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11 Career Change Resume Examples [& Templates]

Marketing Manager

Best for senior and mid-level candidates

There’s plenty of room in our elegant resume template to add your professional experience while impressing recruiters with a sleek design.

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• Career Change Resumes
• Changing Careers To Resumes
• Changing Careers From Resumes
• Career Change Resumes for Teachers

Noah breathed a sigh of relief as he found a few accounting job descriptions that intrigued him. After spending years in various financial roles and racking up some impressive creds as a financial analyst, he felt confident in this career switch. But was he as prepared to  make a resume as he was for his career change?

Noah’s confidence went up when he found our library of career change resume examples and time-tested hints. Plus, he knew he’d be able to expand upon his career objective and add even more value by making a cover letter ! The notes he took while preparing his application materials even helped him navigate a victorious interview.

Whether you’re looking to change careers in accounting, teaching, or any other profession, check out our handy resources to build your own success story like Noah did!

Career Change Resume

or download as PDF

Why this resume works

• A summary merges your background with the opportunities you’re seeking. In other words, a summary demonstrates how your experience has prepared you for your new field. However, you should only use a summary if you’ve had  at least 10 years of experience.
• Choosing a  professional resume template  and  resume format  can help make your resume look professional and cohesive without much effort.

Multiple Career Resume

• The keywords you include will help tie your expertise together and prove that you have the right abilities for the job. 
• Start by listing hard skills (aka technical, learned skills) listed in the job description. If you don’t have a lot, then simply use soft skills like “analytical” and collaboration.”
• Whatever jobs you’ve held, find a common thread between them and the new job, then sew that thread into every job experience. It’ll be a subtle but powerful tool to increase credibility despite multiple career changes. 

Career Change To Accounting Resume

• If you’re applying to be an accountant but it wasn’t your most recent role, be sure to add a certifications section highlighting that you are a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Career Change To Administrative Assistant Resume

• Enhance your career change to administrative assistant resume with a short summary that shows recruiters where to draw parallels between your past experience and target title.

Marketing Manager Career Change Resume

• There are numbers everywhere; look for percentages relating to your skills, like how you boosted efficiency or increased sales from last quarter. The sky’s the limit!
• If you can’t find (or don’t have access to) percentages, then use plain numbers relating to how many team members you worked with, how many clients you took on, or how many referrals you gained.
• Things like only using active verbs and avoiding personal pronouns might seem minor, but they make reading your resume easier, which is huge for recruiters and hiring managers.
• And speaking of details, always  double-check your resume  for proper grammar, punctuation, and overall flow.

RN Career Change Resume

• An objective is only two to three sentences, so make sure each word packs a verbal punch by showing off your years of experience, skills, and desire for the role you’re seeking.
• For example, mentioning your adherence to HIPPA guidelines can demonstrate to hiring managers that you will stick to the rules. On the flip side, explaining how you used active listening to assist patients will show your compassion and customer service skills.

Journalist Career Change Resume

• Start by keeping your resume to a single page. Otherwise, you’ll overwhelm hiring managers (who will likely toss your resume into the recycling).
• It’s best to use reverse-chronological formatting on your resume to keep your most relevant job history at the top. While other formats are necessarily wrong, they aren’t standard, and they’re harder for hiring managers (and the ATS) to read.
• In your contact header, include your email address (make sure it’s a professional email), your phone number, and your location. 
• Consider adding a hyperlink to your LinkedIn profile if you have a LinkedIn account.

Mechanical Engineer Career Change Resume

• Consider asking a friend, relative, or even a career advisor from your alma mater to scan your resume for errors and discrepancies.
• Nothing tells a recruiter you’re not the right person for the job like saying you’re great at “time management.” 
• Put color in your section headers (or company titles) and your contact header. This will add visual interest without being overwhelming.
• If you’re applying to work at a conservative financial firm, you may want to stick to traditional colors rather than pastel pink or lavender.

