| What's
My Job Title, Anyway? How to Explain
What You Really Do - on Your Resume |
| |
A friend of ours, Janet, works in the crazy, chaotic
always-changing environment of a small business
start-up. You know, one of those places that's
been struggling to become a "real company" for
the last three years. She's starting to think
about greener pastures and wonders what's going
to happen when she begins putting together a
resume to explain what she's been doing there
for the last year or so. Janet does not have
a title or a job description because the company
is so small and everyone wears many hats.
We advised Janet
to make a mind-map of all of the activities
she's involved with. In other words, keep
a brainstorm on paper of her contributions.
Here's what she
gave us:
content manager,
creative director, art director, content editor,
creative editor, editorial manager , administrative
manager, product marketing, public relations
liaison, marketing, creating advertisements,
conducting competitive and market analyses,
writing press releases, caption writing, initial
graphic user interface design, determining
clients' needs, conceptualizing new ways to
fill voids, executing ideas by acting as the
hub for various departments.
This was great! It
was quite a lengthy list to sort out.
We next advised
Janet to think about writing a functional
resume rather than a chronological one, especially
because she was expecting to change career
direction. She was thinking seriously of pursuing
a job at an ad agency. She liked the excitement
of such an environment and the opportunity
to work with a variety of different clients.
We showed her Yana Parker's Web site http://www.damngood.com
to see what we meant by functional resumes.
While Yana didn't
exactly have a resume for someone like our
friend at her site, one of the samples there
gave a good example of what we were after:
http://www.damngood.com/catalog/exmpl/katrina.html
We suggested that
Janet choose the words among her mind map
list that she'd like to use as "functional
headings" within the body of her resume. These
would be like the words in bold Italics on
Katrina's resume at http://www.damngood.com/catalog/exmpl/katrina.html
(Assessment, Clinical Case Management, Short
Term Problem Solving, etc.). Having this long
list to choose from would make the job of
creating divisions within the resume manageable.
She chose Administrative
Manager, Content Manager, Creative Director,
and Public Relations Liaison.
Janet saw how
she could list her specific contributions
under each area. Then for the word under Employment
History she chose the words Account Executive
to summarize her overall contributions since
she was carrying the equivalent workload of
someone with that title at an Ad Agency. These
words would also be better understood by the
people in the advertising agencies she'd be
networking with for job opportunities.
We told her that
this was perfectly acceptable to use a title
that better described her responsibilities
since she worked in a start-up. Just as long
as she wasn't stretching the truth. However,
before asking for references from anyone from
her present company, she should show them
her new resume and ask for their support in
substantiating the cluster of responsibilities
she shouldered, if not agreeing to the appropriateness
of the new title.
If you find yourself
in a similar situation to Janet's, we suggest
that you try the mindmap exercise yourself.
Keep a brainstorming list of the words that
most appropriately describe your work, paring
them down to the select ones that would work
as functional headings. Choose an overall
title that better describes your total responsibilities
within your current job. You'll be amazed
at how this process will help you better explain
what you really do.
Here's another
hint. If you'd like to stay put where you
are, use this process and resume style to
negotiate a raise or a greater stake in the
organization. Chances are you, as well as
your boss, has been underrating your important
contribution! |
