Here is my Holiday gift to you: you can apply for jobs where you have a majority—but not all—of the qualifications if you can show strong and relevant potential in your resume.
Why Your Potential Is Important
According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), over 40 percent of both men and women avoid applying for jobs where they do not meet every single qualification, simply because they do not want to waste time and energy.
The assumption of wasted time and energy reflects a mistaken belief that (a) hiring managers and recruiters know exactly what they need for a new hire to succeed; (b) someone somewhere is the ideal candidate who meets every one of the requirements in exactly the way they are written in the advertisement or posting; and (c) resumes are nothing more than a list of facts—tasks completed, courses taken, grades and promotions achieved.
In reality, all the hard qualifications in the world will not help if a resume fails to show how those qualifications can be valuable to the company. In addition, they are irrelevant if the resume does not include skills (like communication skills) that never make it onto an advertisement or posting. A resume should achieve more than a list of competencies. As HBR states, you need to see the hiring process as one where the ability to correctly frame your expertise—show your potential in your resume—can overcome a few disadvantages in skills and experiences.
If you don’t have all the qualifications, it can help you to network with the hiring manager for the job. This way, your resume will not be rejected by the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) before it is read. In some cases, I have found that companies and hiring managers can influence a job posting to match the experience of a job seeker who does not meet the initial, too limiting, requirements of a job posting. In some cases, they may redo the job posting, so you are the only candidate that can pass.
What You Should and Should Not Do on a Resume
You should never lie about qualifications on a resume. You should never entirely ignore requirements in a job advertisement or posting. You should also never rely on one factor alone when applying for a position; skills, education, experience, and achievements all have a role to play, but that role can vary depending on your own strengths.
Your resume should establish a trustworthy relationship with the hiring manager and recruiter that you can then develop more deeply during an interview. For example, suppose you do not quite meet the years of experience requirement; your resume might instead emphasize that your experience has been especially deep or wide-ranging—that quality, in this instance, makes up for quantity.
Why the Hiring Process Rewards a Professional Resume
A professionally written resume focuses your experience on those competencies most needed for the job you want; makes the most of the qualifications you do have; demonstrates your ability to contribute; includes your soft skills; and celebrates your potential.
The services of a professional resume writer can be essential to frame your resume in exactly the right way to show your true potential. To find out more, please contact me at Robin’s Resumes®.