What are the common pitfalls to avoid when writing a career change personal statement?

We tend to give companies a Wikipedia page of all our past experience, thinking that we need to tell our whole story in order for it to make sense. Instead, you need to think in terms of a sales page. These organizations are only interested in about 10% of your experience and a concise explanation of the transition. Focus most on the value you would create for the organization with your background, how your unconventional past is actually an advantage, and allay any fears that you may take the job and realize this wasn't the right move.

To do this effectively, you can use your personal experiences as a filter to highlight what the role is asking for. Start by aligning values first, then move on to highlighting one or two skills that would translate well. Remember that your entire statement shouldn’t be more than 300-500 words. If you are unable to fit everything in, keep refining it until you can. For example, if you are applying for a teaching position, you could start by explaining why education is important to you and how you have demonstrated your commitment to it in your previous roles or projects. Finally, end with a strong closing sentence that summarizes your main points and expresses your enthusiasm for the role.

While writing a career change personal statement, you need to make it as reader-friendly as possible. It is your responsibility to convince the hiring managers that you are worth their time. Do not expect them to put extra effort in determining your suitability for the job. Explain why your career history and transferable skills offer a unique perspective that might add value to the team.

Remember that you are making a compelling argument as to why they should hire you instead of someone else with industry and/or job experience. There's a big shift to "skills" hiring; identify your transferable skills, and the reason behind your shift. It should include an emotional hook and compelling message. "After many years serving internal customers in banking environment, I am ready to move my passion for delivering exceptional service and devotion to creating loyal customer relationships to the exciting power sports industry. I've received many awards for 'going above and beyond,' and after researching the growth of your company, I feel confident that I can hit the ground running and begin to contribute right away."

My clients find getting out of their own perspective into the perspective of the firm and the capabilities that they need done - aka their potential *customers' use cases - is what works best. Who do you help do what? And this can be found right in your fave job descriptions- which, since it's for an employment contract, can be read as RFPs. (google it ;) Which enables one to bring forward the Right case studies for each position. Perhaps why rather than a personal statement, we do a positioning statement. Who we help do what. e.g. I help seasoned & emerging leaders find the career fulfillment they may have been looking for for 1, 3 or 5 years - in 30 to 90 days. Via classes or 1:1, reach out if you're interested! ;)

Your strengths are always transferrable. Consider taking an assessment like CliftonStrengths to identify your top natural talents. Then write one sentence about what each of your top 5 strengths means in the workplace. If you add a sentence or two of context to the beginning and string the five sentences together, you have an easy to write personal statement demonstrating the natural personal strengths you bring to any job.

Build a bridge for the hiring manager to walk across to see how your skills all transfer and support your new career. Don’t leave it up to the imagination. Focus on those skills you have identified as being highly impactful and important in your new career. Give us examples of what you have achieved in your past roles and relate them directly to your new career. The more blocks your bridge has the easier it is for us to walk across.

One standard piece of advice I see overstated is focusing too much on transferrable soft skills. Excellent advice for those early in their career. However, more experienced professionals trying to make an industry or sector switch must find ways to communicate their functional competencies. Let's take a real-life example with which I am familiar. Imagine you are a #finance leader with 20 yrs at the same high-tech company. Now you want to be a finance leader at a non-profit. You'll showcase soft skills, like good communication & collaboration in interviews as it comes through in your storytelling! You must convey you have the hard, functional expertise for the finance role at the non-profit & assure the hiring team of your skills.

Make sure to answer the question "what can I "do" for an organization- your value proposition will create interest for a company to have you in for an interview! Ilustrate how your transferable skills "show up" to others to anchor your statements and provide evidence and proof you are a great fit for the job.

In writing your explanation, I suggest being positive and unapologetic. Be real and explain in careful words why you decided to this track and emphasize your past successes, with transferrable skills to another industry. Get recommendations that highlights this too, telling a story of how you succeeded. Use keywords that will help find you in the search for these skills that work well in other areas or industries. Run this narrative by another person who has also made a similar change of industry or function. This will likely be a focus of the interview and you need to practice well enough to add more "meat" to the "bones" in your personal statement.

Own your story! First, you don’t owe anyone an explanation of why you are changing careers, it’s your life, do you. If you want to tell us why you made this decision to change careers, by all means, tell us. Keep it focused more on what you will gain as a professional than on the personal. You want to highlight what you have accomplished that is impactful for your new career. Don’t apologize. Make this career change a bold statement on how you are moving your career forward in a positive manner that suits your future. Tell us why this pivot makes complete sense and allows you to move toward your goal.

Storytelling is vital to any job change, especially for an industry, sector, or functional change. A big miss I see in this case is a failure to connect the dots for the decision-makers succinctly. It is easy to get nervous and spend too much time over-explaining. Ensure you have your unique value proposition & storytelling shored up before your interviews. A great way to practice & see if your story is landing is by conducting informational conversations to gather advice about the career change you are trying to make. What goes into your unique value proposition? 1. Know your strengths (think StrengthsFinder) 2. Know how your values tie in 3. Prepare your career story (3-5 minutes max) 4 Tie in how your experiences relate going forward

Speak from the heart. Talk about how the new industry or employer is alignment with your values. Build a bridge connecting your experience, knowledge, transferable skills, and abilities to those required in the new industry.

It is important to note that a fully flushed-out personal statement might be for your eyes only. Use this front-end work to create streamlined messaging for: - cover letters - networking conversations - interviews Test it out and refine it!

Proofreading and editing are so very important with any product you produce, be it your resume, your LI About, your cover letter, you name it, it should be reviewed and re-reviewed for correct grammar and spelling before you ever hit publish or send. Read it from the bottom up to catch any spelling errors. Your brain will have trouble correcting the misspelling this way. Then read it out loud, slowly. Focus on reading every word exactly as you have written it. You will catch any errors in grammar or missing words this way. Presenting yourself as someone with great communication skills, as shown through your writing is much more impactful than simply saying highly skilled in written and oral communication.

Choose your words carefully! Use powerful language and aim to use action verbs and opt for specific adjectives with a positive connotation. You could also support your claims with numerical data to help the reader envision you succeeding in a new career. For example, sharing improvements you made to key performance indicators (KPIs) in your previous career may demonstrate that you're results-oriented and strive for continuous growth.

Lots of great advice in the sections and contributing comments but sometimes it just about the conversations. If you are considering a change you will have been through lots of thought wrangling and have a sense of conviction already. Convey your passion and energy that you want to put into this new direction and how you are motivated to helping others, leveraging your success stories. You may not even need a supporting statement at all!

Here is a quick checklist of things you can do: - Connect the dots for the reader. Explain how you can do the job instead of assuming that the reader will understand. - Stay within 300–500-word limit. Be concise and honest. - Avoid focusing on the negative aspects of your previous or current career. - Showcase your passion commitment and value alignment for the new career. - Talk to many people in the new space you would like to operate in, just so they know you have real lived experiences.