Tell Your Career Story Like a Generalist
Most career story advice is geared to Specialists
It instructs you to:
Show your trajectory
Demonstrate a singular focus
Be clear in your unique value proposition
Make it easy for a recruiter to scan your profile and understand what you’re great at
None of this advice is bad - but it isn’t all that practical for Generalists.
Our skills don’t lie in the specific task at hand, but instead across types of work, industries, and functions. Our unique value proposition quite often lies in the way we think about problems or how we build solutions by pulling together unrelated concepts and people.
It’s less about the what and more about the how.
Tell your story, like a Generalist
It can be hard to demonstrate your unique problem-solving approach or special way of finding connections on a flat resume.
Conveying these themes requires depth and storytelling. Only the most patient of recruiters and future employers will take the time to put the pieces together on their own.
So, how do you present yourself in a way that doesn’t give someone whiplash while following the thread from one zig to the next zag?
Do it like a Generalist!
Connect dots in unusual ways. Solve problems by bringing together nuanced ideas. Communicate a little differently.
Try these 5 ways to tell your story like a Generalist:
Be explicit about your overarching theme. There’s nothing wrong with saying: Here’s what makes me special, along with 3 examples of how I have used this skill in different contexts
Group things on your resume, LinkedIn, or your portfolio. Consolidate similar items so a reader can pick up on the themes more easily. Don’t force your experience into a linear structure if that doesn’t tell the story.
Examples:
Showcase go-to-market strategies across industries
Highlight strategies employed to motivate a team toward a common goal
Put together a highlight reel of your best public speaking engagements
Leave things off if they don’t make sense. Give the broad strokes, and if certain things don’t quite fit, make them a footnote.
Example: In 2009 and 2018 I pursued entrepreneurial ventures including XX and YY
Build an online, interactive resume with categories that someone can click on to view your projects and work examples.
Focus on the similarities instead of the differences. Generalists do a lot of different things and have a lot of interests because we don’t see things as different. Present your experiences as flavors of the same thing instead of discrete one-off roles or tasks.
Need some extra help in telling your Generalist career story? Start here.