I’ve interviewed thousands of professionals over the last few years, and regardless of career level, one thing they all have in common is the desire to convince me they are the ideal candidate for whatever job they’re applying to.
While I’m quite sure you really do have the ability to do anything, you’re going to have to convince me of this so I can convince my client.
Give a Recruiter Something to Work With
When asked, “What type of employment are you seeking?” please don’t answer with, “I can do anything.” Your next employer only cares about what you’ve done, not what you say you can do. (Tweet this thought.) What you’ve done is measurable, reviewable and proven. What you say you can do is not any of those things.
Recognize the employer doesn’t care about your potential — at least not before they’ve had the chance to get to know you. And you will never have the opportunity to have your skills showcased if you don’t get an interview and ultimately get hired.
While the employment landscape appears to be improving, employers are still seeking someone who has held the exact same title as the job they’re trying to fill. They’re not ready to take a chance on someone who doesn’t meet the exact requirements for the position.
While this is frustrating, it doesn’t have to stop your search. You simply have to customize your resume. I know you’ve heard this many times before and it’s no less annoying to read this advice again, but facts are facts. If you’ve read any of my prior posts on career transitions,why you may still be unemployed or words women can use to get ahead in their careers, you know I like to give step-by-step advice, so here goes:
1. Review the Job Description
Make a list of the tasks that appear frequently throughout the job posting. At some point in time, an actual person wrote this description. Therefore, if something appears more than once, it’s probably highly important to the function of the position. Additionally, list the tasks that appear in the “required skills” section and in the “preferred, but not required” section.
People usually ignore the “preferred” skills because by definition, they’re not required, but these skills are just as important and probably even more so. While you won’t get hired at all without meeting the required aspects of the job details, you will be looked at as a more desirable candidate if you possess the preferred skills.
2. Review Your Past Jobs
Now that you have a list of the skills your future employer wants, review your past jobs and do the same thing for your employment history. Make a list of your skills, achievements and relevant experience. Look at the skills you possess from your prior roles and only include the ones that are pertinent to the job to which you’re applying.
Think about times you made money, saved money or achieved something significant. Quantify those achievements!
3. Review and Revise Your Resume
If you’ve been looking for a job for a while, you probably have 32 versions of your resume, so the thought of creating yet another version is likely to send chills up your spine. However, the versions you created were done prior to getting this advice, so they may not be as effective as you need them to be.
What you’re attempting to do in your resume is not merely mimic the requirements of the job, but demonstrate where in your past employment you have already solved the problem your future employer needs solving. This is the step many of us get wrong.
Key words are great, but they’re not effective if they aren’t accompanied by results. The achievements you quantified above now need to be succinctly integrated into your resume. This could include something as obvious as adding an “achievements” or “accomplishments” section if you have enough to fill a paragraph. If not, you could include those highlights in bold or italic font within your employment history.
However you do it, make it meaningful and relevant.
It’s also important to mention that it’s okay to remove extraneous information from your resume. I often get asked if it’s alright to omit portions of job responsibilities from a resume, and while the answer seems to be an obvious yes, it can sometimes be a little confusing.
If your last job included both a sales and a finance function, but now you’re applying for a job that’s strictly in finance, you will want to downplay the sales aspects and increase the responsibilities on the finance side. If you were the office manager for a small office where you handled everything from ordering supplies to managing staff to managing an office expansion, and now you’re applying for an office manager for a large office where your only function will be to manage the staff, again, you’ll want to pare down on the other responsibilities of your job.
Where it gets tricky is in the reverse. If you had limited responsibility and you’re applying for a position larger in scope, you have to go back to your past jobs and find the aspects of your experience that are translatable. Remember, the company wants to see what you have accomplished so far and how that helps them solve the problem they have now.
Once you get these steps right, head on over to my prior post on how to get your resume noticed and stay tuned for my next post, which will explain how to ensure your interview style reflects future job performance.
As Founder of Rework Work, Stacey is a Career Coach and talent acquisition strategist with expertise in diversity & inclusion. With so many questions coming her way each year about career change, resumes, conducting effective job searches and more, she has created e-courses on early career success as well as resume writing, which has been viewed more than 350,000 times in the past year.
