If your house was on fire, would you be interested in how many fires a firefighter has put out in their career? Or would you just let them get to work?

Selling your experience in a job interview is different than selling your expertise as a consultant.

🤝 When hiring an FTE, the hiring manager is looking for a long-term employment match, and at a high level wants to hear:

• What have you done elsewhere that could help my team over the next 1-2 years?

🔥 When hiring a consultant, a project sponsor is acutely interested in solving a personally urgent problem now, and wants to hear:

• What can you do here that will help me, tomorrow?

As you prepare proposals and pitches, don’t fall into the FTE interview playbook and over-index on detailed stories about your background. You can post those on your website for anyone interested.

Rather, focus on the approach you’d put into place in their context, immediately, based on your expertise.

When you get called to a fire, bring a firehose, not a resume.

💡

-Wes