Why Skills Aren’t Enough to Get You the Job
By Soozy G. Miller, CPRW, CDCC, CDP
I tuned in to a webinar and heard:
“What do recruiters look for on resumes?”
And the recruiter answered:
“Skills.”
I really disagree with the recruiter’s answer. In fact, I was pretty shocked by the answer.
“Skills?” That’s it?
For any given job opening these days, 98% of resumes are usually from unrelated fields and are rejected immediately (e.g. art teacher applying to manufacturing position). But if the remaining 2%, the other 500 applicants… actually, let’s make it fewer… if the remaining 50 applicants have the same or similar skills, what does the recruiter do? For example, if you’re hiring a middle manager for marketing, all of the qualified resumes are going to say Social Media or Social Media Marketing.
If the hiring people base their criteria for interviewing and hiring on skills (as the recruiter suggested), and they now have 50 marketing manager resumes that all look the same, what do they do next?
They are looking for a reason to hire you. Let’s give them more than one. In today’s challenging job market, you want to prove that your unique skills have led to impact and results.
If the job description calls for Advanced Excel, it’s great that you know Advanced Excel, and that you can create amazing tables and amazing reports with that, but what the hiring team actually wants to know is: How has your Advanced Excel work helped improve the company? Did leadership make a good business decision based on your Excel work? Did you adjust and/or improve the way the company used Excel?
Those answers go beyond skills; they get into how your work with the required tool went beyond the job requirements and how your special expertise made the company better. The company is hiring you to make them better. Period.
Interestingly, in my 12+ years as an advisor and a recruiter, I have yet to see one resume that shows impact or benefit as a result of a soft skill. “Kept the team together as a result of my persistence and leadership” is not a benefit. If you’re a leader you’re expected and literally paid to do this; to lead and organize your team.
You must have the required skills to land the job; skills that are actually named in the job description are crucial to add in your resume skills section.
And then demonstrating how your skills (that are named in the job description) helped improve the company? Well, that’s “get this person in now” interview catnip.
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Better job. More pay. More control.
For a resume review, please contact us at Control Your Career!