
How to become a “Beginner-Expert” and get your next job
If your professional background is eclectic or shallow, you can still make yourself appealing to employers. Here’s how.
People often send me their CVs or ask me to help them find a job. I’m very happy to help in any way I can, but recently a few women approached me with resumes that left me stumped. These women had either dropped out of the workforce to stay home with their kids, or had extremely eclectic and un-focused experience that did not indicate a clear area of expertise. I could tell that they were smart and could probably learn new skills, but at the moment they didn’t have much to go on.
While there are companies who are able to hire people for their potential and train them, most cannot. And with CVs like the ones I got, I can’t go “Oh, you’re a PPC expert? Well Company X is looking for a PPC expert. I’ll send them your CV.” The matching is not one-to-one at all. (And even when it is, it’s hard for me to remember all the companies who told me they’re searching and what they’re searching for. I need a system for that, but I digress.)
So here’s the advice I gave these women so they could create a plan and make themselves employable.
Step 1: Pick a Direction

In life, none of us can reach a goal if we have no idea what the goal actually is! I therefore advised these women to explore what types of positions and skills are out there, and try to choose one. Talk to people, go to events, read all the industry blogs and publications, scour career boards, and learn about the skillsets and what they entail.
Step 2: Become a Beginner-Expert

These days, with hard work and effort, we can all position ourselves as experts. This is part of the process of personal branding, which is critical when looking for a job or clients. Of course, real experts have years and tens of thousands of hours of experience in their field. That can’t happen overnight. But people can become what I guess I’d call “Beginner-Experts.” Here are some steps to achieve that:
- Take online courses, learn about the topic in any way you can. Read books.
- Do some pro bono/intern types of jobs to build up your portfolio and examples of what you can do.
- Join online communities and groups focused on and around the topic.
- Start blogging and creating other types of content (video, for example), on this topic.
- Attend relevant events.
- Build out your network.
Step 3: Mold your work experience around your goals

Once you know what it is that you want to achieve, you can reframe your work experience in a way that points in the direction of your goal.
For example, if you want to get a job in marketing and you have a lot of data analysis experience, you can emphasize how data analysis enables you to make data actionable for marketing purposes. If you want to get a job in business development and you can speak three languages, emphasize how your knowledge of languages is an advantage for creating connections in particular countries. Etc.
Yes, it takes hard work, but work takes hard work. Invest in yourself and you will demonstrate to potential employers that you are passionate and motivated.
Any other advice I should give? I’d love to hear!
