Your resume should target the position you seek if you want to advance your career path. But it's difficult to get past the barriers, gateways, and secretarial screeners to even get your resume looked at. So, maybe there is a better concept? Why not use a new resume targeting trick, why not apply for a position which doesn't exist in the company you'd like to work at? Why not create a job title and apply for that, then sell yourself and convince the company they need to slightly re-organize their hierarchy an hire you to fill the newly created niche. Interesting you think, yes, so let's discuss this shall we?
First, as a former franchisor founder, I found it was getting more and more difficult to operate my rather large and spread out company, I needed more core leadership - that was obvious, especially considering how fast we were growing. Now then, there was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on January 8, 2013 titled "New CEO Shuffles the Deck at Citi - Corbat Puts Stamp on Big Lender by Installing Co-Presidents, Reducing Influence of Pandit Allies," by Suzanne Kapner.
Okay so, why not apply for a co-CEO position, or an assistant to the executive staff of one of the top tiered company leaders? Why not work yourself in using the power of suggestion? Why not simply state on your resume that you seek a position as the executive administrator "go to" person working under the top leadership, even suggest that you should become the co-CEO, or at least be hired and in training for the co-CEO position. Sure it doesn't exist in most companies, but in a lot of companies that position should exist.
Are you capable of serving in that capacity? You know, there are so many people who are under-employed these days, it's really unfortunate, and many of those jobs they are qualified for simply are no longer available. Thus, it's getting rather hard to compete against 100s, 1000s, or even 10,000 people looking for that same type of job or in that job category when there are so few slots open, or may become available in the near future.
Lastly, let me ask you something; what do you have to lose? Why not print a batch of resumes for this purpose and try? You might be pleasantly surprised as you get calls back and interviews, and even if you don't score the co-CEO position, you might be able to win some friends, influence some folks, and find yourself gainfully employed, and not under employed like so many others. Please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative eBook on Needing a Job. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
