That is actually the advice I got from speaking to a former supervisor/mentor in my job search about 2 years ago. When he told me that, I got seriously offended. I pictured that as my identity, the only thing I knew in my life to be true. I've always thought that I wasn't "an expert" or "a professional" at anything, but I'm pretty good at a lot of things. And that was just the way I liked it. I didn't score the most points on my middle-school basketball team or win many (if any) first places while I was a swimmer- even though I swam for over 10 years of my adolescent life. But I thought that was ok, because at least I was on the teams. I could "hang". When I was told, effectively, that no one would want me if I continued to identify as this "Jack of all Trades", I was crushed, because that's what I was. Or so I thought.
It took me a while in my role as a recruiter, to realize what I was being told. It wasn't that I was not worthy... it was that I was marketing myself (and therefore probably also assessing myself and skills) all wrong. No one wanted to hear that I was good at everything, because in the hiring world, that comes off as lazy and unconvincing. Hiring managers wanted to know what exactly I was good at that would add value to the company. So yes maybe I had many skills, and I could be proud of that, but what good is knowing how to juggle flaming Koosh Balls to someone looking for an Account Manager? If I want to convince that hiring manager to consider me, I have to illustrate how exactly I've done and exhibited skills in the specific arena in which they have a need. Now, don't get me wrong... if I've spent 23 years practicing juggling, I'm not going to waste the fact that it is a skill, but I have to use it to my advantage, and show the hiring manager how its in their advantage that I have that skill. But I can't leave it up to them to correlate the two skills... I have to lay it out so its easy to understand and see. "Because I've spent 23 years learning to juggle, you can see my loyalty and longevity potential as well as my laser focus, which I will be able to use in my role as Account Manager by not dropping the ball with clients needs." (adding a little pun is my style, also... it may not be yours).
But either way, this goes back to the advice I give most candidates when we meet. I obviously try to deliver it a little more tactfully than I remember it feeling when I heard it, but still be as effective, namely: Your resume should be what you want to do, not necessarily what you did (or what you can do). Often times this is especially helpful to candidates that are trying to find a role different than their current role, because they don't like what their doing now. If they were to list everything they did (that they didn't like) from their old position, they'd be getting calls for roles that are exactly what they aren't looking for. Instead, take the responsibilities you did like, highlight parts of the job you do want to do again, and mention smaller aspects of larger responsibilities that are transferable skills.
If you honestly are a Jack of all Trades and you would be happy doing a variety of different jobs, like I was, then you have to have a few different resumes that highlight different aspects of your skills, or even better- change the responsibilities listed under each former job to match the responsibilities in each job you're applying for... and trust yourself that if you really need more in your role, you're going to have to prove your capabilities in what is needed first and the additional responsibilities will follow.
If you want to read more thoughts on this idea of specializing your resume based on the job... read this article from LinkedIn today.
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