Whether you’ve recently lost your job, or you’ve simply decided it’s time for a change; switching industries can offer you a range of exciting new opportunities. The only challenge is that you need to re-purpose your CV and demonstrate how your experience is relevant to this new sector.  

This can feel like quite a daunting process, particularly if you’ve been in the same job or industry for a long time now. But with a little dedication, you can spruce up your CV and begin bolstering your skills to set you on the right track.  

In this guide, we’ll take a look at six ways you can repurpose your CV for a new sector; so you can begin your job search and land your next exciting role.  

Identify who’s hiring

You need to tailor every CV you write to the specific role and company you’re applying to; no matter what industry you’re in. As such, it pays to spend some time looking around and making a note of who is hiring. 

This will also give you some insight into the types of jobs available in you chosen sector and the key skills that employers are looking for. This will stand you in good stead for writing a CV that highlights the right skills and proves why you’d be an asset to their company. Even if you don’t have experience in that industry.  

Assess and highlight your transferable skills 

Just because you’re moving into a new industry, doesn’t mean you’re starting from scratch with absolutely no skills. Having a strong set of transferable skills under your belt can be just as beneficial.  

In fact, these are going to be one of your biggest selling points when you re-purpose your CV for switching sectors. Your transferable skills help to demonstrate what you can bring to the role; and how you can help drive the business forwards.  

Study the job descriptions of your new target roles and highlight your top transferable skills throughout your CV. This should only include those that are going to be relevant to your new industry. Remember, your CV should only be one or two A4 pages long, so you don’t have room to list lots of irrelevant skills.  

Take some courses 

Whether it’s an online one, or an evening class; taking relevant courses can help to bolster your skills and prepare you for a role in a new industry. Not only this, but taking on a course or two can give you new qualifications to shout about when you re-purpose your CV.  

Even if you’re currently in the midst of studying, listing these courses on your CV can demonstrate that you’re willing to learn and you’re always growing your skill set. This is a very desirable trait to employers and can be a huge selling point when you don’t already have experience in the industry.  

Re-write from scratch  

Trying to re-organise or re-write an existing CV can actually be more difficult; especially if you’re changing to a very different sector.

In these cases, it’s best to start over from scratch. This also gives you the opportunity to tailor your CV to your chosen sector and role.  

In the past, you may have placed a great deal of focus on your employment history and achievements section. When you re-purpose your CV for a new industry, it’s important to place more focus on your personal profile and (transferable) skills section.

As such, you may want to choose a different structure to the ones you’ve used in the past.  

Re-invent yourself in your profile 

As mentioned above, you need to put emphasis on your personal profile. This is the first thing an employer will read and it needs to grab their attention and encourage them to keep reading.  

While it can be tempting to talk about why you want to change industries, you can do this in your cover letter and/or interview.

Your personal statement needs to be short and sweet (around 50-200 words); so, while you might want to address that it’s a career change, don’t get hung up on this.  

Instead, talk about your passions and why you are interested in the role. You should also include some of your key transferable skills and impressive past achievements, as long as they’re relevant to the role/industry.  

It’s time to re-purpose your CV 

Once you have a better idea of the types of roles available to you, you can begin to re-purpose your CV to showcase your transferable skills; and show potential employers why they should hire you.  

And remember, it always pays to keep learning. So, if you feel like your CV is looking a little thin on the ground, consider taking some courses to help boost your skill set and qualifications.