By Faith Ogundoyin

Since COVID-19 entered our world, many workers found themselves surrendering a sense of ease and comfort that they were used to in their earlier jobs. Four years on, many still feel this way – like they are living in limbo because they cannot find their paths in an AI-controlled workspace. In their survival mode, switching careers looks like the next best thing they can do and this requires taking a leap of faith into the dreaded unknown that demands new skills. 

Admittedly, a switch to a different job can be tedious, yet it does not mean you are to be totally clueless.

Before you apply for that exciting new job, ask yourself if your CV demonstrates your newly discovered abilities and expertise. Will they be relevant to this position you are seeking? For a successful job search, your improved talents ought to be highlighted. The first is to demonstrate your ability to learn quickly. Assure recruiters that you have the necessary skills to succeed in a new position.

So, the question now is, how can you do this?

When writing a job change CV, keep in mind that you will be competing with people who have been in the same profession right from the start and that inadvertently places a burden on you. Your situation means having to work much harder to succeed. As a result, take as much time as you need while editing and updating your CV. This will ensure that it is targeted to the new industry to which you intend to apply.

You might have been wondering why you have not gotten any responses from the companies you have been applying to. Do you know that you have all it takes for the new jobs you apply for? Yes, you do. You just need to devote hours to making your resume great. Your CV is, after all, your most crucial tool while looking for a job. Even for positions you know you are qualified for, you still don’t obtain enough interviews despite all your efforts. What’s the reason?

• You do not include keywords in your application: You might be surprised to learn that after you submit your resume, it typically goes to a machine rather than a person. In actuality, there’s a decent probability that no one will ever read your résumé. To beat the AI-enabled recruitment software that will be screening you, relevant keywords and registers must be included. Let’s say it is administrative work, the words that must be in your CV are admin, HR, statistics, management, account, etc. because they are demanded in this field. Please choose the appropriate one that suits the new endeavour because the machine is designed to sort out all the CVs by keywords first, after this all other requirements would follow.

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• You portray yourself as incompetent in your profile: Now that you have chosen a new career path, making the correct impression is crucial because your profile is a key component of your CV and it reveals everything about you to the hiring manager. You have to convince them that you are capable of the job. To do this, build clarity in the categories that have been listed in your submission. If you have included a milestone section, show a thread that considers connectivity. It all happens through the power of storytelling, which is an essential skill on its own.

• You are not convincing enough: You must know that 90 percent of your experiences must relate to the role you are applying for if the prospective employer is to be convinced. The hiring manager needs to be told that you are suitable for the job regardless of your former profession. By the way, your former job is not totally lost in this. Most of the time, it becomes an advantage. Let’s say you were a Marketing Communications Officer in your previous experience and you are trying to venture into UI/UX now after learning about design software, your former life should give you an advantage as you enter a new field that triumphs from the contributions of a marketer who has mastered marketing concepts. In your new CV, you are encouraged to show a link – how these separate paths align.

See! It is not so hard. Now that you know all the essentials involved in writing a CV after a recent career switch, you can now go for your dream job.

Do not forget the main points – relevant keywords that enable the machine screening you find your submission worthy of being recommended to the busy HR desk, and you must also be seen as competent and convincing by the human interviewer who now asks you over for a test. These are hardly all the things you must consider, but they sure improve your chances compared to earlier when you were shooting blanks all over the place.