Last week I presented the argument that skills matter more than degrees in the job market. Not that degrees don’t matter, but that if one part of the equation were going to be missing, it would be better to demonstrate skills to an employer than to describe one’s degree program.
This is always a tricky point to make. It’s hard to convince someone that a manager might favor a candidate with the desired skill set, regardless of the candidate’s educational attainment. It’s harder yet to argue against a tsunami of job postings that all seem to demand degrees.
You might be convinced, however, if you remember that online postings are designed to weed out “have-nots” – those missing credentials or skills named in the job description – even if they could do the work.
The work-around to this problem is to join the majority of people who get their jobs by networking or talking directly with managers, mostly before postings ever appear. This is the point when a single candidate will be taken on his or her merit, and not simply ranked against a pool of people who fit a (possibly inflated) job description.
But you will still need to convince the manager you can do the job. Can you?
Last week I assigned homework, consisting of these steps: 1) Name the work you want (industry and job level/title); 2) Research to identify the five or 10 core tasks performed in this role; 3) Match those tasks to the skills they would likely demand (for example, to perform the task of corresponding with clients, you’d need to be skilled in writing cogent business emails); and 4) Rank the resulting list of skills into three categories, from “I can do this” to “I’m familiar enough with this to learn it quickly” to “Huh?”
For those skills that fall into the first category, the strategy is easy: Talk them up. Put them first in your resume and any other communication tool you’re using. These skills represent the things you can do that the employer needs done.
The other two categories will require more effort. You’ll need to invest time in informational interviewing or other processes to determine which skills will likely matter the most to managers in your target field. Then you’ll have to decide: How will you fill the gap between the skills needed by the manager, but missing from your can-do list?
Here are the options that I rely on in my career counseling practice. Only one requires formal training, but they all demand something extra of the candidate: The willingness to innovate to prepare for a job and the courage to bypass online postings to tell managers directly what you can do.
1. Re-evaluate the gap. Perhaps you aren't giving yourself enough credit for things you've done in the past, or maybe you don't realize how similar your current skills are to those needed by your goal employers. This is where job shadowing or multiple informational interviews can provide helpful perspective.
2. Seek existing training options. Formal training is the "off-the-rack" solution, making it relatively simple to access. The sessions could be online or classroom, ranging from a single class to a certificate to a full degree. Sift the options until you find the least expensive or quickest solution, then build from there according to your timetable and budget.
3. Explore creative training solutions. Not every skill is covered in existing programs, particularly in quickly-evolving fields. Creative options might include internships, volunteer experiences, "sales rep" training from vendors in the field, and "ear-to-the-ground" training from conferences and professional association meetings.
4. Train yourself. A surprising number of skills can be learned by simply doing things on your own. If you can borrow or rent the necessary equipment, read online tutorials, experiment with projects of your own, or at least keep up with related literature, you'll have a good base for building the missing skill.
5. Educate the manager. Whatever skills you've learned, and wherever you learned them, it's critical to bridge the gap between what a manager is used to seeing "A degree in…" and what you are offering ("Able to…" "Experienced in…"). This may require extra care on your resume to unpack the skills learned from previous classes, jobs and volunteer experiences.
6. Negotiate. One advantage of talking directly with managers is that you can simply ask: Do you really need these skills? Would you consider training me on the job? If not, what would I need in order to be brought in, at any level? You may be surprised at how freeing it can be to have this problem-solving conversation early in the relationship with a prospective employer.
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