Teacher Career Change Resume

• Look for ways to connect your previous duties to the responsibilities listed in the job description.
• Many skills  indirectly  transfer from one job to another. Consider your collaboration skills: your ability to work well with fellow teachers will help you work on team projects at your next job.
• Of course, if you have any skills, projects, or experience in your new field, include them, and explain how you’ve mastered them in your career change cover letter .
• Using a  resume template  is invaluable here, as you can easily scooch sections to the side, adjust your margins, and fix your font type to give you some extra wiggle room.

Teacher to Project Manager Resume

• The work experience bullet points to occupy the largest share of your CV—no more than four bullets for each role. As for your contact info, education, skills, hobbies, and certifications, a side column will do the trick. The cherry on top is restricting the entire resume to one page.

Teacher to Human Resources Resume

• But more importantly, mention the relevant transferable skills you bring to this entry-level role, a requirement Elijah executes well in his teacher to human resources resume. Better yet, let your bullet points show how you used these proficiencies in previous teaching roles.

Related resume guides

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Switching Careers? Here’s How to Write a Strong Resume.

• Benjamin Laker,
• Vijay Pereira,
• Abhishek Behl,
• Zaheer Khan

Start with a personal statement.

When you’re switching career paths, there’s one essential thing you need to focus on: updating your resume. Crafting a smart resume is key to showing your potential employer why you wish to make a change. While there’s no one right format to write a resume, here are some tips you can follow:

• Begin the resume with a personal statement. This is a short description about who you are, your reasons for changing your career, your new goals, how your previous experience can be transferred to the new industry, and why you’re perfect for the job.
• Next, instead of highlighting your work experience first, showcase the skills you’ve learned throughout your career. That’s because when changing careers, the hiring managers reviewing your application may not always be familiar with the roles and responsibilities of a different industry.
• Below your skills, you can include a more traditional description of your relevant work history. You don’t need to include every job you’ve ever had, especially if you’ve held a number of positions that don’t highlight any essential skills required for this role.
• Finally, end with a chronological list of your educational qualifications. You can also include details about any certifications or courses that you may be undertaking that may be relevant to the position you’re interested in.

Switching career paths and trying something completely new can open you up to exciting opportunities, help you learn new things, and even earn you more money. But it’s not always easy — especially if you’re looking to move into an entirely different field. Apart from doing your research and unearthing opportunities, there’s one essential thing you need to focus on before you make the leap: updating your resume.

• Benjamin Laker is a professor of leadership at Henley Business School, University of Reading. Follow him on Twitter .
• Vijay Pereira is a professor of strategic and international human capital management at NEOMA Business School.
• AB Abhishek Behl is an assistant professor of information management at the Management Development Institute Gurgaon.
• ZK Zaheer Khan is a professor in strategy and international business at the University of Aberdeen.  

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Career Change Resume for 2024 [9+ Examples]

Thinking of switching careers?

It might feel a lot like taking a leap of faith. 

You’re stepping into the unknown - that alone takes a lot of courage and determination.

You might even feel like a recent graduate all over again.

You have 0 experience, entering an entirely new field, competing with people who’ve been doing it forever!

That sounds pretty scary.

But here’s the thing:

As long as you’re armed with the right resume, the transition can be a piece of cake.

And luckily, we’re here to help and guide you through the process.

So, if you’re thinking of breaking into a new career industry, be sure to read on.

• How to pick the best resume format for a career change
• How to create a skill summary and wow the recruiter
• How to show off transferable work experience
• 3+ other ways to impress the recruiter (even if you have 0 relevant work experience)

Choosing the Best Career Change Resume Format

A big part of creating an effective resume is choosing the right resume format to tell your story with.

You need to structure your resume in a way that best shows your transferable skills and experience.

And when it comes to switching careers, the combination resume format does that best.

Here’s why:

This format places equal emphasis on skills and important work experience . 

This way, you can show you have the right industry transferable skills , even if you haven’t had the actual job title.

