First of all, people who are unfamiliar with qualifications briefs might like to know what a qualifications brief is. Some use the term interchangeably with “resume” or “curriculum vitae (c.v.)” but my definition is as follows: a qualifications brief consists of one page that sets forth minimum, highly targeted qualifications.
When would you use such a brief? You’d want to use it if trying for a job that’s not in your regular field. For example, suppose your regular job is that of flight attendant, but since you’re “on reserve,” you have a great deal of free time on your hands. You want to fill that time with paid employment, so you’ve decided to apply for a job as a banquet waiter.
What information would you put down on your one page?
Of course you’d put the usual identifying and contact information toward the top. Then you could put your objective, which in this case would be “Part-time position as banquet waiter.”
Next, you might want use the heading of “Skills.” At my last place of employment, we frequently did this with the in-house resumes used in proposal bids. The desktop publisher would create a two-column table (although the gridlines were hidden from layout view) in which the person’s skills were highlighted as bullet points.
Thus, in the case of our flight attendant, his or her transferable skills from the airline industry would translate to the following bullet points:
*X years’ of client-facing experience *Excellent communications skills
*X years’ in food and beverage service *Rapid response to customers’ needs
*Adherence to health and safety regulations *Team player
The bulleted skills section can be followed by “Education” or “Continuing Education.” If there’s no college degree but you’ve taken some college courses, then “Continuing Education” would make a good impression. Employers like to see evidence that a person has the ability to set a goal and achieve it.
Finally, a section called “Employment History” could go at the bottom of the page. For this, simply mentioning the company name and location and the years of employment would be sufficient in most cases. The most recent 10 years are the most important. Caution: You’d want to avoid job titles, as senior-level positions could be a turn-off to an employer who’s looking to fill a service sector job.
If there’s any room at all left on your one page, you could use the heading “Additional Qualifications” and then list “U.S. citizen.” If you speak any languages other than English fluently, this would be a good place to list them.
What if you’re asked to simply fill out an application rather than hand over a qual brief? It’s still a good idea to prepare a qual brief. For one thing, it’s a handy aide memoire when you’re filling out that application. For another, if you’re asked for it, you’ve got it ready.
Now let’s analyze another situation. What if you were a contracts manager, say, for 20 years and you just got laid off? What if the job you’re applying for is that of manager in a certain well-known national restaurant chain, or that of sales associate for an equally well-known national “big box” store?
“Overqualified” is the disqualifier most often quoted to unsuccessful job applicants. However, as you need money to put food on the table and gas in the car, you’re not going to pass up a chance to earn a paying wage now.
So let’s consider your one-page qual brief. You’d use the same identifying and contact information at the top of the page, state your objective, then list your transferable skills in a table under “Skills.”
Where I used to work, the contracts manager was an important member of the proposal team. He (or she) had to review legal documents carefully to avert future problems for the company. He had to respond to very tight deadlines with high-quality input. He or she also had to soothe irate technical managers or impatient proposal managers if something went wrong, and to prevent technical editors from altering legal terms because the editors thought the terms were ungrammatical or something. So for the contracts manager-to-fast food store manager, you might list such skills as the following:
• Ability to handle several tasks at once • Intense attention to detail
• Excellent communications skills • Rapid response to customers
• Experience working to tight deadlines • Success through teamwork
If you ever worked in such a store in your high school or college years, list it under “Highlights of Relevant Experience” and then explain what you did. If you have a major achievement to list, such as being chosen “Employee of the Month,” be sure to mention it.
Under “Employment History,” list the name of the company where you worked as a contracts manager and the years worked. If more detail is required, simply say “Gained valuable business experience in a field unrelated to food service.”
For the sales associate job, first list your transferable skills, then—if you’ve ever had any sales experience, even selling magazines or kitchen knives door to door during summer vacations while you were in school—list that under “Highlights of Relevant Experience.” (I’d rather use the term “pertinent experience,” but Americans seem to prefer the word “relevant.”)
Another situation in which you might consider using a qualifications brief rather than a resume is one in which an advertised position would use only one subset of your skills. For example, suppose you’ve been a successful project manager at a software services firm, bringing in project successfully on time and under budget. You progressed to that position from your entry-level and mid-level jobs as a programmer and software developer. You might extract just the software development aspect of your real resume and focus on that, downplaying the project management part.
All this is pretty depressing, isn’t it? In a just world, you wouldn’t have to “dumb yourself down” in a qualifications brief such as the ones we’ve been discussing. You’d use an actual resume to get the kind of job for which you’re well qualified.
There is another way to look for a job, and it’s a way I’ve used twice, successfully. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you’re interested, please watch for the next diary in this series: “The Marketing Letter—A Different Way to Look for a Job.”
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