I took my own advice, and spent last Saturday helping women who live in a local shelter create resumes. Aside from having a great time meeting new people and hearing fascinating stories, I also found that, as often happens in life when you are paying attention, something I have been thinking about quite a bit lately was reinforced in an unexpected way.

One of the resumes I typed up was for Shelley.* She came to me with a hand written resume she had created in workshop earlier in the day, and I noticed immediately that Shelley’s resume was different from all the others I had seen up to that point. Her objective stated clearly, “To find a challenging position as a grill operator in a restaurant.”

Now that, my writer friends, is specialization. Shelley knew what she wanted and instead of fooling around with an unclear objective “To find a position in the food service industry,” or worse, “To find a challenging position where I can use my skills,” she went for it and declared that she wanted to be a grill operator.

Being me, I had to ask,” Are you sure you want to be this specific in your objective?”

“Yep. I want to be a grill operator at McDonald’s. I already have an interview on Monday.”

Reading further, I saw that she had nearly ten years of experience as a grill operator. Though she had even more years of experience at domestic work, Shelley had clearly evaluated her strengths and wants and was deciding to capitalize on what she knew and liked. I think its well worth noting that, of all the women I talked to that day, Shelley the Specialist was the only one who actually had a job interview lined up already.

As we talked further, she told me that she had contacted a former manager at another restaurant. Though they didn’t have any open grill operator positions at the time, the former manager was the one who set up Shelley’s Monday interview. Just like any specialist, Shelley mined her network to get referrals when she was in the market for new work.

Whether you are a grill operator or a writer, you can learn something from Shelley’s focus. I hope that next time I grab a McDonald’s, someone like Shelley will be working the grill.

For more on freelance writers and specialization, be sure to drop back by on Thursday for my weekly SpecialtyBuzz segment in which I coerce specialists into sharing their tips and secrets.

*Not her real name or specialization. The last thing these women really need is to be exploited for a life lesson for some damn meddling writer.