Your Resume

How to introduce yourself independent of your employer

One of the most useful and yet limiting tools of transition for a long serving employee is the Curriculum Vitae (a.k.a. resume). You may look at it and think that it doesn’t quite articulate who you are. While that may be true to a large extent, you need to be concious of two things:

1. You define you

Your CV doesn’t define who you are. You define you and it is in your best interest to be bold about your accomplishments and capabilities. It is also in your best interest to get your own description right.

2. Separate your identity from the company that employs you

When you have served in an organization for long, you somehow tend to lose your true identity as there is more of your company’s culture and identity in who you are in the corporate world. Drawing from my personal example, I used to be known as “Elizabeth ****”. My second name was my employer’s name.

Whether you are out to look for a job in another company or industry, or you are looking to start your own business, you need to take a step back to understand who you are and what you are offering in your next work space.

As a brand, you have had a shelf life and it is time to rebrand yourself, independent of your employer.

Consider these questions about your current employer:

1. What makes the written company profile stand out from your competition?
2. Can you identify three things that clients love associating with the company?
3. Name three key things that lower the potential of your company to get an impressive response from the market simply from the company profile?

Now apply the same questions to your CV.

1. Out of a sea of applications, what will make yours stand out? Do you need to be physically present to explain every point?
2. What is it about you that makes you valuable enough to hire you, apart from your association with your current employer and the fact that you can work? Do you bring anything particularly special to the table?
3. How high or low do you score on the employability scale and what would give rise to that score? (for instance, your digital prints?)

In describing you, words are simply tools. Their effectiveness will be determined by how you use them.