Your motivated skills and your dreams help you set your long term direction. In order to go somewhere, you must know where you are right now. In this chapter, you will look down and see where your feet are. You will become more pragmatic. What have you done so far in your life? What do you have to offer the world?
What Do You Have To Offer?
In deciding what you want to offer, first list all you have to offer a menu to choose from. When you go after a certain kind of position, emphasize those parts that support your case. If you decide, for example, to continue your career in the same direction, you will probably focus on your most recent position and others that support that direction.
Someday you may decide to change careers most of us will have to. Or if most of your adult satisfactions have occurred outside your job, you may want to change something about your work life. If you decide to change careers, activities outside your regular job may help you make that change. Twelve years ago, when I was interested in changing from computers to advertising, I offered as proof of my ability the three years I had spent at night promoting nonprofit organizations. My portfolio of press coverage for those organizations was my proof. Later, when I wanted to work as a career counselor, my proof was my many years' experience in running at night, the seminars I had given on job hunting and career development, and so on. When I wanted to continue working in business management, I simply offered my on the job experience in making companies profitable. If you have available the entire list of what you have to offer, you can be more flexible about the direction you want to go.
How To Select Your Job Target
A person working for the government who wants another government job has to be low key in stating his accomplishments. He can't brag, for example, about the famous criminals he has captured. However, the following resume went on to list Harold's extensive certifications and commendations (which took up an entire page), followed by all of his specialized training and courses, which took another page, followed by his education and then outside activities that showed he was a good citizen (Cubmaster, etc.). It is easy to see that he has always been an outstanding performer.
Only the basic resume portion is presented here so you can see how he understated his accomplishments. Do not worry about the resume length at this point. For now, focus on listing all of your accomplishments. By the way, Harold's resume helped him get the major promotion he wanted.
How You Will Use Your Accomplishment List
Your list of key accomplishments will help you interview, write cover letters, and prepare your resume. It is the raw material for the rest of your job hunt. In fact, you may refer to this same list for years to come.
These are the key selling points about you the things that will make you different from your competition. They will whet the appetite of the reader, so he or she will want to meet you. The purpose of a resume or cover letter is not to tell what you did, but to get interviews. During the interview, you can elaborate on what you did.
Case Study: Thomas Warren
We all have trouble slating our accomplishments
Tom Warren stated his accomplishments in a pretty standard way: he listed the jobs he's had and what he did in each. The problem is that his resume does not address what Tom really did in each job. For example, in the last job on the page, he states that he managed eight Manhattan bank branches. We had already completed his Seven Stories exercise, so I knew there was more to his personality than this. Here is how our discussion went:
Think about what you've really done. For most people, the problem is not that they stretch the truth on their resumes; the problem is that they don't say what they've really done.
Figuring out what you've really done is much more difficult than simply reciting your job description. That's the importance of doing the Seven Stories exercise. It helps you step back from a resume frame of mind so you can concentrate on the most important accomplishments of your life (in terms of what you really enjoyed doing and know you also did well). Then the exercise helps you think about each accomplishment in terms of what you really did: what led up to the accomplishment, what was your role, what gave you satisfaction, what was your motivation, and so on.
We added those parts to Tom's resume and left the rest alone. In fact, the parts we added are the only ones that really matter so those parts are highlighted and the rest become the background.
Now Tom has a good sales piece one that truly reflects what he's done. You can see that Tom's new resume tells a completely different story than his previous one and positions him for the kind of job he'd like to have next. This new resume is a strategic document. It looks ahead, not back. It is aimed at what he would like to do next, and states those things in his background that support what he wants to do. In addition, it highlights those areas that were the most satisfying to Tom. Now he has increased his chances of finding a new job in which he can repeat or build on those satisfying experiences.
When you write down your accomplishments, think about your future and those parts of your accomplishments you may want to emphasize, and think about what you've really done.
If You Think You Haven't Done A Thing With Your Life
Many people are intimidated when they see other people's accomplishments. They think they have none of their own. Chances are, you aren't thinking hard enough about what you have done. As you can see from Tom's example, even obviously accomplished people struggle to express what they have done.
If you think you haven't done much, think again. If you are reading this book, we already know that you are competent, ambitious, and intelligent. Even the lowest level clerks have accomplishments they are proud of. At all levels in an organization, people can be presented with problems and figure out how to handle them.
Don't compare yourself with others, and don't worry about what your boss or peers have thought of what you have done: maybe they did not appreciate your talents. Brag about what you have done, anyway even though your boss may have taken credit for the work, and even though you may have accomplished it with the help of others. Think of problems you have faced in your company. What did you do to handle them? What was the result for your company? Think of an accomplishment. Write it down. Then pare it down until you can show the reader what you handled and the impact it made.
Finally, don't say anything negative about yourself. Don't lie, but don't hurt yourself either.
