Companies often face the dilemma of departing from time-proven systems to implementing new approaches to help them keep up with the competition. To achieve this, they need efficient change managers who can help them tread the waters amid the shifting tides of the business world. But how do you, as an employee, highlight your change management experience on your resume?
You can add change management to your resume by highlighting your expertise. By using accurate data, describe the impact you made during a former job position. Highlight your change management skills and personalize your resume for a change management position in the company you are applying to.
You can take more steps to optimize your resume and bolster your chances of landing an interview. If you’d like a more thorough guide on this process, this article explains how to add change management to your resume in ways that will get a hiring manager’s attention and put you leagues ahead of your competition.
1. Analyze the Job Description
A mistake often made by many change management applicants is failing to take the time to analyze the job description. They read the job title and think they fit the bill without paying attention to the essential details.
Attentiveness to these details can mean the difference between landing an interview or landing in the pile of rejected resumes. The bulk of applications hiring managers go through sound generic because they are applying for the title, not the job. This makes an applicant’s interest in the position seem superficial.
Therefore, to show that you have a serious interest in the company, note the skills they are looking for in the job description, and mention them in your resume. This tells potential employers that you understand the company’s needs.
2. Personalize Your Resume for Your Target Job
Template resumes are off-putting to hiring managers. Some hiring managers will take one look at a generic resume and never get past the first section. Your resume should show that you understand the company’s needs.
Mentioning the company’s name and describing your skills that match those mentioned in their job description catches their attention and communicates to them that you have put a lot of thought into what the company is looking for.
It would also be helpful to check their website for their vision, mission statements, and core values. Mentioning personal traits that align with their core values could help you make an impression that will get you scheduled for an interview.
Knowing the company’s vision, mission, and core values also gives you an edge during the next step of the application process, which is the interview.
3. Describe Your Impact & Expertise Using Real Data
Your success in change management at past jobs could lay the groundwork for your future with the company you have applied for. Provide a bulleted description of how your change management boosted revenue and customer satisfaction ratings, while mentioning your experience in providing risk analysis and recommendations to executives through keynote presentations.
Be sure to use actual data instead of vague and unpersonalized quantifiers. This is a pet peeve for many hiring managers. Provide exact percentages because this information can be verified. Using inaccurate figures could get you disqualified as a candidate if you are found to include inaccurate data in your resume.
4. Show That You Have Effective Communication & Collaborative Skills
Change management entails motivating teams to work diligently towards company goals. This takes effective communication and delegation, and collaborative skills. The hiring company will be looking for someone who can motivate even those workers who may resist the changes.
Companies want to know if you can handle resistance to change. This resistance is to be expected because old systems have become familiar. Integrating new technologies in the workplace makes some workers feel insecure in their positions as they fear being replaced. You can read this interesting article that will further explain why this happens.
Here are the types of changes change managers will encounter:
- Transitional Change: Changes in operations but maintains much of its existing systems.
- Transformational Change: Involve a complete overhaul of company operations.
- Developmental Change: Changes that improve existing processes.
Describe specific changes that you have helped previous companies adopt. Specify your change management positions in bulleted form. Mention business deals you negotiated and describe how you collaborated with your team to mobilize them towards a company goal.
Additionally, include workplace rewards or recognition for your accomplishments in a humblebrag. Some companies recognize employees that excel in their positions at major company events, and you should use this to your advantage in your resume.
5. State Your Goals With the Company
I mentioned in a previous section that knowing the company’s vision, mission, and core values can help you frame a picture in your mind about the company’s goals and where you fit in with them in that respect. Be specific about your goals, citing experience and skills that can help you achieve those goals with and for the company.
6. Highlight Your Technical & Soft Skills
Your skill set determines your value to the company. Be sure to highlight technical and soft skills because you need some of both. The company will be looking for candidates that fit the bill based primarily on their skill set. While experience is important, not all experienced managers are skilled. Tenure doesn’t always equate to experience and skill.
Technical skills entail using tools or machines for which you will gain proficiency with time. Soft skills are interpersonal skills and are considered by many hiring managers as equally important, if not more important. Technical skills are easier to teach or learn than management and leadership skills.
Here are some change management technical and soft skills that will increase your value to the company:
| Technical Skills | Soft Skills |
| Analytics Strategic planning Statistics Microsoft Office Suite (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) Budget management Project management Surveying Competitive research Market research IT Business administration | Communication (written + verbal) Collaboration Presentation skills Client liaison Leadership Management |
7. Highlight Leadership and Management Experience
The work experience section is crucial to any resume, especially a change management resume. Companies want someone who can help them manage critical business transitions. And they’ll be looking for those with analytical and strategic planning skills.
They are looking for dependable leaders who can support the needed changes and motivate others to do the same. Therefore, it would help to highlight your expertise in change management, focusing on at least two of your most significant accomplishments.
Bring the hiring manager’s attention to these accomplishments by:
- Emphasizing how your change management has impacted businesses in your employment history.
- Mentioning your combination of technical and soft skills that have helped you fulfill that role.
As mentioned earlier, take note of the keywords in the job description and echo them in your resume, integrating them when detailing your work experience. This lets your prospective employers know that you clearly understand what is expected of you, and you can confidently use your skills to fulfill your role in the company.
8. Include a Professional Summary
A professional summary is like the closing argument in court. It ties all the relevant parts of your resume together. It mentions your career highlights, skills, expertise, and change management experience. Again, this is a good place to mention the keywords from the job description.
Final Thoughts
Remember to analyze the job description and integrate those keywords into your resume. Personalize your resume by including a professional summary highlighting your expertise as a change manager. And create a section highlighting work experience supported by quantitative data and certificates if available.
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