Can you fit yourself to a T?
In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins borrows the concept of foxes and hedgehogs from Isaiah Berlin. “The fox knows many things,” he tells us. “But the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
If you are a fox, and good at a lot of things, you may find it hard to get a job. Your resume lists all the things you do well. In fact, there are often so many that no one thing stands out.
Meantime, recruiters are mostly looking for hedgehogs with deep expertise in one important thing. They need you tell them what you’re really, really, really good at.
One way to sort things out is to try to fit yourself to a T. The “T” I’m talking about is a concept developed by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company in the Seventies.
They wanted to hire consultants who were generalists with a deep expertise in a functional area. The down-stroke of a capital T represented the deep expertise. The crossbar represented the different areas that the consultant was familiar with or interested in, but not an expert.
To help you sort out what you’ve got that’s salable, try fitting yourself to a T. Start with the crossbar.
What do you have some experience in? What do you like? What industries have you worked in?
Look for the big down-stroke. What are you really good at? Where’s your deep expertise?
Your expertise might be in an industry. It might be in a functional area like accounting. Whatever it is, that’s the area your resume should feature. That’s the area where you can make a contribution.
Don’t neglect the generalist areas on the crossbar, though. Spend some time analyzing them.
They may give you ideas of areas where you want to develop deep expertise. They should tell you something about the kind of people you want to work with and how you’ll fit into an interdisciplinary team.
If you’re good at a lot of things, try fitting yourself to a T. It should help you make some choices about what to feature on your resume and what to develop in your career.