Intro
Changing careers can be a real challenge. You need to prove to hiring managers that you’re capable of handling duties and responsibilities without having a wealth of experience to back up your claim.
This article will teach you how to write a cover letter when changing careers while keeping your approach clear and concise.
So settle in, get your typing fingers ready, and let’s get started. Soon enough you’ll be that much closer to nailing down your dream job.
Start strong
Right off the bat, you need to set the tone for your cover letter. Try to communicate how excited you are about the job opportunity.
Put the opening line of your cover letter to work! Don’t begin with an exhausted old trope about being the perfect individual for the job, and avoid leading with the sentence, “I’m thrilled to obtain [function] at [Company]” if you want to optimize your opportunity to draw the hiring supervisor in.
Be honest with the hiring manager or HR professional about why you have an interest in the listed position.
Assess your strengths
In any cover letter, you need to be honest with yourself and the hiring manager when it comes to your current strengths and weaknesses in relation to the job in question.
Don’t lie about having experience in a certain area of expertise.
Hiring managers are infamously busy throughout the course of their workday, so do not send them on a scavenger hunt to figure out how your experience might make you an excellent fit for the job.
Connect the dots for them as plainly and concisely as possible. Bullet points can be effective in doing this in an organized and effective way. It can also break up the formatting of your cover letter and make it easier and more pleasing to read.
Look at the job listing and try to address the top three to five skills that are required for this function, and after that briefly explaining how your past work experience connects to each of these skills.
Hiring supervisors can’t help but be impressed by hard numbers and facts. Be sensible here.
It’s also important to acknowledge some of your own shortcomings as well. If you do not have any familiarity with a particular subject, don’t mention it in your cover letter. Stretching the truth might land you a preliminary interview, but your fib will generally overtake you in the end.
Ask yourself what the most important information is. If you could only tell a hiring supervisor three things about yourself, what would they be?
How do you desire to market or package your experience? For example, are you a tech-savvy client relations professional eager to bend your talents in a sales function? Are you a remarkably organized workplace manager seeking to make a move into personnel management?
Are you a graphic designer turned software application engineer on the lookout for a job where you can blend your imagination with your technical proficiency? Use this part of your cover letter to stress the qualities that make you a special individual and employee.
Explain the shift
Towards the end of your cover letter, make sure that you give the recipient some background information that will help them understand why you want this job, and why it’s different from your previous work experience.
This is where you explain the ‘why’ behind your profession change. Were you inspired by a relevant occasion? Have you constantly, secretly wished to be in this market? Did working on a side job trigger your interest in pursuing it full-time?
Offer the hiring supervisor a little insight into why you’re so ecstatic about their job opening, regardless of your unconventional background.
In some cases, having a diverse work background can be a big advantage, as it gives you a different perspective on the work in question.
Just remember that, above all else, hiring managers and HR professionals want to know that you’ll be able to handle the job with ease, and with a minimum of on-site training.
Keep it positive
One of the most important things to keep in mind when writing a cover letter for a job that’s different from your past work experience is to keep the letter positive overall.
For example, rather than saying, “I know I do not have any direct experience with worker training …” write something like, “Having operated in a dynamic business advancement environment for the past 4 years, I’m ecstatic about the chance to leverage my individual experience in a sales enablement function.” Think about the last lines of your cover letter as the closing argument.
Make certain to keep the end of your cover letter on-topic. You need to be highlighting what you can do for the company, not the other way around. So while you may be truly thrilled about the concept of discovering all there is to know about digital marketing, now isn’t the time to discuss it.
As we mentioned earlier, if you lack experience and expertise in a specific area inherent to the job, don’t discuss this lack of proficiency in your cover letter. Once you earn yourself an interview, you can discuss these deficiencies, but a cover letter isn’t the best place for this.
Take steps to show your enthusiasm and excitement for this position. Try to end on a high note, mentioning how much you can offer to the company and how much you’re looking forward to working for this company.
