One of the most difficult things to do that I have found with most people is that they do not know how to "package" their experience and expertise.
You Are An Expert
Let's be clear - you are an expert in some-one-thing or multiple things. You are. You have to be. The truth is this: you have just not learned how to step outside of you head (or body) and look at the work you have done and put in a conceptual box or multiple boxes that is understandable and digestible to the buyer (an employer) of your services.
You would not believe the number of people I meet or talk to that are interviewing for a position and they don't know how to explain what they have done or their expertise. What reflects this the most is their resume. And one of the first things most people like me or potential buyers notices is that the qualifications do not meet the speifications of what the client is looking for in order to hire.
Resume or Not to Resume?
Hold on a minute - I said "resume." In most cases, you will not even use a resume when you learn the concepts on this blog. Yes, I said it - not use a resume. The resume, as we knew it 20 years ago, is for all intents and purposes - dead.
But for the sake of simplicity here in this short article - let's use the resume as the basis of our discussion, because I want you to understand the concept of "packaging." What I mean by packaging is a concept of tailoring your resume to what the client is looking for. You can look at the resume today as your proposal to the client to demostrate how you have the experience and expertise to do the job the client needs to have done.
Now - earlier I said the old resume is dead, and resumes are not used any longer. Well, that is somewhat correct. The resume is dead if you are a consultant - in that your resume is no longer your "marketing device." This means the resume should not be sent to a thousand potential employers if you are applying for work. Please remember this - the resume is not a marketing device. And very rarily will it be used - ever - when you are a consultant. I am digressing . . .
Matching Your Skills to What the Client Needs
However, if you are contracting (or looking for full-time employment), you must realize that the resume really only a screening device for clients. It is the clients' first line of defense to weed you in or out. Clients use your resume to see if what you have done, matches what the client needs to have done. So to be perfectly redundant, because this is important, as a potential contractor, your resume needs to match what the client is looking for. This is the first step in understanding packaging. Needs must match skills. Where skills equal the ability to to get things done.
Okay? Got it? Because this is critical. I have seen very qualified people not - not - take the time to rewrite the resume to match the client's job specifications. Also - don't waste your time applying for an accountant position if your life's work has been in sales. Prospective clients just toss the resume into the trash bucket and become annoyed. And you waste a lot of time and hope. Staying in the metaphor of the resume - this is true of anything you are selling - especially when selling your capabilities.
Packaging Your Experience into Expertise
So back to packaging. Take the description of what the client is looking for and write out by hand on a separate piece of paper, all the things you have done under each item in their job description that matches. Do this in bullet form. What did you do, where did you do it? I digress there and realize it: Do this exercise by hand because your brain to hand back to brain creates a different connection than that of typing (trust me on this - I have read the studies and experienced this myself and taught this to countless number of people).
Okay - got it? (This is my pause - to make sure you digest this - I know it can be annoying. But I want to make sure you get things in chunks. By the way, you should do this idea of chunking too when working with a client.)
Okay - you wrote out the bullets under each one of the job requirements - what did you do and where you did it. Now in your resume, make sure you bulletize these in each place where you worked in the resume. Take out any and all irrelevant things that do not match what is in the job description - unless - they are related to the work being required by the client.
Okay - got it?
Now - with those things that you did that match the job description - answer the question in one sentence: what results did you achieve? What issues or challenges did you face trying to achieve the results? What lessons did you learn so that you wouldn't repeat them in the future? Did you create any new processes, any technology (new spreadsheet, form, templates, software), or something else, that would enable you and the people you would be working with - that eliminates problems, gets things done better, faster or cheaper?
Creating a "Communication of Expertise" Device
When you begin to write these things out - you are pulling your experiences out of your head onto paper, and creating a vehicle to communicate to the prospective client your expertise - on why they should hire you - without stating: "Hey, here's why you should hire me . . ." You are creating a "communication of expertise" device.
This is the beginning of packaging your expertise. When you follow these steps, you begin collecting what you have done, where you have done it, what results you have achieved, issues/challenges you ran into, and methodologies and processes you created that can be leveraged by the client to ensure that they get things done faster, cheaper, with more quality, without risk (or reduced risk).
When you do this - whether it for a resume - or not, you are beginning to clarify what you can do for the client. You are packaging your expertise. When you do this over and over - you become better at explaining what you can do for the client. You can take the same information and build a website, a blog, and - and - this is important - start targeting prospective clients better than without performing this key exercise.
By the way - when you talk to the client - this is the same method by which you prepare for the "interivew." We'll get into that later. And because there is a job description - this tailoring the resume to the job description is pretty easy. However, what if there is no job description? Or worse, what if the job description is written out - but it is inaccurate or flat out wrong? Well, we'll get into this later, as well.
