Dreading Sundays Podcast S01e01 Ft. Katherine Ong

As per her Twitter bio, Katherine is an accomplished multi-industry digital marketer and by the end of this episode there will be no doubt in your mind that Katherine is a very smart cookie.

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Interesting things about Katherine

Started her own conference at the age of 13
Founded a non-profit organisation at the age of 16
Has an award named after her
Managed a convenience store with 20 staff in her 20s
First salary in a digital marketing role was USD33K
Second role had a salary of USD38K
Has moved companies in order to double or triple her salary
Managed 65 clients in her first year at an agency
Progressed to VP
Now runs her own consultancy and mentors the next generation of digital marketers by adding SEO to their skillset
Performed a site migration for a website with 150 million backlinks

Katherine prefers to be an individual contributor

Despite have a proven track record of being a leader, Katherine loves doing the work.

“I’m a dork. I really like doing it.”
(s01e01, 15:25)

But in many organisations, career growth and salary growth require management responsibilities. Therefore, even though she prefers being an independent contributor, the only pathway up to earn more was through taking on leadership roles.

Functional vs chronological/traditional resume

Instead of listing her work experiences and achievements starting from the current or most recent one, and following up with previous jobs below, Katherine recommends using a functional resume.

A functional resume (also known as skill-based resume) is where you stack you expertise underneath a topic relevant to the role you are applying for.

Novo Resume offers a visual demonstration on what a functional resume looks like, how it is formatted and how it differs from a traditional resume in their article ‘How to write a functional resume’.

However, recruiters tend to hate functional resumes.