Career Pivot
Your experience counts. It just has to be described in the right language.
A resume written for the role you are leaving rarely makes sense to somebody hiring for the role you want. This session works through each participant's actual work, finds what carries over, and rewrites it as evidence for the new role, without claiming experience they do not have.
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A reader scanning for the new role will not translate your old one for you.
Somebody who has run vendor relationships for six years may have exactly the habits a procurement, operations or partnerships role needs. If the resume says 'coordinated with stakeholders', it does not show that. A reader looking at many resumes sees a job title from a different field, and moves on.
Transferable does not mean everything transfers. Some of what you know is specific to your old field and will count for little in the new one, and a resume that pretends otherwise is found out in the first interview.
The task is honest translation: find what is truly similar, say it in terms the new reader uses, and be clear about what you are still learning.
From your old work to the new role
34 topics across 7 areas. Seven steps, each done on your own examples.
List What You Actually DidStart from tasks, not job titles.5
- Every role, with the tasks that took most of your time
- Projects you owned from beginning to end
- Problems you solved, and how
- Things you taught, set up or fixed that nobody asked for
- Tools, methods and documents you used often
A title is a label the company chose. The tasks are what you can describe to somebody else.
Read the Target Role CloselyThe new role's own language.5
- Ten or fifteen real postings for the role you want
- The tasks, tools and phrases that keep recurring
- What is a must-have and what is a nice-to-have
- How people in that role describe their own work
- The words you use for the same thing, which they do not
Match HonestlyThree columns: carries over, partly, not yet.5
People tend to over-count what they know when they are keen, and under-count it when they are anxious. Another person reading your examples is useful for exactly this reason.
- What is the same work under a different name
- What is similar but at a different scale or in a different setting
- What you have not done and need to learn
- Which gaps are common for people making this move
- Which gaps would stop you being hired, and which would not
Skills Beyond the Job TitleThe ones that travel well.5
- Working with difficult stakeholders or customers
- Managing deadlines, trade-offs and incomplete information
- Writing clearly for people who are not experts
- Learning a new domain quickly
- Running something with money, people or risk attached
These matter, but each needs an example. 'Good communicator' is a claim. A specific situation is evidence.
Rewrite the ResumeEvidence for the new role, in its own words.5
Do not rename your job title to match the new role. A background check compares titles with what your employers report, and a mismatch costs far more than an unusual title does.
- A short summary that names the direction, not only the history
- Bullet points that lead with the part relevant to the new role
- Results where they are real and you can explain them
- Relevant projects, courses or volunteer work placed where they will be seen
- Cutting detail that only matters in the old field
Say It AloudThe same story, in under a minute.5
- What you did, what you have learned, where you are headed
- One example that shows the link
- A plain answer to 'why should we hire somebody from another field?'
- What you do not know yet, said calmly
- Practising until it stops sounding rehearsed
Close the Gaps You CanSmall, specific, visible.4
- One or two gaps that appear in most postings
- A small project or piece of work that shows the skill
- A conversation with somebody doing the job now
- Which gaps can wait until you are in the role
Common mistakes when describing experience
- Listing duties instead of things done
- Using the old field's jargon throughout
- Claiming experience you do not have
- Changing job titles to look more relevant
- Writing one resume for every target
- Leaving out relevant volunteer or side work because it was unpaid
What participants leave with
- A work inventory with examples
- A carries-over, partly, not-yet table
- A rewritten summary and key resume lines
- A one-minute spoken version
- A short list of gaps to close
How the session runs
A short walkthrough of the method, followed by writing time and pairs or small groups where participants read each other's examples and say what a reader from the new field would understand or miss. People who have changed fields explain how they described their own experience. Bring a current resume and one or two postings for the role you are aiming at. Evening or weekend sessions, in person or online.
What your students leave with
- An inventory of the work you have actually done, with examples
- A short list of what carries over to your target role, and what does not
- Resume lines rewritten in the language of the new role
- A summary at the top of the resume that points at the new direction
- A spoken version of the same story, in under a minute
- A clear list of gaps to close, instead of a vague sense of not being ready
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Say what you have done in the language of the work you want.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.