Telling your story to people who don’t get it

Sometimes being on the job market is like being on the real estate market. “No, really, he’s beautiful inside! So much potential!”

Part 14 in this series.

When the academic jobs I interviewed for failed to materialize, I shifted to thinking about how I needed to go about applying for work in the larger pond outside of academia. There are several fields and positions I am well qualified for outside the field I’ve been in most recently.

The task then: figuring out how to market myself in ways that code for non-academics.

As a storyteller, this would be a fascinating hypothetical process. In reality, accomplishing this turns out to be just as difficult as it sounds. The following is one of a dozen professional markers I’ve had—and am still having—to translate for potential employers.

So, what’s your experience with project management? I’ve been asked this in every interview and three quarters of the application processes I’ve completed so far.

What I know: Every class I’ve ever taught is project management of a magnitude most don’t recognize.

Getting a class of individuals on-boarded and aware of the stakes and processes, trouble shooting for such a diverse set of needs, accommodating various learning styles and delays one often cannot see, balancing instruction with experience with feedback with evaluation with grace, and holding it all to deadlines without paychecks or bonuses…

Now multiply that by four often completely separate subjects, structures, and student groups every semester and I can safely assert it would be the rare project I could not run extremely well.

What many employers see: Whatever their own experience with education as a student told them and whatever stray messages they’ve encountered floating around in the ether on the topic.

This combination is typically a UX mix of frustrations and what was common to their time in the classroom’s desk.

The assumption: Mission fit is probably a problem because you’ve *only* taught classes.

You don’t know corporate culture (as if universities don’t try to operate like conglomerates as much as possible).

You’ve never dealt with team members at odds with each other or their lead (as if effective courses are universally loved or great teachers universally respected).

You haven’t experienced the pace of business (as if productive academics aren’t balancing teaching and evaluating, availability to students outside class, writing for publication regularly, applying for grants, serving on university committees and initiatives, and constantly refreshing their research…and all for less money than most imagine).

This is not to imply there won’t be a learning curve for me, just that it’s not all that different for people moving from one company to another. Sure, there are some elements of whatever system I drop into that will be alien to me.

But the skills for doing the work are already well ingrained in my process. And the people on the other side of the desk will see that if they’ll look for their story being told in a new way.