The Leap of Tech #7: Stop Selling Your Resume and Start Selling Your Results

Leap of Tech #7 felt more like a workshop than a traditional event, and that was exactly the point. This edition shifted the spotlight from product building to personal positioning. Guest speaker Julian Lukaszewicz, founder of CareerIQ Academy, led a hands-on session focused on helping professionals communicate their unique value with clarity and confidence.

Julian’s message was simple but urgent: most people don’t know how to talk about themselves. In a world of nonlinear careers, your ability to explain who you are, what you do best, and why it matters has never been more important.

The Problem: Most People Don’t Know How to Talk About Themselves

Julian opened with a visual: you walk into a foreign supermarket, stare at a wall of unfamiliar sparkling water, and make a decision based on the label, price, or packaging. Now imagine you’re the bottle. What does your LinkedIn profile or CV tell people about you?

Today’s job market is crowded. If you don’t position yourself clearly, someone else will fill the space. The problem isn’t a lack of skill, it’s a lack of story. People don’t see what you’ve done unless you show it to them in a way they understand.

The Shift: From Employee to One-Person Business 

Julian reframed employment: you’re a business of one. Your job title doesn’t tell people what you’re great at or how you deliver outcomes. Your salary is a subscription to your outcomes. Employers are customers, and they cancel when they stop seeing the benefit. So the question becomes: why should someone keep subscribing to you?

If your value isn’t obvious in the first 7 seconds of your CV, it gets skipped. Not because you’re not talented, but because you didn’t package the value.

What Companies Are Actually Buying 

Hiring managers don’t buy potential. They buy certainty. They’re not looking for a generalist who can do ten things fairly well, they want someone who solves their immediate problem. Your role in the hiring process is to show how you solve the problem they care about most.

Introducing the Value Pillars 

To help people articulate this, Julian introduced five Value Pillars. These are the raw building blocks of how you can stand out:

1. Results you consistently deliver: “I’ve launched 3 products that generated over €1M in revenue.”
2. Life experiences that shaped you: “I grew up in a village without running water. I learned to build, fix, and figure things out early.”
3. Transferable skills from other industries: “My background in TV taught me how to communicate clearly, a skill I now use in PR.”
4. A unique approach to solving problems. Whether it’s pattern recognition or simplifying complexity, this is about your operating system.
5. A personal mission that drives your work: “I want to make education accessible, because I’ve seen how it can change lives.”

Use these pillars to frame your experience in a way that highlights your most relevant strengths.

Use Your Story, Don’t Bury It 

What you’ve lived through shapes how you work. Julian encouraged attendees to bring life experience into their career story. One participant talked about being raised by a single parent and thus, learning responsibility early. Another reflected on teaching tech to adults and realizing mindset was the biggest barrier, not software. These are the kinds of stories that make people lean in.

“Instead of hiding these things, use them. They can be your competitive edge.”

Julian encouraged us to think differently about how we present ourselves. It’s not just about your professional experience, your life experience matters too. Being a parent, growing up in a specific context, facing adversity, all of these shape who you are and how you work.

Know Who You’re Talking To 

Julian reminded everyone: you don’t need to impress everyone. Just the right person. What does your target stakeholder actually care about? What are they missing in other candidates that you can offer?

Write your CV or pitch like you’re writing an email to one person, someone with a specific need you can meet.

Stick to Facts, Not Fluff 

One of the most practical shifts: stop using vague adjectives. Instead of “I’m a strategic thinker” say “I led a team of 12 that delivered a project 3 months ahead of schedule.” Real numbers build real trust.

Interviewing Is Networking in Disguise 

Every job interview is also a visibility moment. Even if you don’t get the role, you might leave an impression that pays off later. Interviews aren’t just performance, they’re practice, and they’re one of the best ways to test your message.

Write Your Value Proposition Sentence 

Julian closed with a challenge: write a single sentence that captures your value.

• Make it relevant to your audience
• Address a specific problem you solve
• Ground it in proof, not potential

Example: “I help mission-driven startups align their operations and storytelling so they can grow faster and build trust with investors, something I’ve done repeatedly as both a founder and a strategist.”

Say it. Refine it. Say it again. Your goal isn’t perfection. It’s clarity.

What to Do Next

• Identify your five Value Pillars
• Choose a specific audience to speak to
• Write your value proposition sentence
• Test it out in real conversations
• Swap modesty for specificity

Leap of Tech #7 reminded us that in the new job market, you don’t compete on years of experience, you compete on how clearly you show your value.

Don’t miss what’s next. Leap of Tech #8 is just around the corner, join us as we continue the conversation with fresh insights and sharper perspectives. Check out the upcoming event here: Leap of Tech #8 on LinkedIn.