Has designed graphics and formatting for 37 different websites.

   Skills

   • HTML

   • JavaScript

   • Microsoft Word and Office

   • Digital Design

   • Logo Design

   • Project Management

   • PowerPoint

   • Adobe Creative Suite

   • Advertising

   • Communication

   • 2D/3D Modeling

   • SEO Optimization

   Work History

   Graphic Designer, 05/2018 to 06/2021

   Marston Media — Boston, MA 02101

   • Worked with over 70 clients to create thoughtful, customized, and optimized designs.

   • Finalized over 100 different client projects with a 99% customer satisfaction rate.

   • Designed over 280 images including, logos, web advertisements, banners, and more.

   Freelance Graphic Designer, 02/2016 to 04/2018

   CanvasWeb — Amherst, MA 01122

   • Created over 100 images to pair with online articles and blog posts.

   • Designed digital displays and media used in online advertising, which increased business revenue by over 15% for five different businesses.

   Customer Service Representative, 08/2013 to 04/2016

   TradeCo. — Pittsfield, MA 01201

   • Reduced customer churn by 7% by developing an improved digital customer follow-up system.

   • Tracked customer feedback trends and used the information to determine the cause of various issues.

   • Surpassed team goals by over 15% through achieving a 99% average customer satisfaction rate.

   • Communicated effectively with customers and co-workers alike on a daily basis.

   Education

   Bachelor of Fine Arts: Graphic Design, Graduated

   University of Massachusetts – Amherst, MA 01122

   High School Diploma:General Studies

   Amherst High School – Amherst, MA 01122

   Distinctions

   • Fluent in Spanish

   • Adobe Certified Expert

   • MA State Driver’s License

Additional Career Change Resume Tips

Now that you know how to write an effective career change resume, here are some additional tips to keep in mind when you draft your first copy:

• Keep it short and to the point. Hiring managers have lives too, so it’s important that you limit the length of your resume and only include the most important information. Ideally, your resume should only be around a page long. Doing this will help maximize readability and retain the potential employer’s interest.

• Thoroughly proofread. It’s critical that the spelling and grammar of your resume are on point. Given that, you should spend a considerable amount of time proofreading, so you have a better chance of catching these errors.

• Avoid first-person pronouns. First-person pronouns have a way of killing professionalism. In general, avoiding them will improve the quality of your resume. For example, instead of saying, “I increased sales by 22%”, simply write: “Increased sales by 22%”.

• Professionally label the .pdf File. If you’re sending your resume to a potential employer via email, it’s important that you label the document appropriately. One of the best ways you can label your resume is by titling the document with your first and last name, followed by the word “resume.”

• Quantify when possible. The more specific you can make your achievements on your resume, the better. Instead of writing that you “have a lot of experience,” it’s better to say that you “have five years of experience.” Accurate numbers, dates, and percentages will improve the quality of your resume.

Author

Jack Flynn

Jack Flynn is a writer for Zippia. In his professional career he’s written over 100 research papers, articles and blog posts. Some of his most popular published works include his writing about economic terms and research into job classifications. Jack received his BS from Hampshire College.