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PROJECT JOB
Who Are You?
Do these things before starting to find a job
“Who are you?”
You would think this is obvious, but who are you is a tough question to answer.
I’ve worked in several sectors for several employers and done many interesting jobs. But writing it all down makes me sound like I know a little about a lot but not much about anything. That’s not true.
It’s important to distil from your career the essence of who you are and what you can offer to a prospective employer. At best, this is an opportunity to reinvent yourself and reinvigorate your career, so grab it with both hands. At worst, this means throwing away much of what you’ve done because it’s irrelevant to a future employer.
The reality is that who you are is complicated.
Choosing which ‘you’ to present
You probably have a lot of experience, often in many settings. The upside to this is that you are adaptable, have lots of experience, and can turn your hand to anything. The downside is that it can sound like verbal garbage to others as you talk about your career randomly. You need to be highly selective in what to present to potential employers and compress decades of experience into two pages only.
