A reader writes:
I was a stay-at-home-mom for a good 10 years, and have recently started working for other people again. I have been taking entry-level positions, because I’ve been out of the workforce for a decade and also because my kids are still kind of young and I can’t handle the additional responsibility.
I’m currently on my second part-time job since coming back, and I keep running into issues with my coworkers assuming that I have entry-level experience.
At my first job, I had issues when someone changed a much-used database field to be unsearchable. When I tried to explain why I needed to be able to search that, I couldn’t get through to my coworker who kept blowing me off, saying “computer stuff is hard, but you’ll get the hang of it.” I have built three large corporate databases from scratch. I eventually had to escalate the issue to my great-grandboss, who had hired me and knew what was on my resume.
At my current administrative job, which I love, I have been noticing that no one outside my direct boss really values my input. I was hired because I have the experience to understand and cover for the higher-level responsibilities in my department, but again, no one has seen my resume. Today my coworker and I were discussing a marketing issue, and she said to me, “I actually have a Master’s in Marketing, so I know about this stuff.” My MBA concentration was in Marketing, and I’ve been a marketing manager and a publicist. I know a thing or two. I just currently want a job I can leave at the office at the end of the day.
How do I let my coworkers know, without sounding like a jerk, that even though I have (and want) an entry-level job, I do have higher-level experience and knowledge? Or should I just continue to keep my mouth shut and enjoy not being asked to take on the newsletter (I was sweating that one), and other jobs? Could that hurt me in a few years when I’m ready for more responsibility?
I think you need to figure out exactly what’s bothering you about this.
Is it just that you want your coworkers to talk to you in a way that acknowledges you’re not a total beginner? (Certainly the computer guy was over the line regardless.) Or is it more about respect and having your input taken seriously? Obviously we should treat all our coworkers respectfully, but at the same time, if you were hired to do X and Y, the colleague managing Z might not be looking for input on Z, even if you have a background in it, and that might be their call to make.
If you’re reading that and thinking, “Yeah, I’m not trying to take over their jobs; I just want them to know I have experience, even though I’m not proposing using that experience for anything specific” … can you dig more into why? If you can’t quite explain it, then any chance it’s, well, ego? On some level, we often want people to know our value in any given context, even if there’s no practical reason they need to, and it can wound our egos when we feel like they don’t know and aren’t accounting for that.
If it is ego, that’s okay. We all have egos, and that’s no indictment of you. But if that’s what’s at the root of this, it might bother you less once you realize that.
On the other hand, if there are practical work reasons people need to know, that’s different — and you’d address that like any other work detail someone needed to know. For example, the computer guy was definitely a work problem that you needed to address, because he was obstructing your ability to do your job. Also, you mentioned that you were hired in part because you can cover for the higher-level responsibilities in your department; if that’s the case, people need to know about the aspects of that will affect them (and your boss should be taking the lead on making sure they know).
Beyond that, though, why not just mention your expertise when it’s relevant? For example, when your coworker told you she “knows about this stuff” because of her marketing degree, it would have been fine to say, “Oh, cool. I used to work as a marketing manager and my MBA focused on it.” And when your coworker was patronizing you about computers being “hard,” it would have been fine to say, “I’ve been using computers for years. I’ve built three large corporate databases from scratch.” Or even, “Have I inadvertently given you the impression I don’t know computers? I’ve built databases and done XYZ. The issue here is…”
You definitely shouldn’t go around inserting your credentials where they wouldn’t come up organically, but when it’s relevant to the conversation, it’s fine to mention! A good litmus test: might the person you’re talking to feel embarrassed if they continue down this conversational road and then find out about your background later? If so, it’s a kindness to everyone to be matter-of-fact about it.
All that said … depending on how this organization works, there’s a risk that by publicizing your credentials, you risk being drafted into more responsibility than you want. You might be able to solve that by just being really firm about role creep, hours, and what you are and aren’t prepared to do (not only because you don’t want more responsibility right now, but also because you’re not being paid for it) — but factor your willingness to do the work of maintaining those boundaries into how much you share about your experience.
Last, you raised the question of whether avoiding those extras now could hurt you in a few years when you want more responsibility. There is an opportunity cost — having fresh higher-level experience on your resume does help — but it sounds like you were already planning on that opportunity cost when you decided to return to entry-level work (for perfectly good reasons).