The Unemployed Life

Gigonomics: Repositioning Your Resume

The other day I applied for a job as director of the local zoo. As a media and communications professional, it might seem I am no more qualified for that kind of job than your average running shoe sales clerk at Scheels. But times are tough for job seekers, don’t you know, and this job was just sort of sitting there looking up at me with its big brown eyes and, impulsively, I went for it.

There were pieces of my past that gave me pause. Buried in my background, if not my actual backyard, was a variety of animal care failures that included goldfish, a hamster, and that disastrous ant farm that I had set on the window sill in full sun. When I was eight my pet chameleon, Zeke, escaped and was never found. For all I know Zeke still roams the suburbs of Chicago, rummaging through garbage cans and, having grown to pony-like dimensions, has inspired an episode of Fringe.

Okay, I could work around those issues. But my resume, for all its glowing eponymous tributes, was suddenly out-of-whack. I would have to make some adjustments. Rest easy, I am not advocating the fabrication of facts. But most of us have strengths which may very well translate to a job that at first blush appears off-center. Management experience, leadership, familiarity with budgets, and the ability to get along with others are essential qualities that play extremely well in a variety of employment opportunities and could provide inroads to a new career path.

A potential candidate can encourage those attributes to bubble to the surface of an application by examining the job requirements closely. There’s no need to camouflage your past. In fact, you can use your career experience to your advantage by pointing out how your previous employment has prepared you for this new opportunity, and describing how you plan to make the transition.

One tactic is to create a cover letter with a bullet point response for each specific job requirement. That way, you can be truthful about your previous background as you position it in a favorable light. For the zoo job, for example, I formatted my cover letter this way:

Ability to manage workflow and budgets.
As Managing Editor, I handled annual budgets in excess of $35 million. I developed a workflow analysis and story management system that helped prevent bottlenecks and freed up resources so that they could be devoted to priority issues.

Who wouldn’t like hearing that I’ve prevented bottlenecks—something universally despised—while at the same time easing budget pressures? To drive the point home, I’ve described a specific action.

A familiarity with zoo operations.
I have worked with both large and small organizations that require dedication and the ability to continually learn new skills. I made the transition from print publishing to a comprehensive knowledge of online media and have a lifelong commitment to ongoing education that would serve me well in this new capacity.

The issue becomes trickier when faced with a question about direct experience in a specific field. Again, honesty is an ally. You want to pave the way for an interview, where you will deploy your intelligence, wit, and knowledge of the subject.

To get that knowledge, it is imperative that you do research. Study the company and the new field you are contemplating. Check out the company’s website and review their mission statement—there are probably key words embedded in the mission statement, such as “innovation” and “progressive,” that you can work into your cover letter. Read the company history to get a feel for their current direction, and scan business news updates from local or national news organizations. Use your Facebook and LinkedIn network to seek out anyone who might be a direct connection to the organization you’re researching. Ask that person about the company, and if they know of anyone else who works there who might be willing to give you info about the corporate climate.

Overall, think of your resume as a template, tweaking it as necessary to fit the particular position you’re seeking. In these days of social media exposure, you also should tune your online profiles and posts. For example, I contemplated posting a few Tweets designed to give me that animally je nes sais quoi. Saw a cardinal today – how divine! and I think we should make Steve Irwin’s birthday a national holiday! I have no intention of being disingenuous, but one need not be shy about self-marketing. It’s an earned media world, after all.

These days, many job seekers are casting wider nets, and others are contemplating wholesale career changes. It may have been a bit of a lark for me to apply for the director of a zoo, but I’m learning how to be adaptive and facile, and how not to devalue all my hard-earned experience. Determination, perseverance, and a certain relentless optimism aren’t simply individual characteristics, they’re universal job requirements.

John Riha spent more than 20 years in magazine publishing including stints as managing editor of Traditional Home and executive editor of Better Homes and Gardens before being laid off in January. He now produces multi-media content, video, and, yup, is thinking about cranking out that novel. You know the one.

You can read all of John Riha’s columns here.

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Tags: animals, Gigonomics, job-hunting, The Unemployed Life, zoo