The pandemic has created HUGE changes in business – and your resume needs to reflect your skill in navigating them.
Shutdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19, remote work for nearly 46% of US employees, and industry changes have all created a “new normal” in business.
How have YOU adapted to new pandemic challenges? Has your work required managing teams in a far-flung location – or a newly intensive workload? By demonstrating leadership under pressure, you’ll be perceived by employers as a more valuable candidate.
Add these 5 important skills to your resume to show resilience and results during the pandemic and beyond:
1 – Newly remote teams established across time zones.
Offshore teams are not a new concept, but the skill needed to establish and manage a division in a remote area has taken on more significance during the pandemic.
Perhaps you offloaded work to teams in a different time zone, adapted to a different work culture in another continent, or adjusted your leadership style to convey requirements to remote workers.
If you’ve set up a remote team, break this achievement into a quick description for your resume, with data on the location, headcount, operations procedures, budget, and costs saved from the new group, as shown here:
Established 120-member contact center in Malaysia, delivering 32% additional support to ecommerce customers.
Built business case for 50 additional employees in software development factory, enabling $30M in products delivered at 30% lower cost.
2 – Virtual hiring and interviewing.
More than ever, employers have switched to remote interviews, recorded interview queries, and other tactics to vet applicants.
By showcasing your influence in sourcing or interviewing candidates remotely, you can make the case for why an employer in Fresno could trust your leadership from Boston.
You can mention, for example, how you’ve hired top performers using video interviews during COVID-19 or assembled a panel interview team connecting with candidates on a group Zoom call. Be sure to add metrics to these resume achievements, as shown here:
Interviewed and hired new teams in Malaysia, India, and Brazil representing 45% of total reports.
Hired CFO and VP of IT using virtual Board of Directors interviews.
You can also mention new onboarding procedures you’ve built to help employees feel welcome, even when they haven’t met your team in person.
3 – Team meetings and collaboration over video.
If you’re accustomed to meeting deadlines from home or need to conduct group meetings via Zoom, your ability to be productive away from a brick-and-mortar office is HIGHLY relevant during the pandemic.
Brainstorm a list of achievements that show your adaptability to different work situations, such as the number of projects you’ve completed. Maybe you created new procedures now adopted across other regions or continents also grappling with pandemic.
Make a list of the top wins that show how you deal with online interactions, particularly where you negotiated or led deals of substantial value. Add details on the players involved, impact to the company, or even the careers of the others involved, similar to these examples:
Coached 3 Senior Sales leaders promoted to VP positions after leading global negotiations for #1 UK deal worth $US43M.
Built real-time project status updates enabling on-time development for a $45M software initiative.
4 – Solid results from remote management practices.
Executives and teams spread across different time zones require new methods of communication to get results. This resume achievement shows how one executive increased company productivity from multiple locations:
Designed operational improvements enabling 43% additional work from teams in Canada, Latin America, and India.
In addition, you can mention the technologies or tools used for improvement, such as:
Instituted one-click Zoom screen-sharing process used by Latin American trainers to educate 400+ new product users worldwide.
5 – Strong employee support for pandemic stress.
Your teams probably underwent changes including new ways to handle B2B sales, customer support, project delivery, and technical issues, while also managing their OWN STRESS from social isolation, home-based work requirements, or childcare needs during the pandemic.
Did you manage and mentor employees in response to pandemic-era changes? Frame this as a new leadership skill on your resume.
You may have conducted additional training or coaching with team members to help them through the new world of work, or helped adjust project schedules to account for employees juggling family needs. This approach to leadership is likely to last; The Workforce Institute’s 2021 Annual Workplace Predictions says “compassionate and inclusive management that emphasizes empathy, wellness, and belonging” will be a 2021 mainstay.
Add achievements that make employers aware of your resourcefulness in managing the new world of work, as in these examples:
Chaired COVID-19 Response Committee tasked with updating telecommuting policy for 2020 and 2021.
Retained 4 managers with weekly mentoring to avoid pandemic burnout, averting potential $15K in additional hiring costs.
Built tiered, rotating technical support strategy for $20M in project deliverables across 3 global teams.
These resume updates reflect robust change management skills – and show how you’re equipped to deal with the unexpected throughout your career.
With the likelihood that remote work and virtual communications are here to stay, there are numerous reasons to outline your readiness to operate a division, manage remote teams, and maintain top productivity during a pandemic.
Your ability to adapt to new situations, reach across time zones and geographies to work with others, and influence change is more valuable than ever.
Showcase these wins on your resume to demonstrate strong servant leadership and change management – even under pandemic challenges.
Related:
Should You Job Search – or Wait – During the COVID-19 Crisis?
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