Ask An Election Nerd: How Do I Translate Campaign Skills To a Non-Campaign Resume?

Dear Nancy,

I wondered if you might be able to give me some field-related advice. I've been transitioning out of campaigns and into other things, and I've found it difficult to explain in concise, jargon-free language exactly what it is a field director does. It's a massive job, as you know, and I want to do it justice, but I keep thinking of more things that need to be added to it. There are so many skills involved: statistics, project management, people management, data management, crisis management, logistics, outreach, community building, diplomacy, etc.

I keep on remembering more things involved: besides the basic things like writing the field and GOTV plans, and training and supervising FOs and ensuring that they make voter contact goals (which are themselves complicated operations to explain), there are so many little but important things: crafting simple but effective phone scripts, coordinating GOTV logistics, overseeing out-of-state vol housing, setting up good systems for data management that hundreds of vols can make sense of....

I know you're still in this business, but I remember from your blog that you went to grad school; did you ever have to explain what field is during your application process? If you have any suggestions for bullet-pointing this stuff, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks again for Campaignsick. It always makes me smile.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
Great question! Editing down one's resume is never easy, but it is especially daunting when switching careers. It's hard to know exactly what advice to give you without knowing what kinds of jobs you're applying for, but I'll do my best.

1)Tailor your resume to the job. Don't worry so much about how to express what you did, concentrate on showing that you have the skills and experience to do what they need you to do. Whenever you embark on a new job hunt, you should save a "master" version of your resume that includes all your job related skills and experiences in bullet points, even if this version is longer than a page. Then when you apply for jobs, you can pick and choose the bullets to include on your resume based on the specific job you're applying for. You're right. You can't possibly include everything you did as a Field Director, so the trick is narrowing things down to what's relevant. For example, if you are applying to work in Veterans Affairs and you were the point of contact for that constituency on a campaign, you should include the bullet point about organizing Veterans for Obama phone banks or an event focusing around military policy, even if these activities only took up 5% of your time.

2)Have a non-campaign friend proofread your resume. Preferably this should be someone with whom you have not discussed your campaign work at length. Ask your friend to reflect back what they think your skills and strengths are based on what they're reading, and to point out any places where you use terms or phrases with which they are unfamiliar.

3)Conduct an informational interview. I know this is my answer for just about everything, but advice is free and people love to give it. If you're moving into governement, law, non-profits, grad school or business, chances are there is someone in your network who has made the switch you're about to make. Find that person and ask them what campaign skills were particularly applicable in their new career.

4)Use your cover letter. If you can't find a succinct way to articulate how a certain experience qualifies you for a potential job, you can use your cover letter to bridge the gap. For example, if the job posting mentions the ability to meet goals under deadlines you can use your cover letter to expound upon a time that you organized a rally with a major surrogate on 48 hours notice.

5)Mirror the language in the job posting. Rather than reinvent the wheel, use the language in the job post to guide your resume bullet points. For example, a non-profit job may require you to "manage a diverse team of stakeholders," which in a excellent way to explain what you did by building and coordinating a campaign steering committee.


Good luck in your new adventures and thanks so much for reading!

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

PS. If you like this advice, please support CampaignSick!

Job Applications 101

Guys, we need to talk. Nothing hurts me like reading a terrible job application from a qualified organizer. While I realize that being a stickler for proper application etiquette is in some ways perpetuating a system of privilege, there are still ways for EVERYONE to figure out how to send a professional application. When I am trying to put together the best team for one of my candidates, I am not in business of mentoring or giving anyone the benefit of the doubt. So I am spelling it out for you here. Basic rules and etiquette for applying to jobs:

1) Your resume should only be a page. Yes, even yours.
The rule that the Federal government uses, and the rule that most people go by, is one page per 10 years of professional experience. Professional experience includes full-time work, paid work and meaningful internships. It does not include work in a completely unrelated field and it certainly doesn't include varsity debate club. If you have only a job or two under your belt or you are a career changer and you include that you were a server at a restaurant or that you were the president of your fraternity to show a record of responsibility and leadership, then that's great. But, there is no reason you should be running onto a second page because of publication in Space and Time magazine or the time you worked at an after-school daycare. If you have enough experience that you don't need these things as filler, then you should cut them.

If you are applying to jobs in more than one field you should have more than one resume. A long resume that is all over the place tells me that you don't have an idea of what kind of experience is relevant to this job (not good) or that you didn't care enough to tailor your resume for this position (also not good).

*"But," you say, "It's different when you work on campaigns! I have so many different races to list!" To which I would reply, if I am in a position to hire you, then I most likely have more experience than you and if I can fit my resume on a page so can you.

2) Send all of what is requested and ONLY what is requested.
You may think you are being helpful by providing references, or letters of recommendation, or a CV when I just asked for a resume, but what I hear is, "I can't follow directions." Next!

3) Use a professional email address.
Come on guys, really? Would you hire fireflyangel22@yahoo.com? Your email should be some form of your name at a school, business or gmail address. Email addresses are free, so there is no reason you should still be using one from 7th grade. While we're at it, it's not like I'm going to throw away a resume from earthlink or aol, but I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't admit that this gives me pause. It's 2014, get with the program.

4) If my name is in the job posting, use it.
As a job applicant, it is one of my pet peeves when the poster makes it impossible for me to figure out to whom I should address my cover letters. So when you are emailing me at nancy.leeds@organization.org and you write "to whom it may concern" I am having none of it. Who do you think it concerns? Not doing basic research or applying critical thinking shows me that you are either lazy or don't really care about this job, neither of which are qualities that make me inclined to respond to your inquiry.

5) Grammar, format, and spell check your resume and cover letter.
Again if you can't be bothered to edit it, I can't be bothered to respond to it. If you don't edit your own emails when applying for the job, why would I have any confidence that you would put care into communications on behalf of a campaign?

Bonus Tip: Always send your resume as PDF since documents may look different on different computers and PDFs are in a standard format that every computer should be able to open.

6) Avoid flowery or qualifying language.
Good writing is very important in a cover letter and on campaigns, but "good" doesn't necessarily mean "wordy." Hiring managers have a lot of cover letters to get through and they want them to be concise and effective. Tell me in plain English who you are and why you are a good fit for this job. Adjectives, adverbs and idioms should be used very sparingly.

By qualifying language I mean phrases like, "I believe," "In my opinion," "I feel," before making a statement about why you are an appropriate candidate for the position. I know you think it, you're the one writing it. Just say so! Qualifiers like these only undercut your argument by taking up space and making you sound insecure.

7) Make a specific link between your experience and the job in question.
Two things a cover letter should NOT be: a reiteration of your resume or a manifesto about how I can help you. Your resume should already tell me what you've done. If you have chosen to applying for the job I assume that the position somehow fits with your personal goals and that is all the information I need about those at this time. You do not need to include an objective. Your cover letter should illustrate how your skills and experience match an organization's needs, not your own. Identify what the campaign is looking for and show how you're a match. For example, if I say I need a self starter who can hit the ground running, use your cover letter to let me know about a time when you single-handedly turned a campaign around.

I'm with you, writing cover letters is the worst! I just want to attach my resume and then write in all caps "BUT I'M NANCY!!!" However, the world doesn't work like that. My hope is that these tips will allow you to get your foot in the door so that your passion and experience and show through. Go forth my little CampaignSicles! Shine your light into the world!

CL&M,

Nancy


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