![13 Career Change CV Examples [& Templates]](https://beamjobs.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/career-change-resume-example.png)
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 credentials as a financial analyst, he felt confident in this career switch. But was he as prepared to create a CV as he was for his career change?
Noah’s confidence increased when he discovered our library of career change CV examples and tried-and-tested tips. Plus, he knew he’d be able to expand upon his career objective and add even more value by writing a cover letter! The notes he took while preparing his application materials even helped him navigate a successful interview.
Whether you’re looking to change careers in accountancy, teaching, or any other profession, check out our useful resources to build your own success story like Noah did!
Why this CV works
- A CV summary is one of the most valuable things you should include on your career change CV. Career summaries highlight any specialisations or unique skills you’ve developed throughout your career.
- A summary combines your background with the opportunities you’re seeking. In other words, a summary shows 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.
- As unfair as it may seem, employers often discard visually unattractive CVs, so your CV must look aesthetically pleasing.
- Choosing a professional CV template and CV format can help make your CV look professional and cohesive without much effort.
Why this CV works
- Master how to design a teacher to project manager CV as captivating as your words. Right from the start, make the section titles stand out with larger font, similar to how blog paragraphs use subheadings.
- The work experience bullet points should take up the largest portion of your CV—no more than four bullet points for each role. As for your contact details, education, skills, hobbies, and qualifications, a side column will suffice. The icing on the cake is keeping the entire CV to one page.
Why this CV works
- It may seem like a leap to go from teaching to software engineering, but you can bridge the gap using your work history bullet points.
- 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 in your next role.
- 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 covering letter.
- If you’ve already had a lengthy career, you may be struggling to keep your teacher career change CV to one page. Using a CV template is invaluable here, as you can easily move sections to the side, adjust your margins, and fix your font type to give you some extra space.
View more teacher career change CVs >
Why this CV works
- So, you’ve decided to shake things up and step into the world of data science? Bold move, and we’re here to support you. To improve your chances, make sure your career change to data science CV highlights any relevant education or training.
- Navara got the idea right. Her degree in computer engineering indicates she has acquired the foundational knowledge to excel in a data science role (such as maths, programming, and analytical thinking). Essentially, all the things employers love to see in a prospective data scientist.
Why this CV works
- So, you’re a teacher looking to broaden your professional horizons into the world of human resource coordination. It is recommended to include a career objective to emphasise this change in direction.
- 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 CV. Better yet, let your bullet points demonstrate how you utilised these proficiencies in previous teaching roles.
Why this CV works
- What if you actually have experience in the job you’re pursuing (even though most of your resume is represented by a different career path)? In this case, make sure you allude to your past experience in your resume objective.
- An objective is only two to three sentences, so ensure each word delivers impact by highlighting your years of experience, skills, and enthusiasm for the role you’re pursuing.
- Some jobs may appear to be divided by a chasm of different skills, but you can usually find similarities to emphasise in your RN career change CV.
- For example, mentioning your adherence to GDPR guidelines can demonstrate to hiring managers that you will stick to the rules. On the other hand, explaining how you used active listening to assist patients will show your compassion and customer service skills.
View more nurse career change CVs >
Why this CV works
- Even a career change to a closely related role can benefit from a CV with a career objective. If you’re shifting from a project coordinator to an administrative assistant, you can utilise many of your existing organisational skills to succeed in the new position.
- Enhance your career change to administrative assistant CV with a concise summary that shows recruiters how to draw parallels between your previous experience and the target role.
Why this CV works
- Securing a job during a career transition can feel like threading a needle in a gale. A career change to marketing CV that highlights relevant transferable skills can help bring order to the chaos.
- Take Fioerall, for example. She details her time as a market research interviewer, which likely honed her marketing skills such as active listening, audience analysis, data interpretation, and crafting targeted messages. A period in customer service? That’s invaluable, too—consider communication, problem-solving, and relationship management, all of which are significant advantages in marketing.
Why this CV works
- Crafting your career change to an accounting CV requires careful attention to detail. Not every business professional can make this move—you need to quickly establish that you have all the necessary qualifications to perform the role.
- If you’re applying to be an accountant but it wasn’t your most recent role, be sure to add a qualifications section highlighting that you are a Chartered Accountant (CA).
