How to change your cover letter and resume when you want to switch careers [4 steps]

Have you ever been burnt out at work and just needed a change? Sometimes it isn’t enough to just switch settings or buildings. Sometimes you have to go all out and get a whole new career.

To make a change that big, you need to have a great resume that can get your foot in the door and get you the chance to interview for it. It’s a little harder than doing so in your current career, but not impossible by any means. People do it all the time!

This can be a very challenging task if you don’t have plan. Luckily for you I can provide some very easy pointers to help you out.

I switched careers after 16 years as a PTA into online work. BEST DECISION EVER! Check out my article on how and why here!

Step 1- Go on a fact finding mission about one specific job

Find out everything you can about the new job you want to do. This doesn’t take as long as you imagine. Set aside 20 minutes to just focus on this one task. This part can easily be done on your phone while you sit and wait at a doctor’s appointment or hang out for carpool to start.

A great way to do this is through college websites, job descriptions on search engines, job listings on social media (like LinkedIn) and through company web pages (Facebook/ company blogs). You can gather everything you need for

What a job entails
What kind of employee a company is looking for
What the education requirements are

It’s good to keep an actual list of these things. This way you’re not relying on memory when it comes time to draft the resume.

Step 2 – Look for common keywords or descriptions

These will be your best chances of getting your resume actually looked at.

With more and more applications being accepted online, this is getting to be a bigger deal than it used to be. Hundreds of resumes can come in daily for a job that is posted online. They don’t all make it to a real person. Many times, an online program is scanning through the resumes for certain words and tossing out the ones that don’t contain them.

If a job description emphasizes certain skills, be sure to include them in your resume.

If you don’t have a specific skill that is a job requirement I would put that in either the cover letter or the resume itself. The program will still catch the words and flag them through the system as containing them. Example: If the job needs experience with Power Point, you could write, “I do not have current experience with Power Point applications at my current job, but I am taking a course to remedy that gap in knowledge. “

If you do get an interview then you can always go over the ways you are attempting to gain the experience you need that you’re missing. But you’ll never have that chance if you don’t get that info on your resume so you can get it seen in the first place.

Be sure the plug in the top terms. You’ll know it’s a top term if you see it on multiple job notices. You don’t have to stuff both the cover letter and resume with all of them though, spread them out between them.

Want to make it even easier! Use this DIY Resume and Cover letter Kit. It includes preformatted Word templates you can just fill in.

Step 3 – Adapt your current job experience to the new job

Duh, right? Easy to say.

Here are some examples: I’m a PTA so most of my tips are going to be from rehab skills —> to the something new job.

Maintained 90% productivity and good note writing skills = Efficient and fast paced while maintaining detailed information across computerized systems
Part of an interdisciplinary team = Works well in a team environment
Take detailed medical history = Proficient at data mining and processing large quantities of information
Good at medical terminology = Bilingual (just kidding)

Try your best to make the terminology fit the role. This one is good for a mindfulness role playing exercise. Sit back and close your eyes and imagine yourself in that new role. What sort of vernacular would you use? How do you think a professional in that job would sound? Use this exercise to write your resume in that tone.

Step 4 – Rock the Cover Letter

Cover letters are so important! This is where you can show a little bit of personality and sell yourself beyond the objective skills on your resume.

Be sure to hit the most important notes on here.

Why you are great
Why you should get looked at
Why they can’t live another day without you
What you can do to solve their job opening problem

This is all any employer wants. To find the right person, with the right fit, for the right job. If you go over all the ways you can make their lives easier and fix their problem (a vacant position) you are one step closer to snagging that job!

Don’t stop at just one!

If you have multiple jobs you could see yourself doing, then do this for each one. Make as many resumes and cover letters as you need to apply to all sorts of jobs. Once you do the first one, it will be easy to do for the rest.

After you have this part done you’ll then need to get started on the real job search footwork. Check out this article on how to actually get the interview and get a job offer. It goes over a super easy to follow, 4 step process that will improve your chances of getting a job offer.

If working from home is more your style, go to this article to find out more about Virtual Assistant work. I changed over to online VA work 4 years ago as my main job and it has pushed PTA work to the side completely and replaced that income. I can’t talk enough about how wonderful this has been for my peace of mind and work/life balance.

Check out this book if you want more help writing your resume and cover letter.