So, you’re ready for a new challenge at work. Perhaps you’re looking to move upwards into a leadership role or searching for a job that has greater responsibilities. Or, perhaps you want to change industries or switch careers into a completely different function. The only problem is, you’ve been knocking it out of the park in your current position because you go out of your way to proactively seek projects, assignments, and tasks. Your job title understates all that you do in the workplace, and you aren’t sure how to reconcile those differences on your resume. Don’t worry; by taking a targeted, tailored approach, you can craft a glowing resume even when your job title may not reflect your current responsibilities and skills.
Always begin your job hunt by having a fundamentally strong resume; one that is results oriented rather than task oriented. The caveat here is that not only is the language and wording important, but so are the numbers. This means that everything you include on your resume needs to be quantified whenever possible and focused on concrete deliverables. Don’t just say that you saved the end user time, say that you reduced reporting time by 10%, and that in turn decreased labor costs by $1 million annually. Both the actual metric being measured and the translation to the company’s bottom line are essential.
When searching for an aspirational role – one that is bigger in scope or responsibility than the position you have today –it’s important to customise your resume specifically for the opportunity. This means you can’t take a blanket approach to applying for the job. It’s important to begin by reviewing the job posting in detail and identifying the top responsibilities for the role. Try writing them down verbatim; then describe specific past accomplishments that establish you as an experienced professional in those particular areas or fields. Remember that you can tailor your results to best fit the needs of the business, industry, or function. For example, if you’re applying for a leadership position when you don’t currently have any team members. But, perhaps you’ve mentored several associate-level employees and supervised summer interns. As a result, you can say that you have indirectly led and developed five entry-level associates and interns, building individual career development plans, providing feedback and coaching that resulted in promotions or job offers for four out of five candidates.
If there are large gaps between your formal job title, you may want to consider formatting your resume so that it captures your relevant competencies, accomplishments, and qualifications. One way to do that is to develop a robust “summary” section that identifies and highlights what you bring to the table as a candidate, rather than focusing on the companies or industries you’ve worked in. If you’re hoping to lead a portfolio of products, rather than one product, this summary section gives you the perfect opportunity to point out the cross-functional work you’ve done handling several products at a time. Think of it as directing the hiring manager to see what relevant abilities you have. This approach can also help quite a bit when you are trying to change industries. Once you’ve identified challenges and problems unique to that industry, you can point out pertinent experiences and results.
It’s already an intimidating experience to seek out the next step of your career; and it can be even more difficult to write a resume that accurately reflects all that you’ve accomplished. Fortunately, it’s possible to open doors into more aspirational roles; both those that are at a higher level, or in a different industry or function. By writing a solid, results-driven resume, and being comfortable with tailoring it to the opportunity, you can increase the odds of having a hiring manager consider you for the position. Taking a targeted approach to identify the business’s needs and what experience you have that make you the perfect fit, can allow you to highlight what you’ve achieved in your current position. These tactics may make all the difference in your hunt.