The format is ideal for people:

• Making a career change with transferable skills or work experience.
• With some employment gaps.
• With a diverse range of skills and experience .
• Applying to both creative and traditional roles.

And here’s what you include within this format:

• Contact information
• Resume objective or summary
• Skills summary
• Work experience
• Certification

Now, we’re going to go over each of those sections and explain how to write them step-by-step.

Here’s what you need to know:

How to Add Your Contact Information the Right Way

Your contact information is arguably the most important part of your resume.

Even if you’re the most qualified person in the world, it’s not going to matter much if you misspell your email and the HR manager can’t contact you.

So, here’s what you should include in this section:

• First name, last name 
• Phone number - Make sure to include your country code if you’re applying outside your country.
• Email address - Something professional like [[email protected]].
• Location - The company needs to know if you’re located in the region or if they may have to sponsor your relocation.
• Title - Either your current professional title or your new desired one. We’d recommend including the job title you’re applying for word-for-word.

Once you’re done, we’d recommend that you double-check, even triple-check everything. You wouldn’t want to miss your chances of landing the job because of a typo, would you?

• Got an online portfolio? You can also mention the links here. For example, if you’re a developer, you can include a link to your GitHub profile. If you’re a writer, a Medium link, and so on...

All clear? Good!

Now, let’s cover how to write a successful career change resume objective or summary.

Impress the Recruiter With a Career Change Resume Objective or Summary

So you’ve got your contact details down.

Now, you need a reason for the HR manager to continue reading the rest of your resume.

So, how do you get the recruiter to stop and read your career change resume when they only look at resumes for 6 seconds on average?

The answer: by using a resume objective or summary.

Both of these sections explain why you’re the best person for the job and act as a preview to the rest of your resume.

Here’s how the two differ:

Your resume summary shows your best accomplishments that are relevant to the job you’re applying for.

Your resume objective highlights how your current skills are relevant and will transfer to your new position.

As someone going through a career change, you can include either one.

But as a rule of thumb, if you were working in a related field and have some transferable skills, go for a resume summary.

On the other hand, if you were working in a completely unrelated field, go for a resume objective.

Check out these examples to get a better idea of what both of these might look like:

Career Change Resume Summary Example

• “Customer support specialist with over 4+ years of experience in over-the-phone technical support looking to leverage communication skills as a Sales Agent at Company XYZ. Excellent track record of delivering quality support, with an average rating of 4.6/5 over the past 2 years.”

A career change resume summary helps the HR understand how your skillset from your previous job can translate into your new one.

In that case, it’s best to mention:

• Your current relevant skills or experience.
• How your background can help you excel at the current job.

Career Change Resume Objective Example

• “Organized and hard-working employee looking to join XYZ as a marketing assistant. Looking to take advantage of my skills in Photoshop, graphic design, and creative copywriting to help XYZ with their marketing efforts.”

See the difference here?

Even though the person doesn’t have any relevant work experience, their resume objective still shows how their skill set is relevant to the new job.

Show Off Your Know-How With a Skills Summary Section

Your resume summary / objective is only an introduction. Now, you need to show the HR what you’ve got.

To do that, you need a good skills summary section.

Skills summary is a must-have section for just about any career change resume.

It puts more emphasis on your skill-set, as opposed to your work experience. This allows you to show how you’re a qualified candidate, even though you haven’t done the job before.

Here’s what a sample skills summary section might look like for a front-end developer.

Career Change Resume Skills Summary Example

• Built an online personal portfolio and resume website using HTML, CSS, JS.
• Created an online JS/jQuery quiz game that takes multiple answers and shows results to the user.
• Built a beautiful weather app with Angular 8 from scratch, designed UI with Sketch.
• Created responsive website templates (that are also mobile friendly) using modern CSS techniques and JS libraries.
• Worked with design and development groups to create applications from mock-ups in Sketch, Illustrator, and Photoshop.
• Familiar with Git, XDebug, and Chrome Developer Tools.
• Debugged over 10 JS web apps for a SaaS project.

