4 Tips That Help to Showcase Your Diverse Experience in a New Work Culture
Here’s how I approached translating my foreign experience to show competence.
Hello, I'd really like to grow this email list. If you enjoy this newsletter, it would mean the world to Jola and I if you encouraged one friend/fellow immigrant/colleague to subscribe…Very likely, the the only thing you will get in return is warm fuzzy feelings, and if I can attribute it to you, I’d personally send you a thank you email.
‘Remove your foreign experience from your resume because it means nothing.’ Every immigrant has probably heard this take either directly or indirectly while hustling to get that first coveted role.
Well, I don’t agree, especially as someone who landed her first job in Australia with only my Nigerian experience on my resume. As an immigrant, one of your superpowers is the uniqueness of the experience and perspective you bring to a company.
Here’s how I approached translating my foreign experience to show competence. These tips work even if you’re changing careers.
#1. Localise Your Resume
Localising your resume means you structure it to match the standards, norms and expectations of the industry and job market of the country you're applying in. Localisation ensures your resume is relevant, culturally appropriate, and more appealing to the recruiters in your new country.
In simpler terms, localisation makes your resume look like it’s been here before and it’s not an imposter.
Some countries may have distinct resume formats unique to them. For instance, resumes in Australia, Canada, and the United States, headshots are discouraged while for France, Spain, and Italy, a professional headshot is common and often expected. In the Middle East, including a photo is standard practice. In Germany, it’s okay to send a two to four page resume while in Canada, one-page resumes are standard, especially for early to mid-career professionals.
#2. Highlight Your Transferable Skills
Transferable skills are ‘skills’ that are relevant across industries and can be ‘transferred’ from one industry or experience to another. This applies mostly to the experience section of your resume, especially if you’re applying for a role in a new industry.
How can you recognise transferable skills and apply them to your job application:
Look at your previous roles, volunteer work, or personal projects and identify skills you've consistently used or developed.
Consider the specific skills from your past roles that might align with the new role, even if they seem indirectly related.
For example, if you managed a team of ten in hospitality as a care worker, you already have leadership and team coordination experience that translates into people management in a corporate setting.
Similarly, if you worked in logistics, took inventory and managed stock levels of over 200 products, this demonstrates your ability to gather information, interpret the data, and use it to make informed and strategic decisions which are valuable skills in finance, operations, and/or business analyst roles.
Using action words, describe how you utilised those skills and the results you got.
Pro tip: If you are switching industries, you have to ask yourself, what projects or tasks you excelled in in your previous role, what skills helped you succeed in that role and how they align with the new job description.
#3. Translate Your International Experience Into Local Value
One of the biggest challenges you’ll face when job hunting is convincing local employers and hiring managers that your international experience is relevant.
You know you have the necessary skills and expertise, but how do you make hiring managers see that through your international experience? Through context translation.
Context translation means structuring your work experience in a way that employers understand, aligns with industry standards, and proves you can adapt and thrive in the new work environment.
Start by researching the equivalent job titles, industry regulations, and standards. Every country has its terminology for job roles, industry certifications, and the like. For example, in the United Kingdom, India, and Nigeria, the title, “Site Engineer” refers to an individual responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations on construction sites and ensuring that projects are executed according to plans and specifications.
Meanwhile in United States and Australia, the equivalent role is the “Project Engineer.” They hold similar responsibilities, including the coordination of the technical aspects of construction projects and liaising between the design team and on-site operations.
So, research equivalent job titles and standards in your industry, understand the preferred titles and terminology, and adjust your resumes’ language to reflect local terminology (without lying or misrepresenting your experience).
For example, you don’t want to be writing ‘Developed construction cost estimates for infrastructure projects in Lagos State.’ Your employer most likely does not know anything about Lagos, so they won't be able to recognise the significance of this experience.
Instead, write ‘Developed cost estimates for infrastructure projects in Nigeria’s largest city, ensuring alignment with Australian Quantity Surveying standards and cost databases such as Rawlinsons.’
By including “Nigeria’s largest city” and name-dropping Australian standards, the employer is able to contextualise your experience.
You also want to proactively address the fears most local employers have when hiring foreign or immigrant workers, such as visa restrictions, knowledge of industry practices, cultural fit, or communication skills.
Do this by showcasing your knowledge of industry standards in your experience section and highlighting any local trainings, workshops, or courses you've completed to gain the applicable local skills and knowledge. These steps help you counter the common hesitations employers have about international candidates and shows recruiters that you’ve bridged the gap between your foreign experience and local requirements.
#4. Strategic Use of Keywords and Quantifiers
Recruiters already know the signs they are looking for and so do we because it’s in the job description. So, try as much as you can to use words the recruiter will recognise and associate with immediately. Use bold fonts for important things like job titles, project or company names and quantify your achievements.
This does not mean you do a figure vomit and put percentages in every sentence and make so many things bold. It still has to be readable and easy on the eyes.
Every quantifier you use must make sense and work within a context. If you are quantifying an achievement, it should have both the method and the result. For example, let's look at this statement “Improved cost accuracy by 15% through advanced data analysis.”
Improved cost accuracy - [Result]; by 15% - [Quantifier]; through advanced data analysis - [Method].
Bonus Tip: Presentation and Packaging
The presentation of your resume is just as important as the content within it. Recruiters spend about six to ten seconds scanning a resume before they decide if it's worth reading in detail or if they should move on. To catch a recruiter’s attention within ten seconds, your resume needs to be presentable, easy to read, organised, error-free, and give credibility to the skills and experiences you claim to have.
So, what makes a resume presentable? I think:
Professional Formatting: You wouldn’t go for a meeting in a rumpled shirt right? - Exactly. The same applies to your resume, it should be neat, professionally structured, and easy to read.
Use simple and legible fonts.
Use bold headings and keep the spacing consistent (especially for those of us who use Canva templates)
Avoid excessive design or colourful elements.
(If you work in design, this rule might not apply because your resume would need to reflect your artistic style or that of the company you’re applying to.)
Logical Order: Make the resume easy to understand by arranging the sections logically
Header: Name, contact info, LinkedIn URL (Please open one)
Professional Summary: A summary of who you are and what you bring to the company. This should have the number of years of experience you have, key skills and competencies specific to the role, and what value you bring to the company.
Key skills: Highlight your technical and soft skills using the same or similar words in the job description.
Work Experience: Put the most relevant job first with clear job titles and responsibilities.
Education & Certifications: pro tip, highlight courses you took in uni that are relevant to the role. Include credentials that have been recognized and show their local equivalency.
Now, for some of my personal favourites:
Core Competencies: List about 3 of your core strengths and briefly describe them.
Projects: List notable projects and your role in them. University case studies or projects count too.
Extras (if applicable): volunteer work, or professional memberships.
One last thing. Run a spelling and grammar check, get a second pair of eyes to read through what you’ve written and check to ensure it’s consistent throughout the sections.
Fin
Once you are certain your resume is localised, translates your international experience into local expertise, highlights your transferable skills, and uses the right keywords, it’s time to go for it. Your international experience is an asset. You only need to present it in a way that employers can easily recognise and identify with.
In our next article, we will be talking about cover letters, why you absolutely need to have one, and how to tell your story. As an immigrant, a well-written cover letter could be your secret weapon. At least it was for me according to my former employer. Your resume tells your employer all you’ve done, your cover letter tells a story of why you are the perfect candidate.
Need help refining your resume or have any questions? Drop a comment and we will be sure to respond.
 |
|