Rules for People of the Random Resume
I am a member of a very special club, the People of the Random Resume. I’ve accomplished a lot in my career, but my resume leaves people with a furrowed brow, if not a headache.
I moved from studying Shakespeare to writing books to helping organizations navigate change to going to business school to helping people giving their money away well to coaching and writing, which is what I’m doing now. I’ve been engaged and challenged at each step, and if I had the choice, yes, I’d do it this way all over again.
There are more and more of us – people who aren’t bounding their careers by industry or function, but instead are weaving careers out of
Evolving passions and interests- Their particular strengths and skills
- The opportunities that show up
- Lifestyle needs (money, location, work hours, colleagues, etc.)
A lot of these people feel bad of about the lack of seeming order in their resumes. Many other people stay stuck in unfulfilling careers because they are afraid to change their industry or function, afraid to end up with a work history that sounds incoherent or odd, afraid of the financial costs or demotions.
Here are a few things for those of us with random resumes (or those contemplating making a big career change) to keep in mind.
1. It’s Just Tradeoffs. A random resume has some downsides, to be sure. Starting from square one learning about new industries can feel overwhelming and frustrating. With a random resume, it might take you longer to find that next job, or define your next pursuit. Major career shifts can mean pay cuts – though often they do not. Finally, a random resume precludes you from participating in very linear, hierarchical career tracks –you probably won’t end up as head surgeon or Supreme Court Justice doing your career this way.
But none of these things are the end-of-the-world outcomes that the little voice of fear in your head is threatening you about. They are simply tradeoffs, and you get to decide if the tradeoffs are worth it for you.
2. Discover the order to your path.
Your career path has an order and coherence to it. It’s just that that order may not be obvious at the surface level. It’s happening one level below the surface, in “the work underneath your work.” This is the work you actually do underneath your title, job, role, or project.
For example, my client Kalli has moved from finance to marketing to training roles across a few different industries, but consistently, she has been solving tough, time-pressured operational problems with a collaborative, consensus driven approach. That’s one of her major strengths, and it shows up in every job she’s been in.
What have you really been doing in your work, across your various past roles? Creating new ideas, building teams, negotiating relationships, problem solving, mediating, synthesizing, organizing, fire-extinguishing? Look at your work history through this lens and see what you discover. The work underneath your work points to your natural strengths and passions.
3. Find a way to talk about the work underneath your work, and look for opportunities to do it.
Find some succinct language to describe the work underneath your work so that you can share it with prospective employers, current employers, and colleagues. Look for opportunities to do more of that work in your current role as well.
4. See the big picture. Over the past few decades, deep industry expertise has decreased in value and it will continue to do so. As information becomes democratized, what used to be hard-to-gain “industry expertise” is becoming much more accessible–through online sources and ongoing education. Plus, as the pace of change accelerates, everyone is constantly learning their industry anew, whether they just entered it or have been working within it for a long time. For those of us with seemingly incoherent resumes, and for those longing to go do some thing that won’t make obvious sense on their resume, this is very, very good news.
(Adapted from a piece originally published at Dumb Little Man.)
Photo of random resume by The CV Inn. Photo of train tracks by *~Dawn~*.Licensed under CC.