Just remember this for now: everyone has expertise a client somewhere needs. You just need to learn how to to package your expertise better. And better means that it is easily understood by the client and it matches their needs.
We will talk to you later.
You Are An Expert
You would not believe the number of people I meet or talk to that are interviewing for a position and they don't know how to explain what they have done or their expertise. What reflects this the most is their resume. And one of the first things most people like me or potential buyers notices is that the qualifications do not meet the speifications of what the client is looking for in order to hire.
Resume or Not to Resume?
Hold on a minute - I said "resume." In most cases, you will not even use a resume when you learn the concepts on this blog. Yes, I said it - not use a resume. The resume, as we knew it 20 years ago, is for all intents and purposes - dead.
But for the sake of simplicity here in this short article - let's use the resume as the basis of our discussion, because I want you to understand the concept of "packaging." What I mean by packaging is a concept of tailoring your resume to what the client is looking for. You can look at the resume today as your proposal to the client to demostrate how you have the experience and expertise to do the job the client needs to have done.
Now - earlier I said the old resume is dead, and resumes are not used any longer. Well, that is somewhat correct. The resume is dead if you are a consultant - in that your resume is no longer your "marketing device." This means the resume should not be sent to a thousand potential employers if you are applying for work. Please remember this - the resume is not a marketing device. And very rarily will it be used - ever - when you are a consultant. I am digressing . . .
Matching Your Skills to What the Client Needs
However, if you are contracting (or looking for full-time employment), you must realize that the resume really only a screening device for clients. It is the clients' first line of defense to weed you in or out. Clients use your resume to see if what you have done, matches what the client needs to have done. So to be perfectly redundant, because this is important, as a potential contractor, your resume needs to match what the client is looking for. This is the first step in understanding packaging. Needs must match skills. Where skills equal the ability to to get things done.
Okay? Got it? Because this is critical. I have seen very qualified people not - not - take the time to rewrite the resume to match the client's job specifications. Also - don't waste your time applying for an accountant position if your life's work has been in sales. Prospective clients just toss the resume into the trash bucket and become annoyed. And you waste a lot of time and hope. Staying in the metaphor of the resume - this is true of anything you are selling - especially when selling your capabilities.
Packaging Your Experience into Expertise
So back to packaging. Take the description of what the client is looking for and write out by hand on a separate piece of paper, all the things you have done under each item in their job description that matches. Do this in bullet form. What did you do, where did you do it? I digress there and realize it: Do this exercise by hand because your brain to hand back to brain creates a different connection than that of typing (trust me on this - I have read the studies and experienced this myself and taught this to countless number of people).
Okay - got it? (This is my pause - to make sure you digest this - I know it can be annoying. But I want to make sure you get things in chunks. By the way, you should do this idea of chunking too when working with a client.)
Okay - you wrote out the bullets under each one of the job requirements - what did you do and where you did it. Now in your resume, make sure you bulletize these in each place where you worked in the resume. Take out any and all irrelevant things that do not match what is in the job description - unless - they are related to the work being required by the client.
Okay - got it?
Now - with those things that you did that match the job description - answer the question in one sentence: what results did you achieve? What issues or challenges did you face trying to achieve the results? What lessons did you learn so that you wouldn't repeat them in the future? Did you create any new processes, any technology (new spreadsheet, form, templates, software), or something else, that would enable you and the people you would be working with - that eliminates problems, gets things done better, faster or cheaper?
Creating a "Communication of Expertise" Device
When you begin to write these things out - you are pulling your experiences out of your head onto paper, and creating a vehicle to communicate to the prospective client your expertise - on why they should hire you - without stating: "Hey, here's why you should hire me . . ." You are creating a "communication of expertise" device.
This is the beginning of packaging your expertise. When you follow these steps, you begin collecting what you have done, where you have done it, what results you have achieved, issues/challenges you ran into, and methodologies and processes you created that can be leveraged by the client to ensure that they get things done faster, cheaper, with more quality, without risk (or reduced risk).
When you do this - whether it for a resume - or not, you are beginning to clarify what you can do for the client. You are packaging your expertise. When you do this over and over - you become better at explaining what you can do for the client. You can take the same information and build a website, a blog, and - and - this is important - start targeting prospective clients better than without performing this key exercise.
By the way - when you talk to the client - this is the same method by which you prepare for the "interivew." We'll get into that later. And because there is a job description - this tailoring the resume to the job description is pretty easy. However, what if there is no job description? Or worse, what if the job description is written out - but it is inaccurate or flat out wrong? Well, we'll get into this later, as well.
Just remember this for now: everyone has expertise a client somewhere needs. You just need to learn how to to package your expertise better. And better means that it is easily understood by the client and it matches their needs. We will talk to you later.
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