GHDC: Your Work Won’t Speak for Itself

Get Hired During COVID Misconception #7: Your Work Speaks for Itself

You might think you’re the cock of the walk because you made the big dingus work at your last company. It’s right at the top of your resume. First bullet under the most current job. “Took ownership and saw Project Dingus to completion, on time and on budget.” Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.

The hiring manager has no idea what you’re talking about. What is Project Dingus? Why should anyone care?

If you can’t articulate the business impact of the work you do, you must as well write your resume in Swahili and hand it in. It’d make just as much sense to the hiring manager.

You need to talk about your work in generic, easy-to-understand terms. You can, of course, use relevant keywords that a resume skimmer will pick up (could be a computer, could be a recruiter, could be the hiring manager).

And there’s tons of evidence out there that if you’re a woman, you’re far less likely to speak up about your work. If you think that’s you, I highly encourage you to listen to a podcast called “Advice To My Younger Me,” episode 15 with Sara Holtz. She says that women, especially when competing with men, need to speak up to make their work visible to others.

Here’s some advice from recruiter Allen Plunkett on how to make your resume stand out: 

Use metrics, like showing how much revenue you created as a result of being the head dingus or ... the processes you improved and how that translated into money. Another reason you need to mimic the words in the job description is because your company may well say dingus when every other company in your industry says the exact same thing, but their word is flatus – hate to see someone not get hired just because their dingus is actually a flatus. Seen it happen a million times.

Tracy Olnhausen points out: “If you put a ton of metrics in your resume, be ready to back them up. You saved the company $1 million? You better be able to back that up!”

Note from Ellis:

Speaking up for your work as a woman can be difficult, especially since on the job, you can enlist an advocate. But on the job interview, you’re the only one who can speak up for you. One issue I’ve encountered a few times is that my work will be hidden behind someone else’s name (often but not always a man’s). When you’re speaking on such a project in an interview, bring up the project’s success, what exactly you did and how, and where necessary note that byline/credit went to an executive/wasn’t exhaustive of collaborators.

Want to know specifically what to do to make sure your work speaks for itself, especially in LinkedIn? Check out our course, “Get Hired During COVID.”