Recently, I wrote about how your resume is quickly becoming a legal document in your job search. I described how companies are starting to treat a resume as a legal document when fact-checking your background. No longer is a resume a pure marketing document.
How can you tilt your resume if it is becoming a legal document?
First, document your titles, companies, employment dates, etc. with accuracy. However, to decide which accomplishments to include, you have complete freedom.
For job search, a fact-checker does not check your bullets.
Second, though, don’t go crazy; you must pair freedom with genuineness.
The purpose of a resume in your job search is to market you to your target employer and nobody else. Never market to yourself!
- Tell your story
- Showcase your accomplishments
- Provide rich examples
Create a bridge
How do you create bridges? Show transferable skills to bridge the skepticism in the reader’s mind. Let’s take an example…
Managing stakeholder relationships is by far the #1 or #2 skill you must show in your job search. You may have come from the airline industry in a marketing role. However, you need to prove you can excel in other industries.
Therefore, show a 360-degree of your relationship management skills.
Demonstrate your accomplishments with:
- Your direct reports
- Company department heads
- Vendors and clients
- Your senior management
Although you may have come from marketing in the airline industry, these skills are universal for any industry or job type.
My client needed to exit the airline industry
My client wanted to pivot to technology yet had been marketing in the airline industry for 10+ years. The pivoting process scared her. However, due to COVID, she had to get out. Anxiety!
First, the problem was she “identified” with the airline industry in how she expressed herself with industry jargon. Second, she focused her resume on examples of beating the competition since stealing market share was the only game in her town.
Stealing market share in a mature industry doesn’t necessarily translate well in your job search for working for a young tech firm whose market may be undefined or underdefined.
My client came to recognize and document her universal skills
First, I showed her how she needed to view herself as a universal marketer with strong direct to consumer social media skills. Then she started to open her mind. I asked her if she managed stakeholders, including all the ones listed above. Of course, she had.
Second, after documenting her accomplishments with all her stakeholders on her resume and LinkedIn profile (and not focusing on stealing market share), she saw in writing her universal worth for any company.
As a result, her confidence shot up! Throw in her intimate knowledge of Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn advertising and she was ready to hit the ground running.
Out of airlines and into financial services. Look for her ads in your feed!
If you want to build your confidence in your job search pivot, book a complimentary 20-minute call with me.