Latest / The Resume Room with Fexingo: Resume Writing, Cover Letters, and Application Strategy / How to Explain a Job With Unclear Expectations on Your Resume
Transcript
- Lucas: So you're updating your resume, and you get to the section for your last job, and you freeze. Because honestly, you're not sure what your job title actually meant. The role was posted as 'marketing coordinator,' but you spent a third of your time doing vendor negotiations, another chunk running the social accounts, and somewhere in there you also rebuilt the spreadsheet that tracks inventory. Luna: That sounds like every marketing coordinator job I've ever heard of. The title says one thing, the reality is a grab bag. Lucas: Exactly. And today we're going to talk about how you translate that grab bag into a resume that doesn't look like a mess. Because the temptation is to either list everything and look unfocused, or pick one thing and feel like you're lying. There's a better way. Luna: I'm ready. I've got a friend who's been staring at her resume for a week trying to figure this out. Lucas: Let's start with the core idea: when a job has unclear expectations, your resume has to do the clarifying work. The reader only has eight seconds, so you need to impose a structure that the job itself never had. That means you become the architect of your own role description. Luna: So how do you actually impose structure on chaos? Where do you start? Lucas: I call it job description archaeology. You dig through the artifacts of the job to find the real duties. First, you pull the original job posting if you saved it. But then you go deeper: your email inbox, your calendar, your project folders, even your old performance reviews. You're looking for the actual work you did, not the work you were hired to do. Luna: I love that phrase, archaeology. So you're basically excavating your own professional history. Lucas: Right. And the goal is to group the work into three to five clusters. Let's use that marketing coordinator example. You might find that your work really fell into three buckets: campaign execution, vendor management, and data analysis. Now instead of a bullet list that jumps from 'wrote social posts' to 'negotiated with print vendors,' you can write a summary line that frames your role as owning those three areas. Luna: That makes sense. But what if the clusters are too disparate? Like, what if you did marketing, but also HR admin, and also helped the CFO with a special project? How do you make that cohesive? Lucas: That's a real challenge. The key is to find the common thread. It could be a skill like project management, or it could be that you were the person who solved whatever problem came up. And sometimes the answer is to lean into that generalist identity. But you have to do it intentionally. You don't want to look like you were just the office helper. You want to position yourself as a versatile operator who can handle ambiguity. Luna: So there's a way to frame that positively. But what about the actual bullet points? How do you write them when the duties were so vague? Lucas: The magic is in the quantification. Even if the job description was vague, the outcomes were probably concrete. Instead of 'responsible for social media,' you write 'grew Instagram following by 40 percent in eight months through a weekly content calendar and engagement strategy.' Now you've turned a vague duty into a measurable achievement. Luna: But what if you didn't have metrics? Like, you know you did a good job, but there were no dashboards, no tracking. How do you quantify then? Lucas: You get creative. You can quantify the scope: number of vendors managed, number of projects delivered, size of the budget you influenced, number of stakeholders you coordinated with. Even something like 'coordinated with 12 department heads to launch a new internal tool' gives a sense of scale. The number doesn't have to be a business metric; it just needs to give the reader a concrete sense of your role's size. Luna: That's helpful. I've also heard people say you should use the STAR method for bullets. Does that apply here? Lucas: Absolutely. Situation, task, action, result. But on a resume, you have to compress it. You don't have room for the full story. So you focus on the action and the result, and you hint at the situation. Like, 'streamlined the onboarding process for a chaotic startup, reducing ramp time for new hires from six weeks to three.' That implies the situation without spelling it out. Luna: So you're telling the story in shorthand. And what about the title? Should you change your title to something more accurate, or stick with the official one? Lucas: This is a delicate one. The safest approach is to keep the official title, because that's what your background check will verify. But you can add a clarification in parentheses, like 'Marketing Coordinator '. Actually, a better way is to add a subtitle line under the title that summarizes your actual function, like 'Marketing Coordinator | Campaign Execution, Vendor Management, Data Analysis.' That way you're not changing the official title, but you're giving the reader a clearer picture. Luna: That makes sense. But what if you had multiple titles during your tenure? Like you started as an assistant and left as a manager, but the title change was never