I have been running our own family business for the past three years. My duties included accounting and also managing the business. For example finding drivers, finding work, updating customers, Billing customers and also preparing financial statements.
Now now, I am looking to apply for a accountant or financial analyst positions and I cannot seem to title my position with my family business on my resume, To get recruiters interested.
What do you guys suggest?
CFO
Or change your title based on the job you’re applying for. It’s not a lie. If you ran everything, including all financial aspects, you are the CFO, or anything else you want to be.
I agree. You do all jobs, you have the right to any title. Pull job descriptions from each title to see what you do. Business Manager is also good. It covers alot and may be seen a more humble than CFO. Also, you don’t want to be passed over because you may be “too experienced”. Some of the feeble minded might feel threatened.
For me, I’ve been going by as President for the last few years. In my last business I took on Managing Director. Before I was CEO but I was young and that title doesn’t work well with someone so young. So, Managing Director seemed more humble and palatable.
Sometimes I just go as Financial Planner or Consultant. That’s about marketing.
Well, Sara Grillo called herself managing director of her blog. So there is that.
I like the idea of looking at job descriptions. Maybe VP of Finance
I met a guy who had a job title Master of the Universe. May fit here
Late to the party on this one, but my brother ran into this when trying to translate his experience within the family business to finding employment elsewhere. There’s nothing wrong or dishonest about giving yourself any title you choose, but be careful of being to grand if the company is not large enough to justify it (for most people attempting to leave a family business it is not large enough to justify it, otherwise there would be no point in leaving). There is no need to sell yourself short either, definitely stand up for your experience but its finding the right balance that can be tricky. The transition from small family business to the broader professional market can be difficult since its always tough to analyze from the recruiter’s point of view how legitimate your background is since the employment was not arms length.
Thank you for this reply. I am having a hard time and haven’t received any interview calls. Its been almost 6 weeks now. I agree that it must be hard for recruiters to trust the experience I put on the resume.
Is there any way I can reduce they uncertainty for them?
Make sure your resume description matches what’s in the job title search description. Also include various statistics on what you managed. How much you improved the business through cost savings, improved revenue, new business or new initiatives, etc. You have to use language that shows that you have experience and expertise in the areas that they are looking for. Use different resumes for the different jobs and tailor each one to the job description. As long as you can talk about it in detail you can make your resume into exactly what the recruiter is looking for.
You have to get past the screening. That means they are looking for key words and phrases and specific credentials and/or experience levels. Then when you talk to the hiring managers be sure you know your stuff and you know the correct lingo that makes you sound competent. Be able to talk about your business like you are on shark tank. so whatever they ask, you can prove you’re the expert. The problem is you know you’re an expert, but a lot of the things you do are second nature. You don’t think anything of it and you don’t have anything to prove. So you use lay terms or your own internal business language to describe things. That’s good for the family business but that bad out in public. For me I notice that difference most when I attend board meetings for the other organizations I support. When comparing what I do with my business to what they do, I need to translate in my head from my internal language to business language so they see me a competent and, most importantly, they know what I’m talking about. On one board the treasurer is an accounting professor and CPA so that used to intimidate me. He has the opposite problem. He has to translate to communicate with the non-financial board members. He spends his day in academia using academic language and thought processes.
This is theory. I haven’t looked for a job in a long long time.