Career Change Cover Letter

Career Change Cover Letter - "To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are." unknown

When you're working on a career change cover letter, keep a few simple points in mind to highlight your skills and qualifications for your new job.

Focus on what you are moving toward, not what you are moving away from.
If you're leaving a career, there's a reason, maybe the long hours didn't suit your needs or perhaps the income potential was too limited. Whatever reason you have for leaving your last career, don't write about it in your cover letter, there's way too much potential for it to come across in a negative way.

If you are pursuing a new career, hopefully you've done your homework, and there are many great reasons why you are pursuing that particular career. Talk about those positives in your cover letter. Mention what excites and interests you about the new field of work. You'll make a much better impression on the employer if you focus on all of the positive things you are moving toward and not the negatives you are moving away from.

Don't apologize for your limited (or lack of) directly related experience in your new field.
Avoid a phrase like, "Although I have not worked in this field…" It does nothing but draw attention to a negative. Instead, confidently highlight any skills and experience you have that are related to your new field of work. If you've taken courses or been involved in volunteer work that is directly related to your new career, discuss that in your cover letter.

You can also talk about skills from your former career if they will transfer over to the new career. Highlight your most relevant transferable skills and describe them in the context of the new job. Avoid any jargon that is specific to your former industry, and focus on writing about your skills in language that suits your new career.

Here's an example of how to effectively use your cover letter to show how you will transfer your skills from your previous career to your new career:

I started my career as a music teacher, if I was writing a cover letter to apply to another job teaching music, I might describe my experience like this:"I have developed curricula for and taught private and group piano, flute, theory and early childhood music classes."

When I was changing careers and applying for my first career counseling job as a career workshop facilitator, I could have mentioned the same experience in a more general way that fit the new job:"I have developed, implemented and evaluated multifaceted lesson plans to accommodate multiple learning styles in a group setting."

A career change cover letter can actually be a bit easier to write than a career change resume, simply because you're not constrained by the stylistic requirements of a resume. When you're writing career change cover letters, focus on your new goals, not your old disappointments. Show the employer exactly how your skills and experience fit perfectly with the new career you are pursuing.