Are You Showing Your Resume Work Experience Correctly?
I usually read statements like these: “The work experience section of your resume will make or break getting the interview” or “The work experience section of your resume has to be structured carefully if you want to impress hiring managers”.
At first glance, I might agree with these statements but thinking carefully about it, it’s irritating.
Who defines what makes your experience worthy or not? What makes people chose some over others? See what I mean? Now, you are getting irritated, aren’t you?
In reality, it’s all about the qualifications.
Human beings react to lines. The more lines they see, the more qualified they think the individual is.
So, do more lines = more experience? My short answer is: I wish. Let me explain it to you.
Experience Is Not A Simple List
I’m not being arrogant in any way but there are people that aren’t worth the money they are paid. There are also people that are underpaid for the work they do.
Unless work is something you dream about for yourself, and not for others, your output only gets you to a certain level. You work just for the money to have the life you want. Period.
Experience, on the other hand, is a skill in itself because of that. You can have one piece of paper and you are supposed to document all your experience into it so people can qualify you.
Simple yet it is the most difficult task to do because people don’t care about documenting their experience. They just do.
So, if you want to show your experience as a skill that will get you any job, document what you do every day and pick stories from that highlight what you want. Usually, only two things are necessary.
Show Your Experience As A Skill
The first thing you need is to be a communicator. Being a communicator means that you can speak to anybody clearly without fear. Even if you are wrong, you humbly accept your mistake and work to not have it happen again. At a meeting, you look for truth and act on that.
Listening and empathizing is the most important qualities to acquire this. Also, if you don’t care about others, you will fail. So, try to care for your job, income and the family will support with it.
Secondly, you need to be a learner. Be quick at what you understand. Ask questions over and over until you get it. If you ask too many of the same questions, it looks like you can’t learn. So, be clear with your question and tell them your thought process behind it so they understand what you don’t get.
If you get used to this, you will learn quickly. That will makes you more experienced than a person with 10 years of experience. In 1 year, you can be a manager. In 5 years, you can own a company.
All of this without being stressed and having work-life balance. It’s all about knowing what type of person you are, how to take advantage of it and where you can be most useful. Or if you want to become someone different, show how you have been changing.
Communicator + Learner = Experienced
In Conclusion…
A list doesn’t mean you communicate.
A list doesn’t mean you learned anything.
So, here is the point of this article: Be both of those. Don’t slack. Do not think you deserve anything until you’ve mastered those things.
If you like talking, learn how to talk precisely by understanding. If you like studying, learn to communicate what you learn so others can use that information.
You’ll be worth 100k if you can do that. You’ll be surprised how many corporations pay people $1000s to teach THEIR employees how to be communicators.
Do it early and get any job you want.
Anyways, I’d like to know your thoughts:
What other needed skills an experience list cannot show?
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