Circle of competence

I recently learned this phrase from Farnam Street. I’ve been thinking about where my circle of competence exists, and how I can expand on it to better serve my clients.

Today, at the drop of a hat, I can help you with:

• Writing a resume and cover letter that can catch the attention of the hiring manager we want to impress - even if we don’t know who this person is yet.

  • We can make a number of educated guesses as to what they’re going to want to see on the resume/cover letter based on the job posting, company website, company blog posts, and Glassdoor reviews from current/past employees.

  • We can structure the document for two different reading styles - skimming and in-depth reading.

• Creating/optimizing LinkedIn profiles that attract the attention of recruiters.

  • Similar to the resume, we can create a narrative and an experience out of your LinkedIn profile that will leave a lasting impression on the minds of visitors to your page.

• Researching target companies and identifying any possible areas that a person could leverage for their career goals.

• Interview practice and thinking through what the interview could be like.

There are a number of other things that could have made the list (i.e. networking, career coaching, headhunting). But if you asked me where my true, all-day-every-day circle of competence exists, it’s in these four bullet points.

People whom I love and trust have told me I could summarize them all and say that I’m competent at professional branding. But it’s here that I hesitate, even in just writing a sentence like this.

When I think of professional branding, the first images that pop into my head are the LinkedIn “influencers” who preach about professional branding on the platform. It’s a sticky, mildly sleazy, cringe-inducing image that frustrates me when I think about it.

Would it be fair to say that I do professional branding that’s based on substance and value… or am I just being too judgmental when I think about things like this?

I don’t know. Tonight’s email is turning into a bit of a mess, so I guess I’ll stop for now.

But I’m genuinely curious to know what you think.

Even if I couldn’t call my circle of competence “professional branding,” would it be fair to say that what I do is in that ballpark? And if so, how could I expand on it for the benefit of my clients?

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