Crafting a Career-Changing CV: How to Create Your Own Job and Present Yourself as the solution to company pain points

Writing an attractive resume is easy when you know what you want and what grabs the reader's attention. But what if you're looking to break into a new career? Traditional resume advice often falls short for those seeking to transition into a different field.  As more and more candidates use AI to generate their resumes, it is critical to stand out by being unique. So, what makes a resume unique? 

Let’s consider this: If you had a pile of 150 resumes to go through, what top five attributes would catch your attention? Keep in mind that recruiters can’t spend more than a maximum of 1 minute per resume. 

It is easy to design a resume if you’re a 100% match, meaning you have all 10 technical skills, you have 5 good-to-have skills, you have experience in the field, and the resume is easy to read and well-constructed with clear subtitles. With such a resume, you will most likely be invited for an interview. Then, of course, that doesn’t mean you’re selected for the final round of interviews. Anyway, writing a compelling resume is easy if you stay within your field and have all the required skills.

But what if you want to make a career change and lack skills and experience in the field you’re interested in? Many of my clients are in this situation, and they all adopt a very different strategy. This strategy involves 1) exploring and learning about the labor market, 2) expressing your energizing skills to identify a job field you find attractive, and then learning about the new job field jargon and task priorities. The latter is important as when selling yourself to a new job field, you most likely will get questions like: 

🌟 Why would you be a fit for this job?

🌟 Why do you want to change your job field?

🌟 Why should we pick you rather than a candidate with relevant experience?

You have to prepare yourself for questions you might not yet have an answer for, but by exposing yourself, you learn what motivations you must add to your future resume. 

After leaving Academia and looking for a corporate career, I found myself in a similar situation. It took me time to figure out a strategy that would help me create a career-changing resume. Here’s what I did:

🌟 I spoke to industry professionals to understand what they were looking for, what competencies companies would need in the next six months, and what risks they saw in hiring someone like me.

🌟 Explored My Energizing Skills: I asked what job fields my skills indicated or where I might fit within their organizations.

🌟 Sought Advice: I asked, "If you were in my situation, what would you do?"

After about 20 calls, I had a fairly good idea about my challenge and began devising a strategy. However, I also realized it would be harder than I had expected. Ultimately, I created my own job by identifying a gap, a so-called pain point, in a recruitment company in Sweden. I was their first Recruiter with a PhD in Life Science, and many others followed my path.

How to get started:

‍Embracing Your Future Career Story

You must embrace your new aspiring future. If you don’t believe in your future, why should any prospecting company do so? Learn to articulate your energizing skills—those tasks and priorities that give you energy. Be honest about why you want a change and how you reached this decision. It’s okay if you don’t know the exact job title that suits you—understanding the type of people you want to work with and the tasks that energize you matters. 

Identify Gaps and Create Your Own Job  - Headhunt Your Own Job

You can learn companies' pain points by researching and talking with professionals. Check if you could fill that gap. Specific training and experience are required in some professions, but in others, the company might be willing to pay for your training while you’re working if you have unique knowledge, skills, or competencies complementing their existing team.

In my story about becoming the first PhD recruiter in Sweden, I identified the gap and presented a solution to the hiring manager. When I started, I was the only life science person in the company at the PhD level. When recruiting professionals for the pharmaceutical industry, I spoke the language of the hiring managers and candidates. 

Shift from a Skill-Based to a Value-Based Mindset

In a career-changing resume, you need to shift your mindset from showcasing technical skills to demonstrating the value you offer on a broader level. Identify what companies need, explore why they potentially see recruiting you as a risk, and figure out who in the company you have the best chance of convincing you are an attractive candidate. Remember, there will always be people who believe you!

‍Presenting Yourself: More Than Just a Resume

In the end, a resume is just a piece of paper, so start working on finding hidden and unseen jobs. Expand your strategy beyond your resume by using LinkedIn, networking events, clubs, online workshops, and other activities to make yourself more visible. 

Last, work on your elevator pitch, as you will need it when you least think about it. Most jobs come as a surprise when you least expect them.

Good luck!

Tina Persson, PhD | CEO, Passage2Pro

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