BrideWiz.CoM:
Yes, that’s a banana. Photo by Ben Haley
As you enter another budget line on your wedding Excel spreadsheet and pop open another tab in your web browser to update your Snipi with another bit of inspiration, have you ever stopped for a second and thought — whoa, this is hard work. And then realized, “…I should be getting paid to do this work!”
Now, I don't necessarily mean you should become a wedding planner, although some of us offbeat types DO find ourselves working in the wedding industry. (I NEVER EVER thought I'd write a book about weddings, and then end up working in the wedding media biz. How the hell did that happen!?)
So while “I planned my wedding, now I'll plan yours!” does happen, what I'm talking about here is the ways that planning a wedding help you develop skills that can be applied to non-wedding jobs. You're building skills that could help you move up a career ladder in whatever industry you work in … or WISH you worked in.
Here's a quick list of employable skills you might be developing while you work on your wedding:
- Project management: guiding the development and milestones of a project with a very hard deadline at the end
- Interpersonal communication: telling your family “I love you, now fuck off” without hurting feeling
- Bookkeeping: tracking your expenses to insure you stay within your budget
- Writing skills: crafting the perfect language for your wedding website, invitations, and programs
- Hands-on manufacturing: assembling those DIY centerpieces, bouquets, etc.
- People panagement: getting the best results from everyone who's helping you (wedding party, vendors, etc) and doing so in a way that makes everyone feel good
I'm sure y'all can think of a million other examples — the real question is, how can you highlight these wedding planning skills when applying for a job as, say, an office manager? Chatting about your wedding isn't typically seen as professional behavior.
So, in my non-Offbeat work life,I spent four years of my career working with recruiters, ie folks who interview job candidates all day every day. I asked one of my colleagues how a bride could mention skills gained from wedding planning in an interview, and here was what she said:
If I asked someone during an interview, “Give me an example of how you’ve managed a crisis,” they could respond with something to hook me into learning more about the wedding, and immediately tie it back to building job-applicable skills.
For example: “I got married last summer, and since I was looking for additional project management experience, I decided to plan the wedding myself. It actually turned into a significant event planning opportunity: managing the budget, selecting all vendors and venues, coordinating guests and their needs, etc.” And then dive into the specific story.
The moral of the story is that if you angle it carefully, the skills you're using now as you plan your wedding can totally become marketable job skills that can help you move ahead with your next career move.
So now I want to know — what skills are YOU developing as you plan your wedding? And how are you going to apply them?
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