Simple enough, right?

You list out each of your key skills, and then back it up with how you’ve used it in the past.

Now, you might be thinking, “what about the work experience section?” Do I just skip it, and use a skills summary instead?

Nope - you still need to list your work experience.

In this case, though, you’d want to use it to show off your transferable skills. Here’s how:

Use Your Work Experience to Show Off Transferable Skills

Let’s take a different example and say you’re moving from a job in sales to copywriting.

A resume you’d use for sales compared to a more creative field like copywriting is probably going to be a bit different.

But what do both of the roles have in common?

Well, for one, they both require you to have excellent communication skills. You also need to be good at understanding your target market and conveying complex information in simple language.

And that’s the common thread you want to focus on in your work experience section.

So, when listing your previous jobs, think of some transferable skills that you bring to the table that are going to be relevant.

Even unrelated jobs have some universal skills that are helpful everywhere.

To give you a better idea of what we mean, let’s look at some examples:

Sales Executive

Company X - 11/2016 - 04/2019

• Created and presented pitch deck that secured a $500,000 deal - largest for Company X to date.
• Boosted sales for the most underperforming product by 40% by developing helpful and instructional material for prospects.
• Created and edited sales materials, scripts, and technical documents for accuracy and consistency.

Here’s what’s done right:

• Shows transferable skills and achievements.
• Highlights only the parts from the experience that are related to the new role.

While the above example doesn’t talk about product descriptions or ads, communication materials and sales scripts do show that the candidate can write.

So, for a copywriting position, it’s going to be relevant and worth mentioning.

Now, compare that to the career change work experience below:

• Cold-emailed 100+ prospects daily.
• Closed 14+ deals in 2019 so far.
• Hit and exceeded company KPIs for the past 2 years in a row.

Sure, this example is good. But only if the candidate is applying for a sales job.

For copywriting, though, none of the skills mentioned are going to come in handy.

So, when listing previous job positions, you should focus only on what’s relevant.

Now that you know how to properly list work experience, let’s move on to the next section: Education.

Make Your Education Section Shine

Your education section is going to be an important requirement for just about any position above entry-level.

Listing education on your resume is pretty straightforward.

All you have to do is list your latest educational entry (e.g. college degree), and then include all the important stuff below it.

For example, you can include things like:

• Name of degree (Minor - optional): e.g. B.A. International Business Administration.
• Name of educational institution: e.g. University of Groningen.
• Years attended: e.g. 2015 - 2019.
• Location of the program (optional): e.g. Groningen, Netherlands.
• GPA (optional): 3.84 (only include if you excelled).
• Courses that are relevant to the job (optional): e.g. Advanced Business Finances.
• Exchange programs (optional): e.g. exchange program in Florida, U.S.

Here’s what the full listing for this educational entry might look like:

You might be wondering, what if I don’t have the right education for the job? Maybe, you have an M.A. in Philosophy, but you’re applying for a job in marketing. Do you still list it?

The answer is a definite yes.

Even if the degree is not relevant at all, it still shows that you’re passionate about learning and education.

In some cases, you might even be able to show off some transferable skills with your degree.

Let’s say, for example, you have a B.A. in English Literature , and you’re applying for a job in marketing. 

You could stress on how your degree gave you amazing writing skills (a must-have for most marketing roles), like so:

B.A. in English Literature.

University XYZ - 2014-2018

• Excelled in creative writing courses
• Part-time as a reporter for the university website

PS - Do you still have some questions on how to list your education section? Maybe you’re wondering what else you can include? Check out our full guide on how to list education on a resume with 13+ real-life examples.

Done with your education section? Awesome!

This brings us to the next section on your career change resume.

How (and Why) to List Skills On a Career Change Resume

When it comes to the skills section, what most recruiters want to know is if you can actually do what the job ad asks for.

