How to build your CV to successfully achieve a career change…..

A large amount of our clients find difficulty with how to successfully
demonstrate transferable skills to secure a role within a different sector or a
complete career change.

Often this is whilst working with clients who have built very successful careers within the military or police etc. At CVpal we also find that a large amount of ‘returners to work’ really struggle with the actual transition into employment and how to pitch the CV at the correct level. The main issue is under selling and lack of focus on what they want to achieve.

One of the most basic, but really successful, ways of aligning your skills effectively to match a role is to visit a general job site and input the ‘kind of’ role you want to secure at your ideal salary banding – remember do not under sell your salary, why shouldn’t you get paid the same or more?

Once you have identified about 6 specifications that match your aspirations, then print these all off and take a highlighter pen and read all the job specification. You will quickly notice that a large amount of the same wording is running through the specifications – at this stage highlight all the words. These are the key words you need in your new CV.

Make a list of these words and then reflect on your career and think how you can show / evidence these skills or competencies. It is very important to evidence the skills otherwise you are just listing words and, although this works for the key word search systems, it really doesn’t work as soon as an actual employer reads the document.

Once you have evidenced the skills you need to build the profile and key skills section around this. Use action words rather than listing duties and make it very clear how the skills transition. When you are writing about your career history keep in mind your end goal and ensure the content written is relevant and adds value.

One of the main topics we discuss with clients is that we write the CV focused at the role you want to achieve, not what your career history demonstrates.

This is how to secure an interview with every application!

Keep in mind your end goal and ensure the content written is relevant and adds value.