Let them bring it up

I’m helping a friend with her resume. She’s going for a CEO job after a career in HR.

She’s got all the qualifications, having led all aspects of organization operations in one way or another, but has never had the word “CEO” in her job title.

She was stuck on this, unable to see why they would hire her, or how to present her experience.

I said, don’t bring it up. You know you can do the job, act like it.

We revised her resume to be all about her leadership and operations experience, aligning with the job description.

We presented her in a way to help the reader to – on their own – come to the realization that she was CEO material, by directing attention away from her “weakness” to her strengths.

She got the interview, and we prepared to answer the big question: You’ve never held a CEO position, why should we hire you?

Guess what?

They never asked, and she aced the interview, with plenty of stories to “show me, don’t tell me” about how she brought the human (HR) side to leadership.

We turned a perceived weakness into a strength.

Too often, we project our fears onto a conversation, without ever realizing what’s important to the people we’re talking to.