“Now, I can be part of the change”
Are you, like my client Sam: seeking or securing higher-level roles or interviews - or new to US interviews? So many of us struggle to explain business relevance of a data, PhD, research or technical career background, especially with bigger firms, or in new functions or industries.
And yet we are ready to gain wage parity, recognition of our skills to make a bigger impact on our and our family’s well-being through a career we truly feel passionate about.
It surprised my Data Governance Program Director client, Sam. When we first started working together, she hadn’t updated her resume in 10 or 15 years—her LinkedIn profile was still getting calls for program manager. And she’d never negotiated her pay; she suspected hers was beneath her counterparts.
Perhaps because in her firm, data was not new and yet entirely welcome. In fact, she said, “if a year ago if you’d told me I’d be more than Sr. Program Manager at my firm, I wouldn’t have believed it. There were folks who do not like me because I ask too many questions, I dig too much – they don’t like that kind of scrutiny – but as a PM you have to be transparent – if it’s not working, say it’s not working and how we can fix it?”
When we engaged to tell the authentic impact narrative of her career – we started with reviewing the top challenges she’d faced—I’ll let her take it from here.
“My old resume writer was very different, she took my old resume and reformatted it, whereas we told the story of the work. Our time working together, sitting and thinking about what I have accomplished in years of working so far—not just for my resume, but also to help prepare for interviews—psychologically boosted my confidence in my values + the way I do things. Emotionally – began to believe in myself, to take a risk for myself. I absolutely reached the resolution I wanted.
After my COO saw my new resume + my work, without even my request, he decided I’d get a 20% boost in salary - to bring me in range with what they paid my counterparts.
“When I sat w/a 2nd internal COO, I recalled our conversations and how to not have an interview one-sided. Your negotiation tips gave me the confidence to ask for what I wanted. Now I’m reporting to that COO for an added ~8% increase.
“Now I can be part of the change for minority women, I’m one of 17 non-white leaders out of 7K people”.
Sam won all of this from learning to become a business storyteller - which has a trick - it’s about describing the context more than your actions. So in your next interview, consider speaking not about your skills, traits, opinions and lessons learned – but about the facts and KPIs of your stories.
If you are intrigued by a systematic, fun and rapid process to unearth them - and like Sam to leverage them in your presentations, resumes, LinkedIn, covers and interviews, let’s chat!