official. Lucas: That's a common scenario. The best practice is to list the highest title you held, but only if you can back it up with the actual responsibilities. If you were doing manager-level work, you can list 'Marketing Manager' and then in the interview explain that the title wasn't formalized, but your duties were. Some people worry that's dishonest, but if you were really doing the job, it's accurate in spirit. Just be ready to talk about it. Luna: So it's about being honest but also giving yourself credit. What about the company description? Should you explain that the company was chaotic or that the role was poorly defined? Should that go on the resume? Lucas: No. The resume is not the place to make excuses or explain context. You want the reader to focus on what you did, not what the job didn't have. If there's a legitimate reason for the ambiguity, like a startup that pivoted, you can hint at it in the company description, something like 'fast-growing startup that pivoted from B2B to B2C in the second year.' But that's it. You don't say 'the role was undefined.' That just sounds like a red flag. Luna: Right, you want to project confidence. Now, what if you simply can't find any clusters? What if every week was different and there's no rhyme or reason? Lucas: That's rare, but it happens. In that case, you might consider leading with a professional summary at the top of your resume that positions you as a flexible problem-solver. Something like 'versatile operations professional who thrives in ambiguous environments and has built systems from scratch.' Then each bullet point becomes evidence of that adaptability. You're turning the lack of structure into a selling point. Luna: That's a great reframe. So instead of hiding the chaos, you're owning it. Now, what about the interview? How do you handle the question 'So what did you actually do at that job?' Lucas: That's the moment to tell a story. You pick one or two projects that best demonstrate the value you brought and walk them through it. You don't list everything. You say something like, 'My formal title was marketing coordinator, but the reality was that I was the go-to person for anything that needed to get done. For example, in my first month I took over the vendor relationships and negotiated a 15 percent cost reduction.' That gives them a concrete example of your initiative and impact. Luna: And it shows you can handle ambiguity, which is a huge skill. So this whole process isn't just about resume writing—it's about understanding your own career narrative. Lucas: Exactly. And that's actually a nice lead into something else. You know, we've been doing this show for a while, and we get a lot of messages from listeners who say this kind of conversation has helped them frame their own story for job interviews or performance reviews. That means a lot to us. Luna: It really does. And it's also why we've never put ads on these shows. We want the advice to feel like a conversation, not a commercial. Lucas: Right. So if you find value in that, and you want to keep it that way, you can support the work at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small way to keep the episodes ad-free and focused on the content. Luna: Yeah, and no pressure at all. Just if it's helped you, we appreciate it. Lucas: So back to the resume. Once you've drafted those clustered bullets, there's one more step that a lot of people skip: testing your resume on someone who doesn't know you. Send it to a friend, a mentor, even a recruiter if you know one, and ask them what they think your job was. If they can't articulate it, you need to go back and clarify. Luna: That's a smart test. Like, if the reader can't tell what you do, you haven't done your job as a resume writer. Lucas: Precisely. And here's a pro tip: use the exact language from the job description of the role you're applying for. If the posting mentions 'stakeholder management' and you did that, mirror the phrasing. That helps with both the human reader and the applicant tracking system. But don't just copy keywords—make sure your bullets genuinely reflect the work. Luna: So it's about tailoring, but not fabricating. And what about the skills section? Should you list all those random skills you picked up? Lucas: Yes, but be selective. Choose the skills that are relevant to the job you want, not the job you had. If you learned some SQL on that side project, and the new job wants SQL, highlight it. If you did some basic bookkeeping, and you're applying for a finance role, include it. The skills section is where you can show the breadth without cluttering the bullet points. Luna: So the message is: don't be afraid to present the full range of what you did, but do it in a structured, targeted way. Lucas: That's the takeaway. And one last thing: remember that your resume is a marketing document, not a legal deposition. It's your story, told your way. Just make sure every claim is true and you can back it up in an interview. With a little archaeology and some careful framing, that ambiguous job can become one of the strongest parts of your resume. Luna: I love that. So for anyone out there with a job that was never clearly defined, you're not stuck. You've got the tools to turn it into a compelling story. Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next time.