Are you aiming above your league?
Looking for a new job can feel demoralizing enough and I don’t want to be blaming the victim here. Still, if you’re applying over and over again to different openings and you are not getting a single bite there’s a chance that you’re aiming over your skillset.
Why does this happen?
With the advent of pay transparency (and I’m a huge fan) many job seekers see pay ranges above where they are now and get very excited. This leads to a cursory look at the requirements and scope of work and off they go with a resume and an application. And then.
Nothing.
While you may know in your heart if you just get in the door you’ll be able to prove you are the best candidate the company could hope for, the chances that they are going to take time to call you if you don’t meet all the requirements are pretty close to zero.
We can spend a ton of time bemoaning the fact that sometimes people writing job descriptions don’t even know what they’re talking about (looking for 10 years of experience with a software that was only created 3 years ago) at the end of the day do you want to spend your time talking to people like that? Trying to make them feel stupid, or would you rather start aiming for roles you are very qualified to handle?
When you aim within your league of experience and you get an interview, you are now able to start assessing if this job would be too easy, too hard or just right. When you take a job that’s just right, you are more than likely to be happy at work, stretch your skill set and eventually grow into new and bigger roles (and salaries) as time goes on.
If you’ve been aiming above your league, what can you do instead?
Please. Read the job descriptions with an eye to detail. Ask yourself if you can speak concisely to the requirements from your own experience. (Tip: When a tech recruiter asks you details about how you’ll solve a particular coding problem, your answer should not be “Google is my friend,” accompanies with a cheeky grin.)
What does it mean to speak concisely to a requirement?
From an actual job opening:
What You Need To Know
Bachelor’s degree preferred, with strong preference for business or technology disciplines
7+ years of work experience with some team management
Knowledge of the full suite of Google and Microsoft Office products
Experience managing budgets and operating expenses
Knowledge of e-commerce and online payments businesses
Knowledge of SAP Business Objects
Contacts in the music business a plus
Light travel may be required (<2 weeks/year)
With the above requirements, the recruiter is looking first to see if you have a degree. (I know it says preferred, but if they receive 100 applications, the once with the preferred criteria are going to the top of the list).
Next the recruiter is looking to your resume to show how many teams (and what size) you’ve managed. Therefore a statement of “led team of 12 individual contributors to build out new product launch in 90 days and under budget” is important. And your titles for the most recent 7 years (or more) must lead the person reviewing your resume to understand you were a manager of teams.
Under each role you will want to indicate which tools you’ve used that relate to the products they are looking for (Google/MSOffice as well as SAP, e-commerce and online payments).
Show that you have managed budgets and expenses by highligthing that information in your resume.
While you may not be able to name drop in your resume (but why not?) you will want to indicate the depth of your contacts in the music business for this role either in the resume or in a cover letter. Perhaps indicating, “Working with Sony for a revamp of their internal ERP software, I was happy to get to know XYZ, VP of internal programming and ABC, Director of software development.”
NOTE: not a good idea to name-drop if you don’t actually know the people, because the person reading your resume may play tennis with the person you’ve named and they can easily ask about your work.
The market is tough out there today. And while I know the market will shift again and again during your career, it’s important to be incredibly focused on the details required before submitting a resume.
Does this mean you need to re-write your resume for every job?
Yes and no.
The best way to reduce the time you take re-writing your resume, is to aim directly for the same types of roles in the same type of industry so you need only swap out specifics from your job history.
It’s not place to tell you not to apply for a job that’s outside of your experience level, feel free to throw your hat in the ring, just don’t be too disappointed if you don’t hear back.
Instead, I encourage you to get very clear on your goals for your career in the short and long-term and take aim, in your league, for precisely what you want.
Ready to get a call back on your applications?
What can you do in a 30 minute session?
Upgrade your LInkedIn presence to be more attractive to recruiters in your field
Tighten your job-search parameters so you’re more likely to be called for a preliminary screen after applying
Deconstruct why you may not be moving forward after a first or second round of interviews.
Build a sustainable networking plan to help you land your next role.
Each session is 30 minutes. You decide what makes sense for your budget between $50-175.00. You’re not tied to any long-term contracts and you go to the top of the list for future session requests when needed.
Ready for a new job this fall? Schedule here.
I’m on vacation next week - so I’ll be sending a quick note instead of a full-fledged article. In the meantime, be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn.
Big hugs,
Peggie