Truth is, a lot of people do not know how to use their work experience to
work for them. They automatically think their experience is irrelevant
without looking deeper into the role. Should you write Hawker as work
experience on your CV? No! But you can definitely write Field Sales. Should
you write Buying and Selling or helping mummy in her shop on your CV? No!
But you can definitely write Merchandiser/Store Assistant.
What is the difference between someone hawking on the street and bankers
scouting for accounts? A suit and a tie! Learn to value your experience and
stop looking down on non office jobs.
A friend of mine lost her job for 2 years and resorted to buying and
selling baby clothes. Her last role before then was 8 years of customer
service in a Multinational Telco. She had been asked to send in her CV and
she wanted to lie that she worked elsewhere instead of the reality which
was that she had been buying and selling baby clothes. She asked if she
could say she worked in my firm. I asked why and she said because she
cannot tell them she had been selling baby clothes.
I made her revise her CV and include her 2 years experience of selling baby
clothes. We talked about all she did in the 2 years and there was so much,
she was shocked. She added it to her CV as ‘Self Employed- General
Merchandiser (Company Name she used)’, duties included; sourcing supplies,
selling merchandise, buying, stock taking, book keeping, stock
reconciliation, marketing, customer acquisition, customer service,
logistics and delivery etc. When we were done, she said she never realised
how rich
©Adora Ikwuemesi