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How To Write A Resume Summary For Career Change

Career Change Cv Objective Examples

How to write a resume when changing careers – Resume tips for career switches

The next piece of the puzzle is your objective. This is your chance to show the passion you have for making this move, as well as mentioning any relevant past achievements that show your track record for success.

E.g. 1 Accountant to technical writer.

After five years in accounting, Im now looking to take my software knowledge, coupled with my client experience, into a technical writing role. This is something that has always greatly interested me, and I believe my unique combination of experience will allow me to create documentation that will help companies get more out of their accounting software.

E.g.2 Courier driver to warehouse and logistics.

Im looking forward to moving into a distribution environment where I can draw upon my delivery experience to help boost operational efficiency. The conversations Ive had with clients, coupled with my knowledge of the common roadblocks facing deliveries, mean I can provide fresh insights to improve processes.

Both of these examples show the candidates provide something different to those whove perhaps followed a more standard progression within each of these industries. On top of this, theres energy in both of these objectives, demonstrating a drive and desire to learn.

A good career change CV highlights your adaptability.

Career Change Cover Letter Sample

It’s common practice nowadays to submit your cover letter digitally. In that case, include some of your contact information in the top left corner so recruiters can easily see how to get in touch.

Thomas Bennett

Dear Ms. Tufte,

Iâm writing to apply for the project manager role at Company X. I initially began my career as a marketing coordinator and eventually moved into email marketing, where I was responsible for strategizing and developing new campaigns. But in that time, I came to realize how much I thrived when it came to managing our quarterly campaigns from start to finish. Thatâs why Iâm interested in segueing into project management.

Knowing that, despite my experience, I still needed to learn more specifically about project management, I completed the . Over six months, Iâve learned Agile project management as well as how to create product documentation, among other key skills. I believe this training, along with my previous experience, will help me transition to a project management role at Company X and make a big impact.

Iâm proud of the foundation I gained through marketing, but in realizing where my true passion lies, Iâm keen to transition into a project management role with more growth opportunities. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Thomas Bennett

Marketing Manager Professional Summary Example:

Why this summary is good:

This resume summary stands out because it gets straight to the point. Through immediately introducing the number of years of experience the candidate has, the HR manager doesnt need to spend time adding up years. The candidate also jumps right into his or her strongest skill, provides a statistic, then gives additional skills.

By: Sarah Landrum, Founder of Punched Clocks, contributor at Entrepreneur.com and Forbes

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Summary Resume Writing Tips

  • Remember that your resume summary is critical to getting the attention of the hiring manager.

  • Place your skills at the top of the resume before your work experience.

  • Include transferable skills, those that you have gained through freelance work or during your free time.

  • Use keywords that appear in the job description.

  • Only include your last two or three employers, and omit graduation dates if you are transitioning careers later in life.

  • Do not include photos or images in your resume. Keep it neat and simple.

  • Use the cover letter to further cement your suitability for the role based on your newly acquired skills.

  • Always have someone proofread your resume for typos.

Contact Information On A Career Change Resume

Career Change Resume 2021

Contact information is the most essential part of any resume. While preparing a career change resume ensure to add contact information that includes your full name, email ID , contact number .

In addition to your general contact information ensure to add your social media contact information such as a link to your LinkedIn profile, GitHub profile, Facebook profile, Google+ account, etc. where an employer can find more details about you. Nowadays there are more chances to get your profile picked up for a job interview by having a glance at your social media accounts that helps employer to understand your strengths and interests related to the job.

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People With A Lot Of Experience

It can be a struggle to summarize 15+ years of work experience in a way thats concise enough not to make a recruiters eyes glaze over without leaving out valuable accomplishments. If you have extensive relevant work experience, use your resume summary to distill the key elements. Think of it as the highlights reel of your resume.

Startup And Finance Management Consultant Career Summary Example:

Experienced strategist, entrepreneur and startup enthusiast with a passion for building businesses and challenging the status quo. 8+ year track-record of defining new business strategies, launching new ventures, and delivering operational impact, both as a co-founder and management consultant.

Why this resume summary example is good:

This summary was for a highly-talented management consultant looking to break out of finance, and into trendier tech companies like Uber. His track record and educational background were great, so the goal of this summary section was to stand out and show hes more than just the typical consultant with a finance background. So we emphasized his passion for startups, his ability to think outside the box and challenge the status quo. Thats something that companies like Uber and other disruptive tech companies look for.

By: Biron Clark, Founder of CareerSidekick.com.

Now you have 10 professional resume summary statements and explanations of why theyre effective. Next, Ill share tips for how to write your own in case youre still unsure how to begin based on these examples above.

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Warehouse Supervisor Resume Summary Example:

Warehouse Supervisor with Management, Customer Service, & Forklift Experience

  • Dependable manager with 15+ years of experience in warehouse management and employee supervision.
  • Skilled at managing inventory control, shipping & receiving, customer relations and safety & compliance.
  • Certified Power Equipment Trainer, Forklift Operator and Reach Operator skilled at coaching other staff.
  • Promoted to positions of increased responsibility given strong people and project management skills.

