Unleash the power of home office marketability in your resume

Photo by geishaboy

Home offices are more the norm than not but many people try to hide their home office experience on their resume as if it makes them less marketable.

As a career marketing expert, I work with insurance and industrial sales representatives, sales managers, industrial engineers, accountants, court reporters, lawyers, general contractors, and real estate brokers who have worked from home.

You are as marketable as any corporate office-based employee.

You need to do what every other job seeker needs to do. Define your keywords and your accomplishments on the resume to fit the position you have.

• If you are working for another company as a telecommuter, this is the least difficult to do. You are an employee now. You have a job description (or should have one) and you complete projects on deadline.
• If you are in sales for a company, you also have it made. You certainly not alone. Even 15 years ago, many companies were moving their sales representatives to home-based offices and then assigning a territory.
• If you have launched a home-based, product-based business from your home, you list accomplishments. You executed a business plan, you set marketing goals, you built a reputation for quality customer service, you expanded your market.
• If you worked for a spouse or partner as the accounting side of a construction or other business, you are marketable. You developed systems to organized complex financial documents, assured billing for accounts receivable, and submitted payments prior to deadlines for accounts payable.
• If you launched your own service-based business, you can follow the same formula. You are marketable. You developed marketing strategies, networked for new clients, built a reputation for strong customer service.

Seth Godin addresses this in Goodbye to the office

If we were starting this whole office thing today, it’s inconceivable we’d pay the rent/time/commuting cost to get what we get. I think in ten years the TV show ‘the Office’ will be seen as a quaint antique.

Go read his post if I have not convinced you that you have value.

Stop thinking you are less valuable or marketable than those in a traditional setting. If you are still enjoying the versatility and flexibility of working from home, then get busy with your network and find another opportunity that needs you to do whatever it is you do best right from your home.

If you are not enjoying it and want to be an employee again, then develop a career marketing strategy that demonstrates your talents, value, accomplishments, and is jam-packed with keywords that fit your target position.