What made her heart dance, she realized, was remembering the
thrill of the chase. And all for a good cause. She had loved being in the
role of sitting down with decision makers and pitching computers for
kids. She truly believed that getting the right educational software into
the classroom should be at the top of every school’s agenda. Persuading,
even educating, decision makers to buy into this idea would be some-
thing worth getting up in the morning for, she told herself.
Her pulse quickened again when she saw an ad in the paper for a
sales position with an educational software company she admired.
Knowledge of educational software, teaching experience, and advanced
courses in education were required. She had all of the above.
But she also realized that coming from the world of education,
with no experience in business or sales, might be an obstacle. Maybe
she should try to get a preview of what this job would really be like for
a person like herself. She called the alumni office of her alma mater and
discovered that one of her classmates had made the switch several
years ago from elementary school teacher to working for a software
company. She was able to do an informational interview over the phone
with this person, and decided she really did want to proceed with her
application.
Karen decided to create a Can-Do Portfolio to demonstrate that
she can make the transition from elementary school teacher to high-
performing account executive.TARGETED JOB
The advertisement for the job that caught Karen’s eye read as follows:Account Executive for Educational Software Company
Edu-Soft Inc. provides state-of-the-art educational software, including
both courseware and network solutions for the educational community.
Account Executive will sell the full breadth of our educational software
product line to elementary school systems. Job requires a balanced sales
effort involving sales/account management skills and product knowl-
edge/problem-solving/solution skills. Account Executive must be an expe-
rienced and fully capable individual who has the professional presence to
independently call on and lead the sales process at present and potential
accounts. Applicants must have knowledge of educational software, teach-
ing experience, and advanced courses in education.DESIRED P.E.A.K.S.
Since Karen is not from this industry, the above job advertisement did
not provide her with enough information to fully understand what
P.E.A.K.S. would be considered most desirable in candidates for this
job. The job lists minimum requirements at the end, but that doesn’t
tell her which of her P.E.A.K.S. she should be featuring to be considered
an exceptional candidate. In order to target both her resume and her
portfolio, she needed to rely on the information she gathered from the
informational interview she did with her former classmate who is now206 Part II: Examples of Targeted Portfolios