There are times when client projects are challenging. A career change resume is an excellent example of this.

How do you write a resume for the new job target when the client’s background contains limited or no relevant skills? This can be a hurdle whether you’re a new or seasoned resume writer.

The best approach is to consider common (core) skills and expand out from there. Consider accounting, customer service, general management, human resources, information technology, purchasing, sales, and marketing.

Many job roles have overlapping skills, so there are almost always transferable skills to be found. For example, a Waitress, Office Manager, and Marketing Executive use sales, financial, and customer service skills, while a Director of Leasing, an Attorney, and a Boat Salesman deal with human resources and general management, too.

Focusing on common skills found in all positions enables you to highlight relevant skills and experience despite any drastic job title change (e.g., Pastor to Purchasing Manager).

Once you start writing, you should certainly include some of those irrelevant skills. However, steer the content to emphasize what’s relevant to ideal hiring companies now.

One way to approach this is by considering a customer service rep who wants to pursue an outside sales position. Although this person has never held a sales title, she has relevant and sales-adjacent skills.

These skills include:

• Scheduled Follow-up Calls With Customers
• Performed Customer Support
• Handled Certain Client Projects
• Processed Client Communications
• Reported on Inside Sales Activities
• Promoted New Product/Service Launches
• Supported the Company’s Exceptional Customer Program

We cheated a bit with the above by picking someone who already does SOME sales as part of her role.

So, let’s consider the Pastor moving to a Purchasing Manager, as we mentioned above.

Many churches are small, so it’s not uncommon for a Pastor to manage the purchasing budget, research and secure vendors/suppliers, negotiate new contracts (e.g., A/V equipment), monitor office supply levels, and so on. Managing a church is very similar to managing a business, so finding relevant skills is undoubtedly doable.