Resume

Positioning A Failed Startup Into A Positive Experience On Your Resume

Positioning A Failed Startup Into A Positive Experience On Your Resume
Despite the best efforts and intentions of many, startups don’t always work out like we’d hoped or planned. Many find themselves facing a return to a traditional role in Corporate America with the hope of trading in the promise of a huge payout for paycheck and benefits stability. Related: 5 Ways To Bounce Back From ‘Failure’ In Your Career With the right wordsmithing, the skills and talents acquired during a startup experience can be positioned as an exceptional learning experience sure to win over any skeptics. Below are four talents that startup warriors have honed to a T – that are highly desirable to hiring managers everywhere.

1. Ability To Don Many Hats

When it comes to sheer number of employees, no company is leaner than a new startup. As a result, most wind up assuming responsibility for multiple roles. From marketing to sales, operations to IT – those at startups often literally do it all. Show that you can take charge or run with projects spanning multiple business functions, and you suddenly made a persuasive case for having a diverse skillset.

2. Creating Order From Chaos

Startup warriors don’t usually shy away from work environments that luck structure. In fact, they often are skilled at establishing process that transforms the ad-hoc into order. When displayed on a resume, these skills show you have the chops to create or overhaul an infrastructure that is lacking, establish controls and processes.

3. Extreme Flexibility

Many will attest that startup worlds are exciting because no two days are alike – and the next adventure is around the corner. Survival in this unique environment means a talent for retaining flexibility in an unstructured or ambiguous work setting – a trait highly desirable at many companies.

4. Influencing

The ability to secure seed money or perhaps the next round of funding is often key to getting a new endeavor off the ground or to the next level. The skillset required to make this happen is almost identical to those talents critical to a successful sales or even project management career. If your work history includes creating and delivering persuasive presentations and building compelling cases that resulted in your company getting much needed funding, be sure to spell it out in your resume. Transforming Failure Into Success Entrepreneurial endeavors don’t always work out. With some self-reflection and introspection, however, it is easy to translate these experiences learned into winning traits that will help you secure your next role.

Related Posts

Should I Remove My Volunteer Work From My Resume?5 Ways To Remove Digital Dirt7 Phrases To Delete From Your LinkedIn Profile  

About the author

Virginia Franco, NCRW, CPRW is the founder of Virginia Franco Resumes which offers customized executive resume and LinkedIn profile writing services for the 21st century job seeker. Her strategies and documents have helped 100s to secure interviews in < 60 days.   Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert. You can learn more about expert posts here.Photo Credit: Bigstock
Featured