Christopher Wayne | Associate Director, Investing in Agriculture - Acumen

client stories Sep 05, 2021

Christopher was in a non-profit Director job for so long that he was unfocused and didn’t know how to talk about his offering.

THE CHALLENGE

I had worked for the same non-profit for 12 years it was time for a new challenge and platform with broader reach. When I seriously started looking for a new job, I realized that I had lost my ability to sell myself professionally. I was reaching for roles outside of my actual skill set, wasting valuable time and energy. My resume language was dated, my cover letter canned, and I didn’t even know what my own skill sets were. I was stuck.

THE SOLUTION

At the beginning of our work together Shannon asked me a simple question; “What are your skills?” I struggled through an answer. The things I thought were my skills were broad areas of expertise or concepts, not the actual skill. Shannon helped me, through her Shift Careers program, to reshape my offering into skills that my target job market would understand. The Skills for Success worksheet furthered this process, and at the end of the exercise I had a completely new vernacular to describe what I could bring to a role.

"Narrowing down my options helped me gain confidence that the jobs I was applying for were those that truly fit my skills, and I improved the quality of each of the applications that fit."

That new language rippled out across the rest of my tools with Shannon, setting up a new structure for my resume with significantly more focused language.

The Job Description Rewrite tool was critical to this process. Reverse engineering the job description saved me from going through the full application process for a job that I wasn’t suited for. It also created the foundational language for my screening phone calls when the interviews started coming in. I’ll carry that process with me into any future job search.

THE RESULT

I re-positioned myself top-to-bottom in a professional way so that hiring managers’ could see my value. I ended up landing a job and I know that the work we did helped to catch their eye and got me in the door.

You can read more about Christopher's "day in the life" on our Greenbiz Purpose & People column here.

Unite To Ignite Scalable Change

A private space for senior sustainability & ESG professionals to accelerate your professional development and solve pressing challenges with peers

JOIN US NOW - FREE!

Our Pledge

We plant trees with Ecologi

We plant one tree for every hour of coaching sold, dating back to 2008 when the business was founded.

Navigate

The Whole Journey
Career Coaching
Executive Coaching
Corporate Consulting

Quick Links

Corporate Sustainability
Book A Trial
FAQs
Contact
T&Cs
Privacy

© Walk of Life Consulting Ltd. All Rights Reserved.