RETHINKING THE RéSUMé
Deanna Singh
Inclusion Leader Expert Speaker & Consultant, Chief Change Agent of Four Purpose Driven Enterprises, Author of Actions Speak Louder ??
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RETHINKING THE RéSUMé
Want the Innovation that Comes from Inclusivity? Start by Rethinking the Résumé
Lamar is a 37-year-old Black man who grew up in the inner city. He claimed his experience was inferior compared to others who had fancy degrees from prestigious universities. A friend responded that, with enough money, grades, hard work, and luck, anyone can get an MBA from one of those fancy places. But no matter how much money, grades, work, or luck someone’s got, only a few can get a degree in being a 37-year-old Black man from the inner city.
Somewhere along the way, we learn there are certain kinds of information that are appropriate for a résumé and there are others that aren’t. But if you want to hire the team of the future, you’ll have to modify the résumé conventions you’ve inherited from the past. If you’re an applicant from an underrepresented group and find it hard to articulate your experience through the standard résumé format, it’s time to modify this document to reflect your experience. Achieving the diversity of thought that leads to organizational success means valuing a diversity of experience. Few things create that inclusivity more than revising the résumés that decide who gets hired in the first place.
To rethink résumés, here are a few things to question.
1. Education
Most résumés list the institutions an applicant attended, degrees they earned, and GPA they received. Both writers and readers expect things like participation in internships, fellowships, and study abroad programs.
Like all students, applicants from underrepresented groups have received formal education.
But unlike all, they also have to undergo a kind of unpaid internship learning the vocabulary, etiquette, and mannerisms of a university culture that others take for granted.
People who spend their educational life surrounded by people from other social groups spend countless hours in a type of cross-cultural, high-stakes, and uncompensated fellowship. And they must develop intercultural competencies, language skills, and adaptability in unrecognized study abroad programs every time they step into a university classroom.
If you want organizations to start seeing the benefits of inclusivity, start recognizing how membership in a marginalized group produces an education with benefits as great as standard forms of education. Applicants from these communities: rethink your résumé to include the lessons you’ve learned as a member of your social group. Résumé reviewers: rethink résumés to look for these rare forms of education that give people from underrepresented groups the underrepresented knowledge that is fundamental to achieving unprecedented organizational success.
2. Experience
In the experience section, résumés list employers, employment dates, and bullet points describing responsibilities and accomplishments. Every job candidate must figure out how to translate the experience from one workplace culture to another, but some have to figure out how to translate the experience of multiple social cultures into every workplace culture they’ve ever worked in.
Speaking Spanish with a family member on the phone before switching to English in the boardroom proves one’s ability to balance multiple forms of communication. Monitoring one’s gendered behavior around clients who might have varying levels of transphobia demonstrates the extraordinary capacity to read a room. Learning to interpret context clues faster than normal in order to understand cultural allusions made by coworkers 20 years younger, older people prove their experience navigating shifting priorities.?
Lamar thought his experience as a Black man kept him from having more relevant work experience. But he also had 37 years working with emerging markets that represented millions of dollars of untapped revenue for his industry. If you’re like Lamar, rethink how your rare access to different communities will help employers reach new markets. If you’re hiring, start looking for, recognizing, and hiring applicants with the ability to build bridges across different circles that can only come with a diversity of experience.?
3. Skills
Most résumés list soft skills like personality traits, character, and interpersonal abilities. Some of the most common include teamwork, emotional intelligence, organization, flexibility, openness to learning, and open-mindedness. To build more inclusivity into the résumé, rethink the connection between identity and skills.
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The only Muslim in their graduating class might have learned how to cooperate with people who didn’t understand their faith. A mother of two children could have had to practice being tolerant of people who questioned her dedication to the job whenever her kids got sick. A person who uses a wheelchair might have had to prove their collegiality more than any of their non-disabled coworkers. In these situations, the extraordinary amount of cooperation, helpfulness, friendliness, persuasiveness, tolerance, respect, collegiality, reliability, and collaboration required by people from underrepresented communities translates to professional skills that help organizations succeed.?
Part of being the only, first, or one of the few from any group in a workplace means an applicant has had to develop extraordinary professional skills. There are plenty of organizations that seek people who are adaptable, patient, open-minded, calm under pressure, perceptive, willing to have new experiences, and empathetic. To create more organizational inclusively, both résumé writers and readers must recognize how these skills are a defining characteristic of people from underrepresented groups. In short, they must rethink skills.?
4. Job advertisements
The final item to rethink is central to the other three. Start rethinking the job advertisements before rethinking the education, experience, and skills people provide in résumés. Restructure résumé requirements to reframe criteria. Structure social experience as an element of professional qualifications and professional merit. Ask candidates to explain how their education relates to their knowledge of under-engaged communities. Invite applicants to show how their experience demonstrates their ability to foster heterogeneous thinking for future organizational success. Require people to prove how their background has fostered essential skills like adaptability, open-mindedness, critical thinking, patience, initiative, learning agility, consideration, introspection, and willingness to have new experiences.
How long has this process been outdated?
To create new strategies and make the new connections that help organizations thrive, we must rethink our outdated résumés. This single document carries years of conventions, assumptions, and biases that undermine success. Innovation, outreach, and growth require the diversity of thought that comes with a diversity of experience. To build the teams that generate more accurate, more informed, and better decision making, we must first reconsider the hiring process that brings those teams together. This process of improving organizational thinking all begins with rethinking the résumé. How long has this process been outdated?
?A Keynote Nod
My current keynote sessions are centered around Actions Speak Louder so I cover a multitude of ways to show inclusivity in your company with your actions. The biggest way I am able to show that is by asking this simple question.
What are your company values?
This simple question indirectly always points to inclusivity. So look at your company values. Look at the goals that align with those values. If you're not an inclusive company on the inside you are most likely not meeting all your company goals. Once you put actions to your goals and make sure they coincide with your values, you automatically get some time of inclusivity when you do it right. So get to action!
May 31st Actions Speak Louder Will Official Be On Shelves Everywhere!
Preorder you and your team copies of this company-changing book that has critics calling it The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Guide of the year!
?Some immediate ways Uplifting Impact is overhauling workplace culture: