Are you thinking about making a career change soon? If so, you should know you're not alone.
According to a recent report, about 30% of Canadian workers said the COVID-19 pandemic altered their career goals. Additionally, about 10% of Canadian workers said they planned on changing careers altogether in the aftermath of it.
If you're interested in starting up a new career, it may require you to go back to school or take specialised training. Once you're done doing that, it's also going to put you in a position where you'll need to write a resume that reflects your career change without scaring employers off.
Would you like some help navigating your career change when it comes to the resume writing side of things? Then you've come to the right place.
Here are some resume writing and coaching insights that will allow you to make a seamless transition to your new job and career.
Under normal circumstances, you might not have to worry about crafting the perfect resume objective. In fact, some career coaching experts will tell you that you can leave an objective off your resume if you're short on space.
When you're making a career change, it'll be a different story. You're going to have to put together a very strong resume objective that touches on why you'd like to make a career change and, more importantly, why you believe you're qualified to do it.
If you fail to come up with a strong enough resume objective, a hiring manager who is looking at your resume might think you're simply sending out resumes to any and all jobs you can find. It may seem as though you're not qualified at all for the position you're applying for.
By spelling out the fact that you're attempting to make a career change in your resume objective, you'll fill a hiring manager in on what you're trying to do. It'll increase the chances of them continuing to read through your resume.
When you're applying for a job within an industry that you already work in, you'll devote most of it to listing your work experience. When you're trying to make a career change, you aren't going to want to do this.
Instead, you'll want to follow up on your resume objective with a skills summary. This skills summary should include a list of skills that you currently have that can be transferred from your current career to the one you would like to have.
There are probably all kinds of skills that you can come up with that will, in your mind, enable you to make a career change without any issues. You should list these skills and give several examples that demonstrate how you've utilized them in the past.
It's not a bad idea to list general skills like leadership on your resume when you're changing careers. However, you should also have at least a few of the skills be more specific than that and apply directly to the new job you're trying to get.
While you won't need to spend as much time spelling out your work experience on your resume when you're making a career change, that doesn't mean you should ignore it. You should still spend some time breaking down the work experience that you have.
Just make sure that you're only listing your relevant work experience. This will include any jobs that called on you to tackle tasks that you might have to tackle when taking on a new career.
Ideally, you should be able to tie almost all of your work experience back to the skills that are listed in your skills summary. It'll reinforce these skills and showcase the fact that you know how to use them.
Just about all companies in Canada, the U.S., and any other part of the world want to hire proven winners. If you can show companies that you know how to succeed at the highest levels, they will at least entertain the idea of hiring you to work for them, even if you don't have a ton of experience within their industry.
With this in mind, you shouldn't be shy about laying out your biggest professional accomplishments on your resume. Whenever possible, you should include any data that demonstrates what you've been able to do at your past jobs.
The fact that you're trying to make a career change might actually work to your benefit when you're listing your accomplishments. They may seem even more impressive to hiring managers who aren't familiar with your former industry.
There might be companies out there that will be willing to roll the dice on someone who made their mark in another industry. It'll show them that you're a goal-oriented person who wants to make a career change to take on a new challenge.
As we alluded to earlier, you might need to go back to school to make a career change. If this is the case, you'll obviously want to list your education to show that you've received the proper training to make a career change. It'll show that you didn't just wake up yesterday and decide you wanted to start a new career.
Even if you didn't get any additional education to make a career change, though, you should still list your education on your resume when applying for a new job. You should also do your best to put a spotlight on any elements of your education that you think will help you in your new career.
For example, you might have a degree in history that won't directly apply to the business job you'd like to get. But you may have taken a handful of business courses in college that suggest you have a real interest in the business world.
Just because you took these business courses isn't automatically going to qualify you to work every business job that exists. It may, however, make it possible for you to get a good grasp of what's going on when it comes to certain business jobs.
For this reason, you'll want to put an emphasis on any aspect of your education that will reflect well on an employer in a new industry. It could end up being the difference between an employer deciding to take a chance on you as opposed to not doing it.
Are there any personal projects that you've worked on outside of your existing career that could help bolster your resume? If so, you should definitely try to find a place to put them on it.
Maybe you've helped a friend manage the money that they've made while trying to open their own business. That could show an employer that you have some valuable experience in the business world.
Or maybe you've started your own small business as a side hustle while working a full-time job. This could, again, let an employer know that you're someone who has real-world skills that could translate to your new career. It'll be a great thing to include on your updated resume.
The interview portion of the hiring process is important for everyone, regardless of whether they're making a career change or not. It'll be especially important for you when you're trying to dive headfirst into a new career.
This will be something that should be in the back of your mind throughout the course of freshening up your resume. You should be fully prepared to explain everything on your resume and how it relates to your pursuit of a career change.
An employer is likely going to reference your resume early and often if you're lucky enough to score an interview after they check it out. You'll want to be cognizant of this and be sure not to embellish too many details on your resume.
You'll be so much better off being honest when creating your new resume and doing what you can to express how excited you are to make a career change. Your passion for this pursuit should jump off the page and attract the attention of each and every employer that you contact.
Making a career change can be stressful enough in and of itself. Why stress yourself out even more by worrying about how to craft the perfect resume?
CareerHD can set you up with the resume writing and career coaching and counselling services you need. We can also provide you with job interview coaching if you would like.
Book a free consultation with us today to get more information on these services.
