If you’re ready to stand out, consider taking steps to update your resume with COVID-19 experience.
After all, the pandemic spawned HUGE changes in business and your resume can show your skill in navigating them.
Shutdowns to prevent the spread of Covid, remote work for nearly 46% of US employees, and industry changes resulted in new business challenges. If you demonstrated leadership under pressure during these times, employers can perceive you as a high-value candidate.
Update your resume with these 5 key skills to show how you managed Covid-era requirements:
1 – Newly remote teams established across time zones.
Offshore teams are not a new concept, but the skill needed to set up and manage remote employees took on more significance when face-to-face office environments shut down.
Perhaps you offloaded work to teams in a different time zone, adapted to a different work culture in another continent, or adjusted your leadership style to convey requirements to remote workers.
Add details to your resume to showcase the headcount, operating policies, budget, and cost-saving metrics achieved when managing teams in a far-flung location, as shown in these examples:
Established WFH policies enabling 32% additional support to ecommerce customers during surge in online business.
Built business case for 50 additional remote employees in software development factory, enabling $30M in products delivered at 34% lower cost.
2 – Virtual hiring and interviewing.
One lasting post-pandemic effect? More employers have switched to remote interviews, recorded interview queries, and other tactics to vet applicants.
By showcasing your influence in sourcing or interviewing candidates remotely, you can make the case for why an employer in Fresno could trust your leadership from Boston.
You can mention, for example, how you’ve hired top performers using video interviews during COVID-19 or assembled a panel interview team to screen candidates on a group Zoom call, framed by metrics (as shown below):
Interviewed and hired employees across 6 states, representing 45% of total reports.
Hired CFO and VP of IT using virtual Board of Directors interviews.
You can also note onboarding procedures you’ve built to help employees feel welcome, even when they haven’t met your team in person.
3 – Team meetings and collaboration over video.
If you’re accustomed to meeting deadlines from home or need to conduct group meetings via Zoom, your ability to be productive away from a brick-and-mortar office is HIGHLY relevant.
Brainstorm a list of achievements that show your adaptability to different work situations, such as the number of projects you’ve completed or new procedures now adopted across other regions or continents also grappling with a remote workforce.
Make a list of the top wins that show how you deal with online interactions, particularly where you negotiated or led deals of substantial value. Add details on the players involved, impact to the company, or even the careers of the others involved, similar to these examples:
Coached 3 Senior Sales leaders promoted to VP positions after leading global negotiations for #1 UK deal worth $US43M.
Built real-time project status updates enabling on-time development for a $45M software initiative.
4 – Solid results from remote management practices.
Executives and teams spread across different time zones require new methods of communication to get results. This resume achievement shows how one executive increased company productivity from multiple locations:
Designed operational improvements enabling 43% additional work from teams in first hybrid roles (US and India).
In addition, you can mention the technologies or tools used for improvement, such as:
Instituted one-click Zoom screen-sharing process used by trainers to educate 400+ new product users worldwide.
5 – Strong employee support for pandemic stress.
Your teams probably underwent changes (new ways to handle B2B sales, customer support, project delivery, and technical issues), while also managing their OWN STRESS from social isolation, home-based work requirements, or childcare needs during the pandemic.
Did you manage and mentor employees during these challenging times? Frame this as a new leadership skill on your resume.
You may have conducted additional training or coaching with team members to help them through the new world of work, or helped adjust project schedules to account for employees juggling family needs. This approach to leadership is likely to last; The Workforce Institute’s Annual Workplace Predictions says “compassionate and inclusive management that emphasizes empathy, wellness, and belonging” will be a future mainstay.
Add achievements that make employers aware of your resourcefulness in managing the new world of work, as in these examples:
Chaired COVID-19 Response Committee tasked with updating telecommuting policy.
Retained 4 managers with weekly mentoring to avoid pandemic burnout, averting potential $15K in additional hiring costs.
Built tiered, rotating technical support strategy for $20M in project deliverables across 3 global teams.
These resume updates reflect robust change management skills – and show how you’re equipped to deal with the unexpected throughout your career.
Remote / hybrid work and virtual communications forever changed the way we work – so outline your readiness to operate a division, manage remote teams, and maintain top productivity despite the pressures of change.
Your ability to adapt to new situations, reach across time zones and geographies to work with others, and influence change is more valuable than ever.
Showcase these wins on your resume to demonstrate sought-after servant leadership and change management skills.
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