And like with the other sections till now, relevance is key.

You should only ever list skills that are appropriate to the job you’re applying for.

To find out what’s relevant, start by scanning the job listing.

Most job ads usually include a list of requirements or skills they expect for a good candidate to have.

So, all you have to do is mention those exact skills on your resume.

Let’s take a look at an example.

Career Change Resume Skills Example

Assuming the job ad is for a junior front-end developer who has:

• 2-4 Years of professional experience using JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.
• Up to 1 years of visual design experience focusing on strong UX/UI.
• Good communication skills and team-player

You’d want to list the following skills:

• Communication Skills
• Team-Player

So, all you have to do is mention these skills, and you’re good to go!

• Not sure which skills are a must-have for your role? Check out our complete list of all must-have skills for any given field or position!

Showing Career Certifications on a Resume

When you’re switching careers, certifications are an amazing way to show you’re serious about your craft.

This shows you’re willing to put in the work and that you’ve already taken the first steps.

When listing certifications though, make sure they’re relevant to your field.

For a marketing role, here’s what that might look like:

• HubSpot Inbound Marketing Certified, 2019.
• Google Analytics Individual Qualification, 2018.
• SEMrush Content Marketing Toolkit Course, 2018.

And here’s an example done wrong:

• TechCamp Python Bootcamp, 2019.
• Udemy JavaScript 101 Course.

For a marketing role, those certificates are completely irrelevant and aren’t even in the same field.

While they might be impressive on their own, that doesn’t mean they make you a better marketer.

Listing Personal Projects

Another great way to show that you’re the right person for the job is to list personal projects.

This can be just about anything:

• Founding a sports team in university
• Project you did for business class
• A Part-time online store you created on Etsy
• Passion-project for wood-working
• And whatever else you love (that’s relevant for your new career)

Pretty much anything that can make up for your lack of experience in the field counts.

But of course, keep in mind that your projects should be relevant to your new job.

Getting into coding? Here’s what your projects section could look like...

Make sure to stick to relevant projects, though.

The HR manager cares about your CODING experience, not about the fact that you started a basketball team in college.

Now, compare that to:

• Excelled in Anthropology and Archaeology classes at University X.
• Self-taught knitting pro.

You shouldn’t list projects just for the sake of standing out or filling up space. 

The more irrelevant information you mention in your resume, the more likely it is for the recruiter to accidentally skip out on all your must-have sections.

• Still have some space on your resume? You can also include the hobbies & interests section. Check out our guide to learn how (and why)!

How to Write a Career Change Cover Letter

Done with your resume?

But wait, before you get too excited - you’re still not done.

You need to back up your resume with a career change cover letter.

And no - it’s not like the usual cover letter you’re used to writing. 

When you’re switching careers, you want to use your cover letter to highlight WHY you’re switching fields and WHY your skills are a good match for the new role.

To do this, make sure you bring up a ton of examples and call out any key statistics or measurable results to draw upon, if possible.

To help you craft the best career change cover letter, check out the example below:

Here’s what’s done right with this cover letter:

• Addresses the reader (i.e. “Dear Doris” or if you can’t find their name, “To Whom it May Concern.”).
• Makes it clear they want to transition into a different career (from marketing and retail sales into public relations in this case).
• Shows they’ve done the research and the letter is tailored to the company's products and brand.
• Provides specific examples and achievements (“raised more than $ 10,000 for the event.”).
• Ends on a confident note and provides a call-to-action (and where to contact them).

Think your cover letter game is lacking? Check out our complete, step-by-step guide on how to write a cover letter.

If you're thinking about a career change, and want to join a community of global professionals who are also re-designing and reframing their careers, then consider Unsettled’s Lifestyle Incubator.

Unsettled’s Lifestyle Incubator program is a 4-week highly interactive “virtual retreat” for professionals seeking to redefine their career trajectory and be more intentional about designing their next steps.

