Candidates have come into my office with all kinds of projects and jobs. I’ve heard job applicants talk about coordinating the production of an iPhone App, raising money for a village in Africa, working in a business that plays the middle man between lottery winners and the government, and more.
The coolest jobs are often some of the most unconventional, which makes it difficult to translate that experience into a marketable resume should you ever find yourself needing or wanting to enter the traditional workforce.
Many of these candidates ask for assistance because while they may have spectacular experience, putting a non-traditional job on paper sometimes leaves hiring managers scratching their heads. The good news is that you can tailor your resume to meet the needs of the job while still touting your work history.
Here’s how:
1. Think about your transferable skills
If you have an unconventional or just plain random work history, it’s your job to find a way to make your resume functional. That means identifying a skill set that’s transferable and using it as your angle.For instance, let’s say you worked for a non-profit by raising funds and then also sold Mary Kay to make some extra money. In both cases, you had essentially the same goal: get someone to give you their money by using your marketing and selling skills. As a result, you would focus on how your sales abilities, whether you’re selling a product or a good cause.
2. Call yourself an employee when you can
It’s common these days to come across candidates who ran their own small businesses and had to close them down because of the recession. While I personally love go-getters and entrepreneurs, they can run into some real problems when entering the traditional workforce.The biggest problem is credibility. You can have all the legal documentation in the world, but you still won’t have the professional reference of a superior, making it difficult for someone to attest to your work abilities. The other issue is that anyone can say they ran a business, and sometimes they’re lying.
You need to list these businesses, of course, but don’t call yourself the owner or president on your resume. Instead, simply state the tasks that you accomplished, such as sales or operations, and when possible, show how you worked as part of a team. When the time comes for an interview, make sure you can quantify those accomplishments; that will help the interviewer feel confident you’re telling the truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment