More on Career Change: Career Change Home Starting a Career Change Self-Assessment for Successful Career Change Self-Assessment Profile Trying Out a New Career Overcoming Career Change Fears Resumes for Career Changers Financing Your Career Change Non-Profit vs. Corporate Sector Employment Career Change to Non-Profit World Understanding Career Transition Managing Career Transition Retreat and Renewal for Your Career Transition Additional Resources: Options for a New Career

One of the most important tools you are going to require in your reinvention marketing kit will be your résumé. Résumés are hard enough to write when you are sticking to your same career path. However, when switching to a new field, this task becomes a real challenge. Your old identity and experience may no longer be a good fit for your newly selected career. So what do you do? You can’t really ditch all the experience you have and not include it in your résumé.

Here are some quick tips for writing a career change résumé:

1. Get experience.
   The fastest way to gain momentum and switch fields is to obtain experience in the new career. And then, of course, portray that experience prominently on your résumé. So, if you haven’t got your feet wet in your new career field, think about how to structure some “experiments” (paid or unpaid) to expand your résumé.
   
   
2. Review job descriptions and understand your target audience.
   Before you begin to write your résumé, you should review the job descriptions for the positions to which you are applying. You should be clear on which skills, competencies, and knowledge prospective employers are seeking. Try niche job boards in your new field for job descriptions. If all else fails, use www.monster.com.
   
   
3. Know your Personal Brand.
   Your Personal Brand is the continuity that is going to ensure your success as you move from one field to another. Your Personal Brand and everything that is unique and compelling about you transfers from one field to another. But you can’t express it in your résumé if you don’t know what it is.
   
   
4. Think about perception.
   How do you want to be perceived in this new arena? What is the image or picture you want to paint in the prospective employer’s mind? If you are not sure how and what to sell to your target audience, then do some informational meetings and gather this information from those who currently work in the field you are targeting.
   
   
5. Identify your career accomplishments.
   Regardless of the focus and tack you are going to take with your résumé, you must know how you have added value and contributed to your past employers. Take an inventory of your accomplishments, and articulate your successes in concrete terms (increases in sales, cost reductions, productivity increases, improved team collaboration, etc.).
   
   
6. Don’t be tied to a résumé page length.
   Even if you have 20 years experience but a one-page career change résumé makes sense, then stick with that format.
   
   
7. Hire a professional résumé writer.
   If you cannot market yourself, finding a well-written career change résumé is KEY to your ability to get an interview and make the transition from one career to another. If you are not comfortable promoting yourself, and/or cannot write well, then hire a professional résumé writer to craft your résumé.

If you are looking for a good resource on this topic, I would suggest the book Expert Resumes for Career Changers by Wendy Enelow and Louise Kursmark.

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© Copyright, 2009, Randi Bussin. Used with permission.

Job-Hunt's Career Change Expert, Randi Bussin, founder and president of Aspire!, is a career coach and counselor with more than 25 years of business, entrepreneurial, and career counseling experience. Randi has experienced several major career transitions (from corporate to small business owner to career counselor to coach) and personally understands the effort and commitment involved. She has appeared on public television’s “Job Doctor,” and is a frequent contributor to Bridgestar’s Leadership Matters newsletter, The Ladders job-search Web site (www.theladders.com) and her own blog, which offers advice on career transition, job search, and labor market trends.