Through original workshops, weekly live sessions, practical tools, frameworks and peer-to-peer conversations with a global and diverse community of professionals, they will help you identify the core tensions between the lifestyle you want and the career trajectory that aligns your values, interests, and skills.

Key Takeaways

To recap, going through a mid-career transition probably sounds intimidating. 

But if you craft your career change resume focusing on transferable skills and experience - then you’re good to go!

Just make sure you follow these main key tips while working on your resume:

• Use the combination resume format to highlight your transferable skills and work experience.
• Include all the essential career change resume sections - contact information , resume objective or summary , skill summary , work experience , soft and technical skills , certifications and personal projects.
• And while doing so, highlight only what’s relevant to your new position.
• Finally, make sure you attach a tailored cover letter to your resume and mention WHY you’re switching fields and what unique skills you’re bringing with you.

At Novorésumé, we’re committed to helping you land your dream job, every step of the way. Be sure to check out our career blog to stay up to date with the industry-leading advice and more actionable tips.

Suggested Reading:

• How to Get Your Resume Layout Right [3 Free Templates]
• How to Write an ATS Resume
• 20+ One-Page Resume Templates [Free Download]

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Career Change Resume: Examples and Tips from Experts

By Biron Clark

Published: November 8, 2023

Biron Clark

Writer & Career Coach

If you want to change careers, you’re going to need a great resume to show employers why they should take a chance on you.

You need to convince them that you’ll succeed in their role, even if you’ve done different work in the past.

And while you can do some of this convincing in the job interview, you aren’t going to get interviews if your resume or CV isn’t great , too, so it all starts here!

Don’t worry if this sounds intimidating – this article has everything you need to write an effective resume for career change…

I spoke to multiple professional resume writers, coaches, and other experts and put together this list of resume tips for career changers, as well as real-life examples of resumes that got interviews.

Here’s what you need to know…

Career Change Resume/CV Format

The best resume format for a career change is the chronological resume (also known as “reverse chronological resume”). With this format, your resume or CV lists your work experience in the order it happened, starting with your most recent or current position at the top.

This is what most hiring managers and recruiters are used to seeing and prefer to see, so it’s the best format to use when switching careers (or in any job search, for that matter).

So the first thing to do with your resume is to make sure you’re using this format. Put your most recent position at the top of your “Work Experience” section , and then go backward from there. You’ll see examples of this coming up – don’t worry.

The bottom line is: You aren’t going to hide something or “sneak” through the process by using a less-common (and more confusing) resume format like a functional resume.

This will just confuse and frustrate the hiring manager or recruiter .

So rather than trying to hide gaps in your experience, you should tailor your experience to be as relevant as possible for the job you’re applying to. That’s how to approach resume formatting as a career changer.

Career Change Resume Objective (And Why NOT To Include This)

You should not include a resume objective when changing careers (or on any resume, in fact). A resume objective is an outdated section that should be replaced with a resume summary section – a brief intro summarizing your experience, skills, accomplishments, and anything else you’d like to share.

Coming up next, we’ll look at examples of how to write this “summary” section as a career changer.

Writing Your Resume Summary for Career Change

Rather than a resume objective, you should include a brief Summary section to show employers what you’ve accomplished and how you can help them in their role.

I asked multiple experts for tips and examples of how to write a resume summary for a career change, so here are some tips from coaches, resume writers, and other experts.

Career Change Resume Example: Switching Careers from Business Development at a Skilled Nursing Facility to Medical Device Sales 

This section is contributed by: Virginia Franco – Executive Resume Writer at Virginia Franco Resumes

When writing a summary section for a career change, think about what you bring to the table that aligns with the role you seek, and what makes you less of a hiring risk for the hiring manager or interviewer.

In the example above, my client wanted to pivot from a business development role at a skilled nursing facility into medical device sales. In writing his summary, I:

• Chose a headline that contained some keywords related to the role he currently held AND the role he was targeting.
• Created a tagline that spoke to his success in Skilled Nursing using language that was industry-neutral.
• Identified a few differentiators that would make him appealing to a hiring manager and help outweigh the fact that he was new to the role and industry.