Why this summary is good:

The applicant was applying for a warehouse supervisor position that required them to have demonstrated management, customer service and forklift experience. As such, the applicant showcased their experience in these areas with a few keywords in the title, followed by additional details in the accompanying bullet points. Their final bullet shows a record of promotions, while reinforcing the applicants customer service and project management skills.

By: Kyle Elliott, MPA/CHES, Career Coach and Consultant

Example Resumes For Making A Career Change

How to Write a Resume in 7 Steps

A resume is important for applying to any type of career opportunity, whether it be an entry-level role or a position in a new industry. If you are ready to change your career path, consider altering your resume so that future employers can see the value of your past experiences. In this article, we offer tips and examples for reconstructing your resume for a career change.

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How To Make A Career Change Resume

A career change resume essentially attributes the most relevant information for your target domain.

How to change careers was an enthralling question in the early 1990s but today it is one click away.

To find the perfect career change resume template customized for your target job, use Hiration’s online resume builder.

Let’s look at one of the career change resume samples.

Add A Resume Summary Or Objective

A resume summary briefly highlights your skills and experience, making it easier for employers to review. It can also include your professional goals and how working in the company would help you reach them. Include the summary immediately after your contact information and make it memorable. Specify how you intend to add value to the role and align it to the job description. You can discuss transferable industry knowledge and skills to help make you more competitive among other candidates.

Read more:Resume Objectives

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Bonus Tip: Get Your Resume To The Right People

Theres no use in creating the perfect career change resume only for it to sit on your shelf.

Ensuring your resume gets to the right people is the final step you should take on your career change journey.

To get your resume to the right people you can:

  • Attend careers fairs
  • Apply directly to the company online
  • Ask to come into the firm to learn more about their business and introduce yourself
  • Attend Meetups

Tailor Your Letter For Each Role

50+ resume templates switching careers

You need to tailor your resume for each role you apply to, and the same goes for your cover letter. Take time to research the company, finding out about aspects of their work that interest you, and insert those details into your cover letter. You should also tailor your experience and skills, highlighting the most relevant transferable skills or accomplishments for each job.

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Choosing A Career Change Resume Format

Oftentimes, job seekers choose a functional resume for career change job searches. A functional resume can be appealing because it turns the focus away from work history and toward skills and accomplishments. Sounds perfect, right? A hiring manager might disagree.

A functional resume format can make it look like the job seeker has something to hide. A better option for most job applicants making a career change is the hybrid resume , which still showcases skills and accomplishments but includes a traditional work history in the second half of the document.

Heres the bottom line when it comes to resume format when changing careers: if youre staying within the same industry, a hybrid resume will work great for you. If youre changing careers and industries, you can consider a functional resume format, though the hybrid resume is likely still a better choice.

Take Advantage Of Your Relevant Education And Certifications

Your education might be more in line with your original field, but that doesnt mean all your academic units are irrelevant.

General education units and elective classes you took might be relevant for your new role. Psychology classes, for instance, will be useful for those switching to HR, management, or training fields.

In this case, you should also include relevant course units to your education section. You can even mention clubs you joined and the work you did for that group.

Listing relevant certifications also adds to your credibility. It shows that you took the time to learn about the new field that you want to enter.

Heres a good example of an education section for someone who wants to switch into project management:

Check out our collection of resume examples for education and course sections on different industries.

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Information To Include In Your Career Change Cover Letter

A cover letter is a chance to expand upon the bullet points youâve outlined on your resume. Itâs a space where you can explain your interest in both the role and company, highlight your experience and skills, and sell a recruiter on the overall fit youâd make.

But a career changer needs to do all of that and more. You also need to help recruiters and hiring managers understand why youâre moving away from your former line of work, what you want to achieve in your new career path, and any transferable skills that will help make your transition a smooth one.

Letâs review four key pieces of information you can weave into your career change cover letter.

Claim Achievements Youve Helped With Using The Right Keywords

How to Write a Resume Summary – Plus 5 Strong Examples | Indeed Career Tips

You may not have direct job experience in your new field but theres a huge chance that youve helped colleagues with those jobs.

In this scenario, you can still claim credit for the achievements, as long as your words cant be construed as claiming sole responsibility for said achievements.

In the example below, using Collaborate instead of Led or Supervised makes it clear that you had help.

Example: Collaborated with the HR team in creating the brochure and company presentation for a roadshow that yielded 15 new hires from top universities.

Even if you just created the brochure or you proofread the slides content, this would make for a good bullet point for someone who wants to transfer to HR-related work.

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Now To The Resume Itself

What to include when writing a resume. Because you are changing careers, the sections you use, and the organization of your resume will be a bit different from a job-hunter staying within their career. Your sections should be listed in the following order:

  • Objective Statement or Career Summary
  • Skills

This organization allows you to showcase the attributes that your new career will require.

