| I Don't Have Any Line Experience |
Most management positions require a background in which a person has worked his or her way up the "line," learning to handle responsibility for people, departments, functions or operations within the business. Sometimes, however, even the most capable people will be asked to fill "staff" positions, where their talents are often leveraged over an entire organization. When this happens, they build a record of achievement without acquiring the "line" experience required for many attractive positions.
If you have the "staff" label, you may find that some employers will have reservations about your ability to lead and manage. There are a number of steps you can take to minimize this potential negative.
Mindset
It is important to keep in mind that, regardless of any labels that may be pinned on you, you bring a cluster of talents, knowhow, knowledge and positive personal traits that will surely be valuable to many potential employers when applied to their challenges. At the heart of any hiring decision is the question, "Does this person have what we need to help us move ahead?" If the answer is yes, then it is your responsibility to make sure that labels do not get in the way of substance.
Resume
In your summary statement up front, emphasize your achievements and the functions you filled. Choose a format that allows you to de-emphasize titles. Headlines can include only the date and company name, or you can substitute short "journalistic" headlines for job titles, e.g., "Revitalizing the Marketing Services Function," or "Cutting Administrative Overhead by 35%."
You will probably want to use a situational, functional, or achievement format, where achievements are highlighted without reference to dates, which are grouped later with titles in a less noticeable position.
Interviews / e-mail / Letters
In the interview, be sure to direct the conversation to the functional areas and personal traits most important for the position, and be prepared to tell situation-action-result format stories that show your action orientation, ability to lead, and to deliver results. Those results should be tangible, and whenever possible you want to show your impact on profits, revenues, productivity increases, and growth.
Indicate the scope of your efforts. Specify the number of people who were impacted by your work, and the many functional areas on which your actions touched. Point out that your work had a major influence on the bottom line and, where it applies, on the entire organization. It is important that your examples convey the strong leadership qualities and characteristics associated with line managers.
At times you will be able to turn this to an advantage by making the point that the staff position forced you to excel as a team player and coordinator of others' efforts. Make it clear that you had to get the job done without direct authority over the people whose input and cooperation was critical to success. Emphasize that you had to be a skillful communicator and persuader, who was sensitive to others' egos and knew how to generate enthusiasm across departmental barriers.
Actions
Examine your past contributions closely, and prepare several action-oriented stories that demonstrate your personal strengths and get across your talent for moving rapidly to get results in situations that require leadership and managing or coordinating the efforts of people in many different departments and disciplines.
Look for as many specific result indications as possible. Be prepared to give a wealth of evidence in the form of these memorable action-oriented stories. This will reassure the prospective employer about your ability to deliver in situations that usually require a lot of "line" experience.
Develop and coach enthusiastic references from selected individuals you can trust inside your employer organization, as well as a number outside of it, e.g., customers, suppliers, sales reps, consultants, etc., who will be happy to attest to your action orientation and ability to lead others in major tasks that had a positive effect on the profits and/or corporate capabilities. Review your resume with these references, and make sure they keep a copy available to scan when and if they are called.
This step will enable you to make the statement in an interview that, "You've heard about Joe Smith from Joe Smith, but you really need to hear it from some of the people who know me best, and I strongly urge you to call them." That will erase any lingering doubts that you might not be a top performer in positions requiring "line" experience.
Conduct research on any industry and companies you are targeting, using the Internet and/or resources in the Business Reference section of a good library. You might even consider going so far as to write a small article about the major trends in that industry as they affect someone in your function, whether it is general management, purchasing, sales, production, marketing, finance, customer service, information systems, or any other function.
In this way, you can change the focus of your communications entirely away from questioning your capabilities to an imaginative discussion of how you can contribute in the future. You are also showing extensive industry knowledge and a lot of enthusiasm, both of which will be in your favor.
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