Whether you’re seeking to hire a change management professional or looking to showcase your career as a change leader, here is how job listings include change management.

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There isn’t a universal path to becoming a change management professional.

The practitioners in today’s change management community have a mosaic of backgrounds and experiences, and they tend to be more aligned with their soft skills than their career journey. Effective practitioners are often adept in:

• Emotional intelligence
• Conflict and stress management
• Perception and understanding of company culture
• Strategic thinking
• Communication
• Relationship building
• Nurturing trust and openness

Demonstrating soft skills on paper is more challenging than showcasing experiences, education and certifications. This can make it difficult to prepare job descriptions or resumes for roles related to change management.

As the discipline continues to become widely formalized and understood, we can expect more consistent roles and titles. Until then, this is what change management looks like – on paper.

How to include change management in your resume

For job descriptions or resumes, you can convey change management skills by including certifications, keywords or related skillsets.

Certifications

This is the obvious starting point. A change management certification is a clear indication that you have studied and applied change management to real-life problems.

LaMarsh Global offers two certifications that are internationally recognized:

1. Managed Change Practitioner Certification: Introduces how to apply change management to your projects.
2. Change Master Advanced Certification: Extends the training so you can be confident in leading changes and training others.

Similar to project management accreditation, these certifications demonstrate that you understand the nuances of implementing projects or changes. Even if your dream role does not involve directly managing change, Managed Change will empower you with a data-driven approach to work with teams. 

Keywords

It is better to match the words you include in your resume or job description with your goals. So, let’s take a step back and review the responsibilities of change practitioners.

The typical responsibilities of a change practitioner include:

• Collecting and evaluating stakeholder and organizational data
• Prepare risk mitigation plans and implement the plans.
• Monitor and evaluate the change at every stage.
• Train, support and communicate with leaders.
• Train, support and communicate with individuals who might be impacted by the change.

This list can be translated into skills that are important to change management:

• Certification: Achieved change management accreditation.
• Knowledge: Understands the change process and change management principles.
• Experience: Involved with or managed a change process.
• Leadership: Is goal-oriented, influential and effective.
• Sees the big picture: Understands the goals and culture of the organization.
• Team player: Maintains strong relationships with employees and managers.
• Communication: Has excellent communication management and skills.
• Problem solving: Uses data, conflict resolution and processes to find solutions.
• Coaching: Provides training and support.
• People management: Set expectations and standards, influence and communicate with employees, and prioritize work based on time and capability.

In addition, job titles can indicate change management skills without mentioning “change management.” Here is an array of terms related to change leaders:

Integrate related skills

Leverage the skills, knowledge and experiences in your professional background that are related to change management, including:

• Business acumen
• Leadership
• Effective change management communication
• Coaching
• Instructional design
• Training facilitation
• People management

Stand out with Managed Change

The roles that use change management are expanding to include top executives that improve the financial and competitive viability of an organization to project team members that want to improve the success of their initiatives.

For many people, the journey into change management is often an extension of their current role or responsibilities. Here is what a change management career path might look like:

LaMarsh Global's Practitioner Certification introduces the Managed Change methodology and best practices of change management. After the training, you’ll be able to begin applying change management to your projects right away.

• See how the Managed Change Practitioner Certification Workshop outlines the tools for all stages of a change initiative and the context for their use.

For experienced practitioners, LaMarsh Global’s Change Master Advanced Certification extends your training so you can be confident in leading and training other people while understanding how to select and adapt a change management methodology.

• See how the Change Master Advanced Certification Workshop helps you explore and assess organizational change strategies.

Even the best resume is still only words on a page. Your capability to manage change will set you apart from other candidates, so be sure to include descriptions of the changes you have been involved in and the outcomes they achieved.  

Learn more about LaMarsh Global’s change management training and certification opportunities. ■