In this case, the fact that he:

• Knew lots of key players meant he could hit the ground running and build a sales funnel fast
• Was multilingual but raised in the U.S. meant he could interface well with many cultures – important in the area where he lived, and in working with surgeons that are often from other countries.
• Kept abreast of the industry and trends meant he was passionate about the industry and that he embraced continual learning.
• Established trust by working to overcome obstacles in a creative fashion meant that he was a problem solver – a trait that would make him attractive to a hiring manager.

In other words, I worked to make him seem like a candidate that was a risk worth taking!

Career Change Resume Example: Changing Careers from Medical Device Sales to Advertising & Technology

This section is contributed by: Austin Belcak – Founder at Cultivated Culture

When your changing careers, one of the biggest resume challenges is getting visibility on the transferable and relevant experience that you have.

Maybe you worked on a relevant project two jobs ago, maybe you took a course that’s buried in your education section, or maybe you’ve been working on a side hustle but are worried about leading with that vs. your current job.

Using resume objectives is a good way to combat this issue.

Resume objectives allow you to cherry-pick the most relevant work experience from your career, education, and side projects and feature it right at the top of your resume. This gives you the chance to lead with the most relevant transferable experience so you make sure it’s seen instead of getting lost in the mix.

This is the exact tactic I used when I was switching careers from medical device sales into advertising/tech.

My day job was in healthcare, it didn’t offer much in the way of traditional skills, but I had been spending nights and weekends learning digital marketing. I took courses, got certified, and even started doing a bit of freelancing. I wanted that to show at the top of my resume so I used an objective to highlight that ahead of my current role:

Tip: Target Everything for the Role You Want

This section is contributed by: Sarah Johnston – Former Recruiter, Executive Resume Writer, and Job Search Coach at BriefcaseCoach.com

When writing a resume for a career change, it’s important to target your resume for the role that you want. I recommend finding a few job descriptions that interest you and scanning for keywords and themes. Use the target job title or skill set in the header to frame the resume.

The Ladders did an eye tracking study that found that recruiters and hiring managers only spend 7.4 seconds scanning a resume before deciding to pass or read more. The heat map showed that better-performing resumes have keywords at the top to immediately draw the eye.

Attached is the top of a career changer sample resume. This hypothetical job seeker is wanting to transition from an account manager role to being an executive assistant . The resume plays up her transferable skills and includes a header that references the job that she wants.

As a former corporate recruiter, I am not a fan of functional resumes. Recruiters are taught to scan resumes chronologically. When you take the experience out of context or “order,” it often gives the recruiter the impression you are trying to hide or fudge experience.

Tip: Use Bullets to Stand Out

This section is contributed by: Madeline Mann – Human Resources Leader & Career Coach, Creator of Self Made Millennial

Consider writing your resume intro or summary in bullet format, as this makes it easier for people to quickly scan it.

The first couple of bullet points should emphasize the most important keywords from the job description.

Get creative with how you integrate these terms into your summary. For example, use phrases like “experience with” and “knowledge of” to indicate tasks that you have become familiar with inside or outside of your job.

Personal projects, volunteering, and education should all contribute to what you describe here. If the most prominent keywords in the job description are tasks and concepts that you are unfamiliar with, that is a sign that you need to build those skills on your own time. Here is a video on how to build these important skills without getting hired.

The next couple of bullet points should focus on the most relevant accomplishments to the role you are pursuing, which may not be from your most recent role.

This is where the magic of the summary section comes into play. Pull in early-career achievements, side projects, and unpaid work where you did tasks that are more closely aligned with your new career. For example, if you are a Psychology Lab Assistant, and you want to be a Building Manager, many of your lab tasks won’t translate.

