Writing a CV for a career change

A career-change CV has a specific job: help a reader see the version of your experience that's relevant to them, quickly, without asking them to imagine it.

Start with the reframe. Every field values a common set of things underneath its jargon — judgement under uncertainty, owning an outcome, working across teams, handling people or money or risk. Your last decade contains plenty of that. The task is to describe your work in those terms rather than in the private language of your old industry.

Then lead with a short, honest positioning line. Not "seeking an exciting opportunity", but a plain sentence: what you did, what you're moving toward, and the thread between them. "Ten years running operations for a logistics firm; now moving into climate, where the same work — messy systems, tight margins, real deadlines — is what's needed."

Use a skills or projects section to carry the transferable evidence up the page, and keep the role history factual underneath. If you've done a course, a side project, or volunteer work in the new field, it goes near the top — it's proof the move is real.

Don't hide the change and don't over-explain it. A reader can handle a career change. What they can't handle is not being able to tell what you're offering.