Lately, I have had the pleasure of meeting many women who stayed at home with their young children but were eager to go back into the workplace. However, most of them expressed anxiety about their résumés, trying to polish off “old skills” and embellish time off. My first point of action during these consultations focused on affirmation: Being a parent is a full-time job that requires no explanation or justification. Making the choice to be home with the children is a blessing, but is too often viewed as a privilege, not a career choice. This makes many mothers feel rusty, out of the loop, and self-conscious.
Because of this, I feel the need to empower mothers (and fathers!) who need a little push. In this post, I focus on the power of Pinterest. While friends used to tease me about spending hours on Pinterest, browsing and pinning my favorite sites, tips, and items, I realized that using Pinterest has many valuable assets. Some people might laugh, but I think it is important to highlight your attributes as much as possible. When you send in a résumé, the human resource specialist has only so many minutes to spend in perusal, hoping to narrow down the most qualified candidates. In a job interview, you have only so many minutes to give your elevator speech and impress your panel. I am especially passionate about this subject because I realized that there were so many duties I fulfilled and projects I accomplished at several jobs, but they went unnoticed or there was not enough space on my résumé to boast without losing my succinctness. It is a disservice to yourself when you do not play up your best assets and attributes. This includes your skills with Pinterest and other social media.
So as a “Pinterest Entrepreneur,” “Pinterest Specialist,” “Social Media Specialist,” “Social Media Community Manager,” or whatever title you choose to use as a skilled individual, I encourage you to consider these skills that you have acquired by using Pinterest:
CATALOGING AND CLASSIFICATION. Most people might not know what these exact terms mean because I took them from vocabulary I learned in librarianship. Cataloging refers to creating metadata for your pins– that is, the keywords you use to describe your pins, such as “style,” “minimalism,” “fashion,” or “baking.” Classification involves grouping your pins appropriately. If you’ve pinned anything or put that pin on a board, you’ve cataloged and classified!
COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT. This is another library term that can be used in several fields. Typically in librarianship, collection development means developing the print (i.e. books) and digital collection to suit needs of the patrons who visit the library. By developing your collection of pins, you are procuring and curating helpful pins that your followers will value. This can either be coincidental, since they are pins you enjoy and want to bookmark for yourself, or on purpose, since you know what your followers like and what they seek, so you pin accordingly.
TREND FORECASTING. Again, either deliberately or coincidentally, you can detect and promote trends in several areas: lifestyle, home decor, fashion, finance, and countless other areas. This is a strongly desired and marketable trait that any employer would appreciate.
SOCIAL NETWORKING. In this digital age, any experience with any and every social media platform makes you current and capable of contributing to marketing and relationship building. Don’t forget this important skill!
TECHNOLOGICAL PROFICIENCY. Not every employee is going to be proficient with technology, so if you are capable of using a computer, typing, navigating the Internet, sending emails, and engaging in other online activity (which you are already doing), then you have more skills than some veterans in the company.
ORGANIZATION SKILLS. As mentioned with cataloging, classification, and collection development, your ability to organize pins and group them in appropriate sections should not be left out of your résumé. For more ideas on staying organized in the workplace, check out my prior post about minimalism in the workplace.
RESEARCH SKILLS. Your experience with online searching is considered RESEARCH! Think about it: if your employer asked you to look up specific demographics, locate and compare vendors, or gather information for a presentation, you would probably visit a search engine and exercise appropriate judgment to extract data from a credible source. You are researching. Not everyone knows how to do this, but when you researched how to meal prep or create a capsule wardrobe, you can thank Pinterest for those skills.
I hope this article has encouraged you to have confidence when building your résumé. If you like this post and have other suggestions for me to discuss, I would be happy to write more articles on the subject or answer any questions. Please add the above skills to your résumé, even if it is a different social media platform or a revamping of your skills from Kinko’s or Walmart. If you have a specific job or volunteer opportunity where you need help listing skills and preparing for an interview, please email me so we can set up a consultation! I look forward to reading your comments!
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