How to prep your resume and LinkedIn profile for a career change

As you progress in your professional journey, you may want to change your career trajectory. You may need to reevaluate how you construct your resume. Tailoring your LinkedIn profile can also have a positive impact as you navigate a career change.

By Timothy Mably

When you realize that you want to change careers, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. After years of relevant experience , you will need to course correct and potentially disregard previous expertise in favor of your future pursuit.

This can feel daunting on different levels depending on whether you’re fresh out of college, in the middle of your career, or closer to retirement. However, there are tools you can use in your professional transition to make the process smoother. It’s crucial to write your resume and tailor your LinkedIn during a career change to attract the work you desire.?

Resumes and LinkedIn

Career strategist Ana Goehner advocates for building your LinkedIn profile or resume “for the job you want, not the job you have.” Although honesty in presenting your professional qualifications should be a priority, you should also be mindful of how you curate experience and various skills .

Goehner says, “It’s about rebranding your transferable skills. You can port most of your skills to another job. As a customer service representative, you use written communication to reply to customer complaints. As an aspiring executive assistant, you'll use written communication for meeting minutes, correspondence, documentation, etc.”

There will inevitably be required skills in a new field that you lack, but you will never start from nothing. Bridging the gap between fields is a great starting point as you consider where you’re heading.

As you focus on transferable skills, you may surprise yourself at how well you fit a position based on a job description. A skills-based resume or LinkedIn profile can have the same power as the application of someone with years of experience. Goehner says, “Perhaps you’re a natural communicator or win others over with stellar persuasion skills. Or maybe you prioritize tasks in a fast-paced environment or pivot easily in a rapidly-changing environment.” These qualities can extend to a variety of industries.

Goehner recommends choosing around 5 to 10 job descriptions you find desirable and looking for common keywords. Then, add them to your LinkedIn profile in some capacity, whether in your headline, description, and/or under professional skills. As you incorporate these keywords, they will stick out to people you may choose to network with. They provide a sense of common ground as you build relationships with others through commenting on posts or sending messages.

Certified career coach Anne Genduso suggests a three-step approach categorized by researching, learning, and connecting. She says that as you discover companies and positions that catch your interest, you should be researching to find overlap with your experience. As you take note of the disparity between where you are and where you want to be, you will set a foundation for your career change.

When there are areas of expertise you need to have for a new field, consider LinkedIn Learning courses. These can be shown on your profile and stand out to hiring managers. By earning badges, you will demonstrate your seriousness about the career trajectory you have chosen.

After implementing these skills, Genduso recommends connecting with others on LinkedIn who have the qualifications you aim to have. She says, “Remember that building meaningful relationships means giving, not just taking, so be sure to build rapport and offer value before asking for someone’s time.”

Career coach Andrea St Jean takes it one step further and suggests asking people you network with if they would be open to touch base on a call. She says, “Find people on LinkedIn with the role you’re targeting and ask them for a 15-20 minute informational interview to ask them about what they like and don’t like about the role, how they got it, and any advice about moving your career in this direction.”

This bold and straightforward approach can differentiate you from others and showcase your ambition. Along the way, you will also become more prepared for what lies ahead in an unfamiliar field.

Changing careers is a challenge for anyone, no matter where they are in life. However, it’s far from impossible to manage by strategically curating your resume and utilizing LinkedIn to become the professional you desire to be.

(This article first appeared on Tuesday, August 16, 2022 on the Get Hired by LinkedIn News page . You can read the article, which was written and reported by Timothy Mably , by clicking here. )

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