As you prepare your job search materials as a career changer, the biggest game changer for a successful career pivot is being able to share your experience from the perspective of your new field.
Your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your online portfolio (if you have one) need to be written/shared from the perspective of your new career.
Did you go from coffee barista to UX Designer? Share your previous experience from a UX Designer’s perspective.
Did you pivot from accountant to product manager? Share all of your accounting experience from a product manager perspective.
What does this really mean?
If you are a former coffee barista now entering the UX Designer field, share the great experiences your coffee-drinkers had when you served them their drinks. Share how you increased the efficiency of the user journey by reducing the amount of time it took from entering the coffee shop to having their drink in hand. Or, how customer satisfaction increased while you were team lead due to the extra training you provided.
If you are a former accountant entering the product manager field, share your incredible strength in paying attention to detail to deliver a better product. In this case, the product may have been tax returns, or quarterly statements. But, whatever it was, share your experience in delivering a better product. Share how you made that product more efficient, saving time and reducing potential errors.
Do you see what is happening here?
You are sharing your experience not only from your new field’s perspective, but using the terminology common in your new field.
For UX, you say user experience or user journey or user feedback, etc.
For product manager positions, you share your experience with products, improving a product, managing a product, being involved in the product life-cycle, etc.
Make your story industry-agnostic
An industry-agnostic resume is one that isn’t geared towards a specific industry (unless the position you are applying to is within the same industry you’ve worked in). Instead, you want your resume to be geared towards your next position.
Industry-agnostic can also mean not geared towards a specific field, but in this case you do want it to be geared towards your new field.
You steer your resume towards your new field by using words and terminology common in your new career field. And, eliminating words common to your old field.
For example, if you were a teacher, and now you are entering the social media world, your students were your clients. If you are entering UX design, your students were your users. Incorporate the language of your new field whenever possible.
This helps recruiters and hiring managers better understand the value you bring to the table. By doing this, you are connecting the dots for them.
Don’t share irrelevant experience
I know. You’ve done all these great things and you want to show your potential employer how great you are.
Don’t do this.
Only share with them the great things you’ve done that align with the top skills needed in your new field.
Recruiters and hiring managers don’t have a lot of time. As they quickly glance at your resume, you want everything to align with what they are asking for. Don’t distract them with experience that is irrelevant. Actually they won’t be distracted, they will just put your resume in the ‘no call’ pile.
Don’t bury the relevant information in the midst of irrelevant information. The recruiter or hiring manager doesn’t have time to decipher which is which. Make all of it relevant by including only your experience that aligns with your next position (ie. the job posting)
Sharing your experience from the perspective of your new career will be important for your resume, your online portfolio, your LinkedIn profile, and in your interviews.