This article uses the word “under-qualified” in the title because that is how most job candidates view themselves when they see certain job postings. After a conversation with job candidates I show them how most of them are qualified. Perspective is a funny thing, especially when we look at ourselves. What makes a person qualified for a job? They have the skills the employer is looking for to do a particular job. How you define those skills is where someone who thinks they are under-qualified becomes qualified. Here are 6 common skills listed on a job description you possess but may not know about.
1. Analysis
In every job data is analyzed. Retail sales clerks analyze their sales for the week. Office Managers analyze budgets. Wait staff analyze their average check amount. If you see “Analysis” in a job description think hard about what you currently analyze, and put it on your resume.
2. Determine
Determining the outcome of a situation is how we live our lives. Say something rude to your girlfriend? You can determine that the odds are great you just started a fight. Did you eat the five alarm chili right before bed? You can determine you will have heartburn in the middle of the night. Is the place of business where you currently work slow at the beginning of every month? You can determine you will have to be more proactive at the beginning of the month to stay productive. Think about what situations take place in your current job and determine the outcome. Then put it on your resume.
3. Assist
Do you assist customers to find merchandise? Do you assist other departments to process their work flow? Do you assist your superior with their reports or their schedule? You probably assist people in many ways in your current job. You just call it “helping”. Think about who you assist and how, and then put it on your resume.
4. Excellent Communication Skills
If you have to collaborate with coworkers to accomplish any task and you consistently complete that task chances are you have excellent communication skills. This is a tricky skill to put on a resume though because unlike the skills above where your bullet point would actually start with the word “assisted” or “determined” communication is a skill you show through an action. It is not enough to say “communicated with a team of six our daily sales goal numbers”. This shows you communicated, but not that you communicated with “excellent communication skills”. In order to show excellent communication skills you have to go further. Your bullet point would read like this, “communicated with a team of six our daily sales goal numbers and consistently increased sales the following day by 10%”. The fact that you increased sales by 10% the following day is what shows the interviewer you have “excellent communication skills”.
5. Self Direction
Self direction can also be referred to as works independently. Is it your job to open the store? Do you complete tasks without a lot of direction? Have you ever started a project to make your department more efficient without being asked to? If you have, then put it on your resume.
6. Works Well in a Team Environment
Basically what this means is that you will not be working alone in a cubicle in the basement. This skill is a lot like “excellent communication skills” in the sense that you have to tell a story about how you work well with a team. There is a trick here however. A resume should always show what “you” did and not what “we” did. The company interviewing you is not hiring your old team. They are hiring you. You want to talk about your contribution to the team and how that contribution added value to the overall objective of the team or the project. You also have to think about how you define the word “team”. You may have been an individual sales person and competed with others in your office, but management saw you as a sales team. The teams overall objective was to produce sales. Your sales contributed to the overall goal. As a server in a restaurant you may have a section, but you are providing service as a team of servers to the overall restaurant, and yes you all are “selling” the food. Once you have identified the team in your current role you can identify your contribution and then put it on your resume.
I have already written a little about using the actual words above in your bullet points on your resume. I cannot stress this enough. The language you use must match the language the company uses in their job description. How else can they really know you have the skills they need unless you use the words they understand.
Featured photo credit: https://www.theundercoverrecruiter.com via google.com
