Reader Soledad is getting fed up of the job they’ve been doing – but they’re worried their CV is keeping them stuck. Our Jobs Guru James Innes is here with some advice
I’m in my early 50s and I’ve been thinking for a while that I would quite like to shift direction a bit in my career.
Not something wildly different which would mean starting again from scratch. I would like to move into something a little different to what I’ve done up to now. But I don’t quite know where to begin!
My CV is, obviously, mostly a record of the jobs I’ve already done, which have been different to the job I’d now like to do. So how am I supposed to handle that?
How do I show where I want to go next without making it look as though I’m just trying my luck?
Soledad, Manchester
Not to worry, Soledad. A common problem – and not an intractable one!
Many people get to a certain point in their working life and realise they don’t especially want another ten years of exactly the same thing. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, I would say it’s definitely healthier than just plodding on doing something which no longer appeals to you.
The difficulty is that your CV is naturally weighted towards your past. It shows what you have done, where you have been and what people have paid you for before.
So you have to help it along a bit when it comes to getting it to point towards your future.
You don’t want to pretend you are somebody else, of course. It’s best to be honest about the shift – and intelligent about it too.
The trick is to bring forward the parts of your background that travel well. Transferable skills, if you like – although I realise that phrase has been done to death. Leadership, client handling, operations, commercial sense, project delivery, staff management, problem-solving – whatever it is in your case. The bits that would still matter in the sort of role you now want – and which will equip you to handle it.
If you can show a recruiter that this is not a mad leap but more a sensible move sideways then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t achieve your goal.
Top Tip:
Don’t write your CV as if it’s an archive of everything you’ve ever done. Write it so that the bits most relevant to where you want to go are given the space to shine.
Spotlight On: Career moves
A lot of perfectly reasonable career moves can look much more dramatic on a CV than they are in real life.
On paper, it may seem as though somebody is suddenly trying to reinvent themselves at 53. In reality, they may simply be moving from one part of a field into another, or using the same skills in a different setting.
If your CV reads like one long tribute to your old career, don’t be too surprised if employers assume that is all you want. But if it makes the case that you have already been doing parts of the new role all along – just under a different label – the whole thing becomes far less alarming. Make the move look sensible rather than fanciful.
Get a head start in your job hunt with James’ new book, The Job You’ve Always Wanted – out now from Pearson at £16.99.
Our Jobs Guru, James Innes, is a best-selling careers author and founder of the world’s leading group of professional CV and resume writers .