Why this CV works
- Ensure your software engineer career change resume applies to standard resume formatting rules before you submit your job application.
- Begin by keeping your CV to a single page. Otherwise, you’ll overwhelm hiring managers (who will likely throw your CV into the recycling).
- It’s best to use reverse-chronological formatting on your CV to keep your most relevant job history at the top. While other formats aren’t necessarily wrong, they aren’t standard, and they’re harder for hiring managers (and the ATS) to read.
- Although your content is essential, the most critical part of your CV is your contact information. Otherwise, how will hiring managers let you know you’ve got the job?
- In your contact header, include your email address (ensure 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.
Why this CV works
- Few things will carry more weight in your marketing manager career change resume than the use of metrics. No matter how different your new career may be, an employer will be more likely to invest in you when they see measurable data from your experience.
- Numbers are everywhere; look for percentages related to your skills, such as how you improved efficiency or increased sales from the previous 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 received.
- Another helpful tip to propel your CV forward is by paying attention to the details.
- Things like only using active verbs and avoiding personal pronouns might seem minor, but they make reading your CV easier, which is crucial for recruiters and hiring managers.
- And speaking of details, always double-check your CV for proper grammar, punctuation, and overall flow.
Why this CV works
- If you don’t carefully check your resume for typos, proper formatting, and sentence structure, the hiring manager will likely assume you’re not attentive to details.
- Consider asking a friend, relative, or even a careers adviser from your alma mater to scan your CV 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”.
- Just because you’re in a technical field doesn’t mean you need to shy away from adding creative elements to your financial analyst career change CV.
- Add colour to your section headers (or company titles) and your contact header. This will create visual interest without being overwhelming.
- If you’re applying to work at a conservative financial firm, you may want to stick to traditional colours rather than pastel pink or lavender.
Why this CV works
- When you’ve found yourself pursuing multiple career paths, it’s hard to convince employers that you’ll stay with them. That’s why it’s vital that you tailor your resume for the job application, starting with your resume’s skills section.
- The keywords you include will help link your expertise together and demonstrate that you have the right abilities for the job.
- Begin by listing hard skills (also known as technical, learned skills) mentioned in the job description. If you don’t have many, then simply use soft skills such as “analytical” and teamwork.
- Speaking of skills, make it a point to drive your abilities home within your work experience bullet points. Maybe every job you’ve ever worked has required customer service skills, or perhaps you’ve needed computer and software proficiency.
- Whatever jobs you’ve had, find a common thread between them and the new role, then weave that thread into every job experience. It’ll be a subtle but powerful tool to enhance credibility despite multiple career changes.
Related CV guides
How do I write a Career Change CV?
Changing your career can open doors to better opportunities, set you on a path of learning something new, and even help you earn more money. However, switching careers isn’t going to be that straightforward, especially if you’re moving to a different field. You’ll need to do your research to identify the opportunities and update your CV to convince a potential employer that you’re worth hiring.
Creating a CV for a career change involves more than just listing past roles that you believe are relevant to the new sector you’re aiming for. Firstly, you need to showcase transferable skills that you would bring to the new field. Additionally, your previous experiences and how effectively you articulate your accomplishments from them are important. Lastly, you should explain your career transition in detail.
To master all these things, use our CV examples and follow the step-by-step guide to writing a successful CV for changing careers.
Use Keywords to Get Noticed
More and more employers are using AI to screen job applications. One of the things the AI is good at is looking for keywords from the job description in your CV. Therefore, you must use these key phrases to progress beyond the screening phase. Identify relevant terms that have been used and find skills that match them.
For instance, if the job advert lists leadership, management, and organisational requirements, ensure that your CV shows you leading teams, managing projects, and organising events from your past roles. You would also be safe to use industry-specific words depending on the field in which you want to find a new job.
Create a summary statement
In two to three lines, discuss yourself, your reasons for changing careers, your unique skills, and why you’re the best fit for the role. You will utilise everything in your professional toolkit to demonstrate to recruiters that you deserve their attention.
Typically, using active verbs and combining them with relevant keywords will enhance your application, and you’ll likely have a great day with the recruitment team during an interview.
