How Taco Bell Can Help You Land Your Next Job

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Photo by Matt Nelson on Unsplash

Same Words, Different Song

Here’s the video for Johnny Cash’s “Hurt.” 

Cash’s voice is gravelly, deep, and weary, halting and breathy due to diabetes complications. The visuals depict moments from Cash in his glory days, a dusty archive of memorabilia, and shots of a lone Cash. It’s an elegiac statement on love, loss, and aging from a man who would die a year after recording, and it sounds personal, intimate even. But Cash didn’t write those words. The song was a cover of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, written by Trent Reznor in his bedroom to describe his anguished mental state as a young man in a downward spiral. That original version is vulnerable as well, but is more brash, angry, a statement on current and future emotional devastation. It sounds no less personal but is wildly different. When Reznor saw Cash’s video, he likened it to seeing a dating partner with someone else. “Wow. I just lost my girlfriend, because that song isn’t mine anymore.”

What does all of this have to do with your job search? Given the same “ingredients,” Cash and Reznor delivered performances coming from their own lived experience, each giving their performances extra emotional heft. Most of the covers on youTube are inert in comparison, creating something new but not necessarily noteworthy. When you’re applying to roles or speaking about your accomplishments, are you presenting yourself in a way that’s uniquely your own, or are you simply a collection of bullet points? Unfortunately for most applicants they tend to the latter.

Be a Chalupa
So if the lyrics were the common ingredients for “Hurt,” what are the ingredients when it comes to your job search? Those bullet points on your resume. Technical skills, languages and platforms you know, processes you’ve mastered, degrees and certifications you’ve earned, and projects you’ve completed are all things that should of course be included but they’re likely not unique. Are you going to be the only developer that’s working with React, the only designer with cross-platform experience, or the only brand manager that’s made a content strategy? Of course not. But your combination of your experiences should add up to something that’s uniquely you. Your path is unique even if the specific skills aren’t. 

You don’t need to reword everything with the most esoteric language possible to ensure your wording is one of a kind. This is about your story, not the words themselves. Taco Bell takes the same basic ingredients and creates an entire menu of items. Some items emphasize flavor, others texture, and yet others novelty. Your goal is to take your ingredients and present them appropriately. Are you a chalupa? A burrito?

Use Your Words
Given the formulaic nature of resumes, there are limitations to how much flexibility you have to inject more of yourself into the content. This is where the cover letter comes into play (and your LinkedIn bio). So many people don’t submit a cover letter at all, even when asked for one. For those that do, they’re often impersonal and algorithmic, reeking so heavily of “Internet-sourced best practices” that they’ve been exorcised of all humanity, which still doesn’t help that applicant’s case. 

Your cover letter is often your first introduction to a recruiter or hiring manager. This is your opportunity to set the stage, to tell them exactly how to look at your resume and cover letter. If you’ve been unlucky with the startups you’ve chosen, this is how you can share that information rather than leaving your short company tenure’s to their imagination. This is how you can share that you’ve been in one field for a long time and why you now need to transition to another. This is where you can personalize yourself and be the *person* Jane Doe rather than Just Another Applicant. Here are the main ideas you should be attempting to get across (not in this particular order):

• What you’ve done

• What you’re looking to do and learn next and longer-term in your career

• Why you’re excited about this role & company

• Why this specific role and specific company make sense as your next step 

• How any of your known red flags (not having every bit of experience requested, gaps, job hopping, etc.) aren’t a reason for concern*

• Again, how excited you are to learn more about the role

• * Don’t disclose more than you need to. Respect your own privacy and the laws on the books, but if you know something’s going to come up, you might be able to deemphasize it by addressing it before it looks like you might be hiding something.

Ideally, you sharing more about yourself will be just what you need to stand out among a sea of other applicants. At the very least, the process of thinking about your own arc should help you more effectively navigate to companies that fit your own vision of career progress. The more you understand yourself the more you’ll be able to share yourself with someone else. 

Homework

• Understand your career

  • How has each role set you up for the next?

  • Would you do each role again? Why/why not?

  • What do you want to be your next step? If not immediately next, where do you want to end up?

  • Example: "Hmmm…I started working in fast food because I love milkshakes and needed to pay for my undergraduate degree and MBA. I loved providing great service at every level but now that I've rotated through every franchise restaurant role my long-term goal is to work up the corporate ladder to ensure that no one anywhere is denied a milkshake. I want a corporate internship to get my foot in the door."

• Update your LinkedIn bio

  • If someone only reads that part of your LI profile, you should give them a sense of where you’ve been, how you’ve grown over the years, and some indication of where you’d like to go in the future. 

  • Example: “I’m a product designer that’s spent my entire career focused on animal capture, first in farm settings and later at zoos. Having captured all manner of creature in the real world, I’m now using my expertise to help out animated characters, whether they’re looking to catch “wascally wabbits” or nimble roadrunners.”

• Consider summary statements in your resume/LinkedIn

  • People won’t necessarily know every company you’ve worked for and they almost certainly won’t understand what your division of the company did. Not will they know why you joined, why you left, or where any role fits into your grander career narrative. Don’t leave them guessing. 

  • Example: “I joined Acme after discovering their products in animated shorts. I improved product reliability and created a customer VIP program that improved retention even when our products fell short of expectations.”