Writing a CV for a career change

The problem with a career change CV is not that your experience is irrelevant. It is that the relevance is obvious to you and invisible to a stranger reading for eight seconds. Your job is to do the translation for them.

Use the summary to say it outright

This is the one CV where the summary is doing real work. Name the change in the first sentence. "Eight years in hospitality management, moving into operations — a licensing background, P&L responsibility and a team of thirty." A reader who understands the story in one line will read the rest generously.

Translate, do not omit

Keep the roles. Change the emphasis. Under each one, lead with the bullets that transfer and drop the ones that only make sense inside the old industry. A restaurant manager applying to logistics leads with rota planning, supplier negotiation and stock control, not menu development.

• Drop the jargon of the old field. A reader who does not recognise a term will skip the bullet.
• Keep the numbers. Scale transfers even when the domain does not.
• Name the tools that overlap. Rota software, ERP, Excel, a specific ticketing system.

Show you have started

A course, a certification, a volunteer role, a side project — anything that shows this is a considered move rather than an escape. Put it near the top, in its own section if it is substantial.