How to turn your nontraditional background into an interview (and career) asset

My morning routine has remained largely unchanged over the years. Just as I did when competing as a D1 athlete, I still wake up early and work out. Only now, instead of heading to my practice, I  shepherd my kids to different schools and their early morning practices. Then, I dive into my career: the strategy work and support I give to my team as they tackle the deluge of job applications I sift through every day in my role as VP of Talent Acquisition at Guild—by my count, about 1,000 per week. We’re looking for candidates who don’t fit in, and do stand out.

What I’m looking for isn’t just the right keywords or “best” schools. I’m looking for people with varied backgrounds, who know how to work hard, have demonstrated their ability to learn something new, and break the mold of what the business world thinks career high achievers look like.

Often, I’m led to the athletes, bartenders, and babysitters of the world. Why? They have the most eagerness to learn, drive to win, and experience wearing many hats. 

Here’s how you can parlay your nontraditional background into a long-term career you love by using what you’ve already got. I know this is possible because I’ve done it. 

Demonstrate a learner’s mindset 

Today’s workplace is anything but stagnant. Nearly half of workers’ skills will be disrupted in five years, and 60% of workers will need training in the next four. This year nearly all companies said that candidates would benefit from AI skills, and 64% of managers say they’re asking employees to take on additional responsibilities. Needless to say: candidates need to be able to learn on the job, and recruiters are hiring with that in mind. 

Many frontline jobs and alternative careers require cultivating skills in real-time. As they take the next step, providing context is key. Job seekers need to pull back the curtain and educate the reader on their hard-won skills.

For Olympic BMX rider Hannah Roberts, it would look like, “Spent an average of 40 hours per week training to incorporate three new tricks, resulting in a first place finish and a 93.48 qualifying score for the 2024 Paris Olympics.”

For a tutor, it could be: “Adapted lesson plans daily to different learning styles and comprehension levels, resulting in an average of one letter grade improvement in three months.”

The formula is this: a skill you learned + time frame + outcome.

Not only are you showing recruiters that you’ve successfully picked up new skills in the past, but you’re also telling them you’ll be able to do the same in the role you’re applying for. Consider this a strength few career desk-bound workers can say with nearly as much conviction.

Show off a little (or a lot)

Success looks different in different roles, and the recruiter reviewing your resume may not know how impressive it is to get your basketball shooting percentage from 22% to 45% in five months.

This is my moment to brag: I took one thousand shots daily for five months to make it happen. And yes, I put that in the resume that landed me my first gig at Deloitte out of college. Sharing the “how” behind the accomplishment helps the recruiter speak your language and see your attributes as transferable skills, regardless of the length of your resume. 

When you’re describing your previous roles, contextualize your successes. How many people reach your elite level of play? In my case, only 1% of the 500-plus U.S. high school basketball athletes play at the NCAA Division 1 level and an even smaller percentage have full athletic scholarships.

How were you selected to fill a leadership role in your volunteer organization? When you taught English in Thailand, how many of your students graduated? What percentage of applicants from the culinary school you graduated from become head chefs? It’s only 10%. That’s impressive!

This is a great opportunity to highlight team efforts, too. Companies thrive when they have winning teams led by respected leaders with clear vision. The same goes for cheerleading squads, church groups, political campaigns, and more. Don’t second guess adding state champion or award-winning artist on your resume.

By illustrating how you beat the odds to win, recruiters like me know that you’re a standout candidate who strives for excellence and has a proven pattern of executing with excellence in many aspects of your life. Show off your success in context. 

“Doing it all” 

When I’m selecting resumes from the 600 to 1,000 applications I get within the first week for each role we open—which is no exaggeration—I’m looking for more than job qualifications. About 90% of the applicants we see are qualified. I need to see that a candidate can juggle multiple things at once with grace. 

Sometimes the experience that stands out the most isn’t a Herculean effort or MVP award, but a combination of all the things a candidate does day-to-day that amount to something impressive and the self-awareness they use when contextualizing it. I encourage applicants to paint a picture of how they did it all. Get sharp at telling your story and connecting your transferable skills directly to a company’s stated job requirements. Need to illustrate “ability to balance multiple stakeholders and perform under pressure?” Zoom in on how you balanced going to night school and working a full-time restaurant job. How did you make time to raise two kids and lead a thriving online business? What about making time to volunteer for a cause you care about and go to trade school?

Speaking from experience, it may not be apparent how much you’re balancing at any given time, and how seamlessly that translates to being successful in a job that may seem out of reach. As a 21-year-old full-time student, D1 athlete, wife, and mother, I naturally acquired the skills that set me up for a decades-long career in the tech world. I balanced the priorities of multiple stakeholders daily, I found the time when there wasn’t any to chip away at long-term goals, and I effectively led teams of people and players to their own successes. What I do today isn’t all that different—it’s just done at a desk, and in a lot of Zoom meetings. 

If you take one thing away from this, let it be this: As a non-traditional candidate, or any candidate for that matter, the passions you’ve pursued, the family you’ve cared for, and the skills you’ve developed along the way—whether that’s at a desk, a playground, on the court, or anywhere else—are all a part of the story you’ll tell as you build your career.