When your venture succeeds/fails or shuts down, may people look to return to come back to corporate role for stability & regular cash flows/pay-check. As a resume writer, I have observed that reasons for start-up failures range from break-up with co-founders to paucity of funding. Besides, there are a lot of reasons why you would leave your small business for a stable fat pay-check even if you have been running the business for a handful of years.
Whatever be the reasons for shutting down the start-up, your resume & LinkedIn profile should project the efforts you made to set up business from the ground, how you grew & how you set up systems & processes (if you did). This will go a long way in showcasing the value you created & how your learning can be valuable for the role you are applying for.
How you portray that your skills can be best put to use to solve the problem prospective employer/corporation is facing?
- Many hats: When it comes to hiring, no organization is lean than a start-up. Either you are a founder, co-founder or first few employees, you end up wearing many hats right from finance, HR, sales & marketing, vendor relationships, supply chain & operations. Having such a diverse skill set is a value add. I recommend including your skills/core competencies in your resumes & highlighting example how you used those skills. Position yourself as a person who has managed all aspects of running a company.
- Putting things into order: As a start-up resources, you must have started managing things & dealing with all stakeholders when no system, processes. procedure & SOP were in place &/or system lacked structure. By setting up policies, laying seed for framework, defining & implementing controls, & instituting SOP(s), you have built an infrastructure to convert chaos into an organized structure. Highlight these talents by mentioning initiatives you took to set up operations, drive sales & marketing of finance framework from scratch.
- Network effects: It is often found that employees/co-founder often working for a start-up(specifically early stage ventures) often build a huge network/pipeline of clients while doing business development from sales & marketing, advertising to pitching it to the client. When start-up fails, these start-up employees/founders are often left with huge network of contacts/potential clients. These can be a huge value add for potential employer since you built that network from base. Remember to include this trait in your resume if you have built such a vast loyal network.
- Flexibility: Entrepreneurship brings its own share of challenges with every day bringing something new & unexpected. As such entrepreneurs are always on edge & have the ability to be flexible to respond to changed circumstances/ situations. Showcasing that you are flexible & productive in ambiguous work environment in their resume & LinkedIn profile can help them land up with an interview. This specific trait of flexibility & improvisation is a must have in most of job postings. Running your own venture goes a long way in proving you are ready to embrace & adapt to challenges that may come as part of your job deliverables.
- Funding & forging credible stakeholder relationships: To a large extent, the ability of a venture to scale up to a large extent depends upon its ability to raise external financing. The skills required to convince investors to invest in their business is akin to those required to be successful in closing sales deals, business development &/or managing large scale projects. In all such situations you need to present a strong business case before senior leadership/decision makers to get their buy in. If during your start-up venture, you undertook preparing pitch presentations, business models, business case scenarios & were successful in raising external capital, do remember to showcase that in your resume.
- Applying lessons you learnt: Folks who leave their ventures, do reflect on the actions/decisions they make- what worked & what didn’t. These are huge learning experience & can often be part of your conversation with prospective employer on what practical experience they bring. Showcase how you help your future employer overcome such mistakes.
- Customize to employer need: You must be wondering you did a lot of things when you ventured out your business, what you should include in your resume. Just study the job requirements in detail & include those skill set/experience that are relevant to profile you are applying for. Focus on showcasing specific thing which will help potential employer.
- Some skills/keywords you should consider: Here are some of skill set you may have more expertise than traditional job seeker-
- Productivity
- Efficiency
- Business/growth strategy
- Negotiation/selling
- Lean operations/managing costs
- People management
- Vendor management
- Hiring/recruiting
- Customer acquisition
- Customer servicing
9) Leveraging start-up experience: It is often said as an entrepreneur you should always fail once.Even a failed venture can be used to showcase how you can help prospective employer if they choose to hire you. Identify skills that will be beneficial to the employer in their job, and include them in your career portfolio documents how they can be used to en-cash market opportunities/solve pain points of the employer.
