The Resume Mistakes Professionals Make When Pivoting Careers — and How to Fix Them

Career pivots are exciting opportunities to evolve your skills and pursue new passions. But if your resume still clings too tightly to your past role, especially when you're trying to move into a related but different field, you risk getting overlooked.

One of the biggest mistakes professionals make during a career pivot is focusing too heavily on their current experience, without bridging the gap to the role they actually want. This disconnect becomes even more critical in fields like resilience, where terminology, core competencies, and industry expectations can vary significantly.

Let’s break down some of the most common resume mistakes and how to fix them:

1. Clinging to Old Terminology

If your background is primarily in Continuity of Operations (COOP) or Emergency Management, but you are targeting roles in Business Continuity or Crisis Management in the private sector, language matters.

Hiring managers (and their Applicant Tracking Systems) are looking for keywords aligned with the role they need to fill. If your resume is loaded with government-specific terms but doesn't reflect private-sector language like Operational Resilience, Business Continuity Planning (BCP), or Enterprise Risk Management, it may never make it to a human reviewer.

Fix it:

Adapt your terminology to the audience you want to reach. You don’t need to erase your government experience—frame it in a way that shows relevance to business continuity, crisis management, or operational resilience. Even a simple reframing of your responsibilities using private-sector language can make a major difference.

2. Missing a Future-Focused Tagline

Many resumes open with a tagline or branding statement like “Seasoned Emergency Management Specialist” or “Experienced COOP Coordinator.” While these may describe your background accurately, they don't signal the direction you're headed.

In a career pivot, your tagline should reflect the role you are pursuing, not the role you're leaving behind.

Fix it:

Use a headline that matches the position you want. For example:

“Business Continuity and Crisis Management Professional | Risk Mitigation | Operational Resilience”

This immediately signals to hiring managers (and automated systems) that you’re aligned with the role, even before they read the first bullet point of your experience.

3. Listing Responsibilities Instead of Transferable Achievements

Professionals often simply copy and paste job descriptions into their resumes. When pivoting, that approach sells you short. Employers don't just want to know what you did—they want to know how your accomplishments translate to solving their problems.

Fix it:

Highlight transferable skills and achievements. For example:

• Instead of:

"Coordinated COOP plans for agency operations."

• Rewrite as:

"Developed and exercised continuity plans that safeguarded critical business functions across diverse operational units—experience directly transferable to private-sector business continuity frameworks."

Focus on outcomes like risk mitigation, operational preparedness, stakeholder coordination, and crisis communications—terms that resonate strongly in the business world.

4. Failing to Showcase Core Competencies

Professionals pivoting to a new field often skip a Core Competencies section altogether—or worse, they include competencies tied only to their former role.

But in a competitive market, recruiters want a quick visual snapshot of your key skills related to their needs.

Fix it:

Feature a Core Competencies section that blends your existing strengths with the demands of the new field. Examples could include:

• Business Continuity Planning (BCP)

• Crisis Response and Communications

• Risk Assessment and Mitigation

• Stakeholder Coordination

• Operational Resilience Strategies

• Executive Reporting and Presentations

This immediately shows you have the foundation to thrive in the private-sector role you're targeting.

When you pivot your career, your resume must pivot too. It’s not enough to showcase where you’ve been—you need to clearly demonstrate where you’re capable of going.

That means:

• Updating your terminology to match the private sector.

• Writing a tagline aligned with your desired role.

• Highlighting transferable accomplishments, not just duties.

• Showcasing core competencies that bridge past experiences to future potential.

A well-crafted resume doesn’t just reflect where you’ve been—it positions you for where you’re headed. When it comes to positioning yourself in today’s resilience job market, it helps to have someone who knows what hiring managers are really looking for. We’ve spent over 25 years recruiting specifically in the resilience space—business continuity, crisis management, operational risk, and more. We understand the resume formats, keywords, and messaging that capture attention and lead to interviews. Our goal is simple: to help you present your experience in a way that aligns with where you want to go. We're here to support your career growth if and when you need it.

Sign up for our BCM Career Alert notifications at https://www.bcmanagement.com/business-continuity-jobs to ensure you receive timely new career notifications matching your search preferences. You can also find great candidate video content posted on the BC Management YouTube channel. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you might have. Arrange a complimentary discussion today at info@bcmanagement.com.

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