Career Change Resume Skills

Team Leadership is the most important skill for any career.

In the contributions/experiences section, as well, make sure to reflect your Leadership skills first as a bucket against the same. Then showcase your experiences under the given niche.

Let’s look at the following snippet from one of the above career change resume examples:

Leadership & Team Management

  • Spearheading a team of ~25 to direct administration of the Training & Education and Technical Services departments
  • Leading the Field Technical Services Engineers Team of ~15 to service a huge installation base & achieve 98% uptime
  • Generated revenues of USD ~500K from services & in-house repair of 1400 units in FY â18

Furthering with another example from the very happening domain of data science, let’s understand the following. We think of people in a lab-coat crouching behind huge servers and crunching numbers when we think of data scientists.

But, a data scientist is additionally someone who can:

  • manage projects well
  • facilitate operational excellence
  • resolve problems in a data-driven approach

These are the transferable skills for career changers. Key skills like “Project Management” and “Operational Excellence” and technical skills like “MS Excel” play an important role on the career change resume.

So how do you find the transferable skills for career changers?

These are the skills outside the list which is important to make the big leap.

This will make it easier for you to make a quick switch.

KEY SKILLS:

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Resume Writing Tips For Changing Careers

Changing careers means that you’ll need a fresh, revamped resume to accompany your job search in a new field. While creating a resume isn’t the easiest task, take heart in knowing that much of your experience, even if it’s in a completely different industry, will still be relevant.

That’s because so many skills, especially soft ones, are transferable. If you’re shifting from a production manager role at a publishing company to event planning in the wedding industry, for instance, your organizational skills, leadership abilities, and strong Excel and budgeting background are all going to be applicable.

In your career change resume, you have to tell the story of your transferable skills to a hiring manager, explaining how qualifications from your previous career are still applicable and relevant. Whether it’s because of a shift in the industry or a shift in your interests, there are lots of reasons to make a mid-career transition. Here’s how to get started developing your new resume.

Certificates Courses Or Trainings

7 Reasons This Is An Excellent Resume For Someone Making A ...

It costs over $4,000 to hire an employee, according to the Society for Human Resources Management . Thatâs all the more reason why recruiters and hiring managers want to find the right candidate. It can be costly otherwise. Help explain what youâve done to prepare for your career change by highlighting any professional certificates or trainings youâve completed to prepare you for your new line of work.

What this looks like: In order to familiarize myself with the tools and processes used in data analysis, I completed the , which taught me SQL and R, and trained me to clean and visualize data. Thanks to this preparation, I feel confident that I will make a strong addition to your team from the very start.

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Sample Career Change Resume

Contact Details

Inkhaus Creative September 2013 Present

Responsibilities:

  • Researched, developed, and documented technical design specifications and test scripts.
  • Produced electronic documentation in addition to hard copy materials.
  • Maintained a comprehensive library of technical terminology and documentation.
  • Analyzed documents to maintain continuity of the style of content.
  • Drafted, edited, and proofread letters for content and grammatical errors.

Blog WriterABC Corp September 2009 2012

Responsibilities:

  • Handled the task of writing unique titles and descriptions for various web pages.
  • Responsible for conducting research and writing content on a regular basis.
  • Handled the task of editing and proofreading content before uploading it on web pages.
  • Handled SEO optimization to ensure product to be ranked by Google and other search engines.
  • Assisted with the rebranding of the site, driving traffic, offering technical ideas in efforts to improve the user experience.

EducationMaster of Advanced International Studies

Consider Using A Combination Resume Format

A resume’s format refers to the order of its elements. While there are various options to choose from, a combination resume is ideal when changing careers. This format emphasizes your transferable skills rather than your experience. It also lists work history in order, starting with the most recent.

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Understanding The Resume Summary Statement

So what exactly is a resume summary statement?

A resume summary statement is similar to an objective statement in that it is a quick way for a job seeker to catch a hiring managers attention by summarizing critical information at the top of your resume in an easy to read format.

Before we go any further, I want to stop you right now and reiterate: A Resume Objective and Resume Summary Statement are NOT interchangeable. They are, in fact, two very different things and should not be confused.

Resume statements essentially are just a few short, well worded, well targeted sentences that summarize your skills and experiences.

Sometimes called Qualification Summaries or even just Competencies, these two or three sentences can, when done right, give you a real advantage in the hiring game.

I dont get it. Im already qualified to do the job. Whats the point? Cant they just read my resume and get that information themselves?

Absolutely. But remember, hiring managers are often going through dozens, if not hundreds of resumes per available job, so anything that can make their job easier is a good thing.

Imagine thisyoure the perfect candidate and you just know youre the one the company should hire but the manager has been going through mountains of resumes. By the time they get to yours, theyre just skimmingtrying to make it through.

Cue long drawn out overly dramatic cry of despair:

Noooooooooooooo!

Cue victory dance!

But just who was that mysterious man?

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