But, five years ago you were the treasurer of your sorority (budgeting is a keyword), and you handled many contractors to ensure the house was renovated and maintained (knowledge of the trades is a keyword). While that experience may be buried due to it being 5 years ago and not a paid position, it can hop to the top of your career change resume as a highly relevant accomplishment in the summary.

The summary section is an opportunity for you to truly spell it out for the hiring manager where your transferable skills will be too well-matched to ignore!

Editor’s note: Bullets are also a great way to make your resume work history section stand out. This article explains how to do this with 22 resume bullet examples. 

Career Change Resume Work History Section: Samples and Tips

After a brief summary or intro paragraph, you’ll need a powerful employment history section to continue to impress the recruiter or hiring manager. Use the tips below to help you write yours.

Write Your Resume by Working Backward from the Job Description

This section is contributed by: Kyle Elliott – Career & Life Coach and Resume Writer at CaffeinatedKyle.com

The key to a successful career change resume is to work backward from the job posting. I encourage clients to literally pull language from the posting of the job they are targeting, then massage it until it truthfully reflects their experience. You really want to speak the language of the industry you are moving into.

In the example below, my client was targeting sales roles. However, she has several years of impressive experience from working in higher education that we wanted to include on her resume. So we repositioned her earlier experience as a “customer experience manager” role, pulling language directly from the job postings she was targeting.

Add Keywords to Get Past the ATS

This section is contributed by: Susan P. Joyce – Publisher of Job-Hunt.org

When your goal is a career change, be sure that your resume contains the relevant keywords for the career you want. Without these keywords, your resume will not be found in a recruiter’s search of the applications and resumes stored in the applicant tracking system (ATS).

Analyze the job description and pay attention to the job’s requirements as well as the nice-to-have skills. Make a list of the skills and other job requirements you meet. Those terms are typically the terms that will be used most often when the employer is searching for qualified job candidates.

If you have acquired skills or experience outside of work, don’t be afraid to include them, too. These include skills you have acquired while volunteering or participating in other non-work activities, especially if those skills are required for this job (and, thus, important keywords).

One of the best places to start including keywords on your career change resume is your “Skills” section.

The Skills section provides a quick way to show employers that you have the skills they’ve listed on their job description.

For example: Assume the job requires hard skills like QuickBooks or SQL, and you have experience with them or have certifications from training you have taken. Include the appropriate term in your Skills section, like “QuickBooks” or “QuickBooks Certified”.

Then, in the “Experience” section of your resume , include those skills in the descriptions of your past jobs (or volunteering) where you acquired and/or used those skills. This will show the employer when and where you demonstrated your skills, which they always want to see!

Repetition of keywords is usually a good thing when the repetition is natural, relevant, and appropriate. So, having these important terms in both the Skills and Experience sections of your resume will help your resume be found.

However, simply repeating keywords at the bottom of your resume is not smart or useful.

Career Change Resume Templates

You should now have a general idea of how to format and write your resume or CV for a career change.

If you need a great starting point and don’t want to create your resume from scratch (or if your existing resume is outdated and doesn’t look great) then this job search resources page has multiple free resume templates that are great for changing careers.

After clicking the link above, scroll down to the section titled: “ATS-Compliant Resume Templates.” All of the templates on that page are free to use and download.

Recap: How to Write a Resume for Career Change

If you’re planning on switching careers, you should write your resume to make your experience seem as relevant as possible for the job you want next.

Always think of the employer’s perspective when deciding what to put on your resume and what to leave off.

Write your career change CV or resume based on the employer’s job description and you’ll be much more likely to win the interview.

That’s how to get a new job in a new field. Employers want candidates who can step into a role, learn the position quickly, and succeed. They want low risk.  The more you can show similarities between what you’ve done and what the employer needs for this job, the better!

To summarize: Your CV or resume for a career change will be most successful if you start with the employer’s needs in mind, work backward, and think carefully about how to position your own experiences – both professional and personal – to make yourself seem capable of stepping into their job and being a success!

About the Author

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