You Are Not a Perfect Fit

Every once in a while, a client will say to me: “Here is the job I want. I'm a perfect fit, but I don't have experience in______.”

As long as you are setting yourself up for long-term success, I am all for punching above your weight and taking big leaps. I help clients with this kind of change all the time. But understand that not meeting some of the qualifications means you are not a perfect fit. Instead, you are an underdog and you have some hurdles on the track that other candidates – some of whom might actually be “perfect fits” – don’t have to jump.

Being realistic about how others are going to perceive your fit is critical. This allows you to tackle those things head on and provide the evidence that you offer other skills that you believe compensate for your missing qualifications. You’ve got some selling to do, and acting like you are a perfect fit, when you’re not, is not going to do you any good. Here are 5 tips for making a big career leap or transition:

1. Be realistic about the qualifications your are lacking and be prepared to explain why that doesn’t disqualify you. 
2. Be the most prepared candidate. Know everything you can about the opportunity (and the organization) and how you are going to make an immediate impact in your new role.
3. Know the unique value you represent and how to influence decision makers to recognize it.
4. Be ready to hear “no.” You may believe you are an ideal candidate, and you may be, but not everyone will see it that way.
5. Be ready to hear “yes.” It is easy to focus so much on getting a dream position that you forget to build a strategy for succeeding one you’ve landed the gig.

The Lady Doth Protest Too Much

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

That line from Hamlet – now broadly used to express doubt based on someone’s over explaining – often comes to mind when a client is adamant that every detail of their background, no matter how old, must be included on their resume. The reasoning, per the client, is that each position contributes to the perception that they are the most qualified candidate for a job. I completely get that thinking, but – based on the consulting work I do with small and large companies – I know that it is not an effective strategy. I want you to be armed with the best information possible, so here is the unvarnished truth…

1. Focusing on outdated or irrelevant positions in an attempt to bolster your qualifications is not effective. In fact, like that quote, many readers perceive this kind of “over sharing” as a sign of insecurity. It can send the message that you are not confident in your recent experience – in the impact you have made lately – and that you are trying to make up for that by throwing everything at the reader. 
2. Readers don’t have time to be regaled with your entire career history. They want to know what you’ve done lately and what you can do for them right now. That experience from 15 years ago may be a powerful part of your career trajectory (nothing can change that), but unless you have put those skills to work recently, potential employers are just not going to care when reviewing your resume.
3. To that last point, the reason most clients want to show older experience is because they want to capture something (a skill, a quality, an achievement) that they believe will pique readers’ interests. That makes perfect sense. But if you’ve not exercised that skill or achieved something as significant in, say, the last 10 years, then including that information on the resume could just frame your recent experience as "less valuable." 

Keep your resume current and have the courage to allow older positions to age off of the resume. Remember that there are other ways to honor older experience that you feel differentiates you (e.g., LinkedIn, during the interview process, a mention in the cover letter, etc.). Focus on what you’ve done recently and the potential impact you can have on an employer, not on aging experience that has little relevancy to readers today.

How to Find Your Passion

This post is part of my new Everyday Fulfillment series. This series focuses on tips for moving closer to – and embracing – fulfillment in all aspects of life. These posts address topics that frequently come up in my seminars and speaking engagements. They are also the topics that clients commonly want to dig into during Coaching sessions. I hope you find them helpful!

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Many people feel a lack of passion in their lives. Social media, movies, and television often glamorize passion and make us feel feel as though it's something we're just, you know, meant to magically harness. As in, if you don't instinctively know what you're passionate about, something's wrong with you.

Well, that's an inaccurate way to model passion and is probably a significant contributor to the fact that so many people are confused about what passion actually is.

Passion is the hum that emerges when your strengths and values are put into action.

We all have glimpses of passion in life. You know what I'm talking about because you've felt it. But when passion is not grounded in self-awareness, it's fleeting. When passion is not rooted in knowledge of your strengths and values, it's impossible to sustain it and elevate it to the most constructive, fulfilling levels possible.

Some passion-fostering questions for you to consider:

Do you put yourself in environments and around people that inspire passion? It helps! If you have passion, putting yourself in these environments is a booster shot. If you're lacking true passion, the inspiration can conjure thoughts that will help you along your path. Sporting events, arts events, conferences, and special-interest clubs are all good places to start.

Do you mistake other things for passion? Just because you spend a lot of time doing something, doesn't mean it's a passion. This is a big problem in today's world with so many of us wasting time, for example, curating presences on social media that are often driven by presenting yourself in a certain way rather than in an accurate, authentic way.

Do you chip away at knowing your strengths and values? Knowing yourself – and in this case, your strengths and values – is something that no one can take away from you, boosts confidence, and unlocks doors. 

The Best Format for a Resume

Several weeks ago, I published a post about “Marissa Mayer’s resume” that got a lot of attention and spurred a lot of readers to send off questions about formatting. All of those questions can be essentially summarized as follows: “If this is an example of a badly formatted resume, then what is the best format for a resume?” 

Long term readers of this blog will immediately recognize the following statement as something I say a lot: there is no best format for a resume. However, there some things to consider that will help to ensure your resume is effective. And, really, effective is the ideal when developing a resume, isn’t it?

When it comes to formatting, we have to consider 3 things: automated screeners, human readers, and strategic use of space.

Automated Screening Systems: If your resume is not formatted to perform well with automated screening systems, then the other two points are irrelevant because your resume will never actually be seen. When it comes to automated screening systems, anything beyond basic formatting can spell trouble. These systems scan for keywords, which can be hindered by things like columns, icons, and other design elements.

Human Readers: If your resume flows through the automated screening process and into the hands of an actual person, it will likely be free of formatting. Generally speaking, screening systems strip away formatting to present human readers with a plain-text version of the resume. It is best to format your resume with the idea that the formatting may be removed altogether.

Strategic Use of Space: For a resume to be effective with either screeners or humans, the content has to be strong. If your format is placing more emphasis on the design and less on the quality and amount of actual content, you could be in trouble. Not only will that hinder your ability to make it through the automated screening process (remember: keywords), but human readers will not be seeing quality content that compels them to get in touch with you.

Let me be perfectly clear, your resume needs to be aesthetically pleasing. I am not advocating for formatting free resumes written in Times New Roman. But I would take a plain resume full of compelling content – strong achievements, clearly targeted branding elements, etc. – over a pretty resume with weak content any day.