What is a career change CV summary?
It’s a brief statement explaining to human resources managers why you’re making a career change and how your transferable skills would be valuable in the new role. It sums up your qualifications in a compelling way that would make recruiters want to hear more about you and shortlist you for an interview.
Example of a career change CV summary
Innovative and results-driven professional with over a decade of experience in software engineering, now channelling a passion for data-driven decision-making into a dynamic career in data science at IBM. I excel at uncovering insights from complex datasets, transforming them into actionable strategies that drive business success.
Showcase your transferable skills
On a conventional CV, listing your skills is straightforward because you’re applying for a job directly related to your career path. However, for a career change CV, the hiring manager may not immediately connect the dots between your previous work and the new industry you want to join. Therefore, your best strategy is to use transferable skills and demonstrate how you can use them to make an impact in the new job.
These skills should be the soft and technical abilities you’ve acquired from previous roles. Don’t just list them; go further and demonstrate how you’ve utilised them to achieve results. If used well, even without direct experience, recruiters would understand why you would be an ideal addition to their team.
Examples of transferable skills for a career change CV
- Problem-solving
- Collaboration
- Writing
- Planning
- Data analysis
- Programming
- Excel
Highlight the most relevant work experience
This section will influence whether you’re successful or not. So, ensure you only include the most relevant experiences from your employment history. Highlight the roles that demonstrate a natural fit for the new position and emphasise your adaptability to changing work environments.
When discussing your work experience, try not to focus on your responsibilities. Instead, highlight your measurable achievements, the skills utilised, and how you would make an even greater impact if you secure the new job.
Using numbers to demonstrate financial gains, time saved, and efficiency can effectively enhance your pitch and make hiring managers pay more attention. Additionally, use action verbs to start your job descriptions and highlight a results-oriented mentality in your pitch.
Finally, it’s necessary to explain any gaps in your career. You may have undertaken a personal project, taken a break for health reasons, or returned to education. Let a potential employer know about whatever you did during that period.
How to add relevant work experience for a sales manager transitioning to a marketing manager:
Work experience
Sales Manager
Butterfly
2021 – Present Seattle, WA
– Coached a team of 8 sales consultants in understanding ultrasound technology and the industry, developing sales strategies, and negotiating packages for healthcare institutions and clients
– Conducted client surveys to identify issues and needs and developed training to address unclear imaging, which improved clients’ experience by 23%
– Recruited and hired 3 sales consultants, enhancing their expertise and driving a 21% increase in sales of butterfly products
Include education and qualifications
Formal education demonstrates your professional background and informs employers that you have undergone training to learn the best practices for a particular industry. If you lack direct work experience, including your degree classification and coursework, it may help bridge the gap. When listing your education, use reverse chronological order, starting with the highest or most recent level of education.
Certifications are also essential because they tell recruiters that you are dedicated to the profession and eager to keep up with the latest trends. Such certificates also show that you comply with strict professional requirements and standards.
Education
Bachelor of Science
Business Administration
University of Washington
2014 – 2016
Seattle, WA
Qualification
Google Developer Programme, Google
May 2024
Coursework: Overview of Google Cloud, Setting up VS Code, Responsive design with Material Design, Firebase Authentication, REST API concepts, and Mobile app demonstration on emulator.
Career Change CV FAQs
A successful career-change CV would begin with a summary statement that outlines the candidate’s professional profile, past achievements, skills, and the reasons for the change. This would be followed by accomplishments from relevant roles, education, and qualifications to highlight the enthusiasm for the new career path.
It must include an impressive work experience section that highlights measurable achievements and emphasises the impact you would have if you successfully transition to the new role. Also essential are transferable skills that would seamlessly integrate into the new job and assist the potential employer in meeting objectives.
Yes. A career change CV differs from the traditional one, and you should update it to present yourself in the best light. Some of the key things you must update are transferable skills and the most relevant work experience to align yourself with the expectations of the new role. Also, every career change is different and would require a customised application to make a great impression on hiring managers.
Write a personal statement, focus on transferable skills, add the most relevant work experience and projects, and highlight your relevant education and qualifications. Also, ensure that you update your CV to align with the new industry. Finally, review your CV to eliminate any mistakes.
