Mid-Career Resume

If you’re a mid-level professional looking to advance in your career by applying for a more senior position, you’ll need to prepare a well-written mid-career resume.

However, because you’ve been working for several years (if not a decade or more), it can be tricky knowing what experience to highlight or which specific qualifications to focus on without making your resume too long, crowded, or hard to read.

To ensure that you write a clear and concise mid-career resume, below, we’ve included four professional writing tips and a template to help guide you through making a great mid-level resume.

1. Start with your core competencies

At this point in your career, you’ve likely been working for about a decade and have a lot of experience and qualifications to display on your resume.

Because of this, starting your mid-career resume with a list of your core competencies is the best way to grab the hiring manager’s attention and show them you possess the necessary skills for a mid-level position.

If you’re unsure which core competencies you should highlight on your mid-career resume, read through the job description and take note of any skills the employer is looking for.

Here’s an example of how to list core competencies on a mid-career resume:

2. Show career progression in your work experience

Progression in your career is important, especially if you’re applying for a mid-level manager position.

Hiring managers will want to see that you’ve consistently challenged yourself and developed as a professional if they’re going to hire you for a mid-career position that requires leadership skills to excel.

A good way to show career progression in your work experience section is by clearly listing your job titles (and any promotions you’ve received), and demonstrating that your responsibilities increased over time by quantifying your accomplishments using hard numbers.

Hard numbers typically include percentages, statistics, or any concrete figures that make it easier for a hiring manager to measure the results of your work and how you contributed to your previous employers.

Action verbs are also helpful to show the hiring manager you’re a dedicated mid-level professional that gets things done at work, and have the bonus of making your resume more interesting to read.

Here’s an example of an effective work experience on a mid-career resume (with hard numbers and action verbs highlighted):

3. List your education last

An education section is an essential component of your resume, but if you’re already years into your career, it’s best to list your education last on your resume.

At this point in your career, hiring managers are primarily interested in your professional work experience (such as the roles you’ve held, responsibilities, and career achievements) than what you’ve learned in a classroom.

When listing a degree on your mid-career resume, you’ll only need to include these three key details:

• University name and location
• Degree title
• Graduation date

There’s no need to go into details about relevant coursework, academic awards, GPA, or honors (such as cum laude) because these details aren’t relevant at this point in your career. As a mid-level professional, your career achievements will trump your academic accomplishments.

4. Don’t be afraid to highlight career changes

If you’ve gone through a career change, you might be worried that hiring managers won’t give your application a fair chance because it looks like you’re quick to jump ship and change jobs.

But in fact, depending on the job you’re applying for, having previously switched careers may be a strength you can highlight for a hiring manager.

For example, if you’re applying for a position in sales with a biopharmaceutical company, having had experience working for a medical firm will equate to product knowledge and previous experience in the medical industry.

The easiest way to highlight to a hiring manager that you’ve changed careers is by separating your experience in each industry with two or more distinct headers under your professional experience section.

Here’s an example of how to show a career change on your mid-level resume:

Mid-career resume template

Finally, here’s a mid-career resume template you can use to write your resume. Simply copy and paste the template into Google Docs or Microsoft Word to get started.

1. Resume Heading

FIRST AND LAST NAME

Email | Phone | Address | Linkedin 

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2. Resume Summary

Experienced mid-level [job title] professional with [# of years] experience. Proven track record of [relevant experience and skills]. Successfully oversaw/added [significant career achievements with hard numbers].

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3. Core Competencies

List core capabilities here that sum up your work experience | Try to include at least 5 | These are different from skills because they’re not transferrable and instead directly related to your current job title |

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4. Work Experience

Most Recent Job Title
Employer Name / Location / Start Year – End Year

• Include 3-5 bullet points describing your key responsibilities and career achievements
• Ensure your job title is easily readable (especially if you’re listing several positions or have changed industries in the past)
• Mid-level professionals will need to quantify their experience by adding numbers. This shows the hiring manager your work performance and how you’ve progressed in your career
• When listing technical skills and abilities, be as specific as possible. Use software, tools, or programs names

Previous Job Title
Employer Name / Location / Start Year – End Year

• Make sure to use the past tense of verbs if you’re no longer working for this position
• Ensure you include at least three bullet points when detailing work experience
• Use action verbs when listing your work experience, instead of phrases such as “responsible for” and “duties included”

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5. Education

Degree Name / Major                                       Degree Name / Major
University, Location | Start Date – End               University, Location | Start Date – End 

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6. Skills

• List 5 or more hard and soft skills that correctly portray the professional strengths that you’ve developed throughout your career
• Skills are different from core competencies because they can be transferrable from one position to another
• Hard skills are the technical skills you possess (related to the job you’re applying for), while soft skills are your personality traits