While career trajectories are almost always pointed upward, there can come a time, especially near the end of a long career, where life in the boss's seat just isn't where you want to be anymore. Maybe you miss interacting more directly with everyone, or perhaps you just want to take the weight of the business off of your shoulders and enjoy a nice career change before you retire. Whatever your reasons, you will still find that you need a solid resume to help sell yourself into a lower-ranked position with a new company. Let's take a look at creating a resume for a position of lower rank than the one you currently hold.



Start By Taking Inventory



Before you begin your resume, take inventory of your education, work history, experience, awards, and more. Look to see what skills and qualifications can be transferred into your new position and which ones align with your new goals. Tie as much of your work history as you can to your new, current objective and make an outline of transferable skills.



Start Writing Your Resume



In the past, as a CEO or other high-ranking executive, the focus of your resume was typically on performance metrics. What did you do for revenues? How did you improve workflow? Things like that. But as you move down the ladder, you may find that those metrics don't fit into your new job description. Your task with your new resume will be to look at those secondary experiences and learn how to turn them into primary ones. Take secondary skills that are relevant to the new position and lead with them on your resume. Position yourself for the job by showing how your various experiences make you the best candidate.



Write a Great Cover Letter



As an executive looking to downshift your position, you are going to have to work a little harder on your cover letter. First, you will need to focus on transferable skills and highlight what you can do to fit perfectly into the new position, but that isn't all. You will also need to explain why you are downshifting your career so that hiring managers will understand why there is an executive applying for a lower-ranking position within the company.



Downshifting careers is not uncommon, and many executives prefer it to retirement. Learning how to create a resume that sells your skills in a lower-ranking position can help you to land the job that you are looking for!