Guide
Career change: presenting your transferable skills
In a career change, your CV tells the story of one job while you aim for another. Transferable skills make the link: what you have already proved and the new job asks for.
Spot your transferable skills
Start from three or four adverts for the target job and list the skills they ask for. For each one, find a situation in your career where you used it:
- managing a budget, a schedule or priorities;
- training, leading or persuading;
- analysing figures, writing, presenting;
- handling a client or supplier relationship.
Note the context and the result each time: that is the material for your bullets.
Build the CV
- Title: the target job, when your training or projects support it, for example "Junior web developer, former accountant".
- Summary: three lines linking your experience to the new job.
- Experience: keep your roles, and rewrite the bullets to put first what serves the new job.
- Training and projects: place your retraining and concrete projects near the top of the CV.
Prepare for the interview
The question "why this change?" comes up almost every time. Prepare a three-part answer: what you learned in your first career, what draws you to the new one, and what you have already done to prepare. The guide on answering about your weaknesses also helps here.
Frequently asked questions
Should I keep my previous jobs on a career change CV?
Yes: they prove your reliability and your skills. Shorten the most distant ones and expand those that serve the new job.
Should a career change CV fit on one page?
One to two pages depending on your experience. What matters is that the recruiter sees the link with the role within the first third of the page.
How do I present retraining that is still in progress?
Give the title, the provider and the expected end date, for example "expected completion June 2027", and list the projects already done. See the career change CV.