Are you REALLY qualified for that role?

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Danielle Ansley shares a roundup of recently posted job (and tags the recruiter or hiring manager!) Check out today’s post and see if anything is a good match! (I also think it’s a great idea to follow the recruiters listed if the job is of interest to you since they seem to make a habit of sharing the roles they are working on so even if this one isn’t a match, the next one might be!)

And I saw a similar one from Ethan Krause Edwards but featuring only HR roles!! I know I’ve got a lot of readers in that space specifically so I hope this is helpful!!

I made this video that has some really helpful (at least I think it’s helpful!) “troubleshooting” tips for each stage of the interview process!

What does it really mean to be “qualified”?

I’ll be honest that the vast majority of people who tell me they are being rejected for roles they are “completely qualified” for are not actually qualified for that role - at least not in the eyes of the recruiter!

A few things to keep in mind:

1. The recruiter does not know you or your work so they are generally going off of what’s on the resume and application in front of them.

2. The recruiter typically spends just a few seconds scanning the resume to determine if it’s worth digging in. And THAT’S where you have to win them over.

So what should you do?

Industry and job titles matter.

You can’t totally change the industry, but consider using language that aligns as much as possible. For example, I worked for Teach For America. If I’m applying in education, I’ll say “education organization”; for other non-profits, I might just say “non-profit”. In the private sector, I might note “2000 person organization with an 220M ARR.”
For job titles, my former title of “Sr. Managing Director, Teacher Leadership Development” may feel less transferable in the private sector while “Head of Program” may feel more transferable while still accurately reflecting my work.
DON’T lie. But DO be thoughtful about using language that will resonate with your audience.

Review the job description closely.

A matching tool like the one offered by Teal can help with identifying key words that are missing, but you can do this on your own too. Look at the qualifications section and for each one, ask yourself (or maybe a friend!) to look at your resume and see if they can easily see that qualification listed.

Job says “experience with CRMs, preferably Salesforce, preferred”? You need to list CRM experience and which tools you’ve used.

Job says “three years of managing sales compensation plans”?
You need to specifically list sales compensation experience. Compensation experience may not be sufficient so make sure you specify the types of plans you’ve managed.

When you don’t have actual experience, but you’ve supported or worked on aligned projects within your current role which has you interested in exploring the field full time, LIST THOSE PROJECTS!

This is what I did to transition from my L&D/Program Management background into Talent Acquisition back in 2014. Hiring was just part of my job but I made my experience as a hiring manager the main event and focused my responses on the work I did building my own team.

Include specific examples that demonstrate your skills as opposed to general skills.

For example, “launched three sustainable product development projects on time, and 8-15% under budget” or “planned and executed 8 promotional events increasing brand awareness, and driving a 40% increase in website traffic” are going to be more effective than saying “consistently deliver projects on time and under budget”.

More specific examples paint the picture of what results you can deliver for a company - and they care more about outcomes than input.

Basically, you want to show, not tell.

Portfolios or other artifacts are great ways to do this as well!

Should we hang out LIVE?!

I’ve got TWO opportunities to connect live.

1. On January 31st at 10 am, I’ll be doing a talk on leveraging your network in your job search with the Power to Fly community - please check it out and sign up if you’re interested! It’s totally free!

2. I’ll be hosting a LinkedIn Live on February 1st at 3:00 PST with some awesome guests. AND this time around, we’ll be collecting questions in advance AND offering a free coaching call to one winner!! You can share questions here

   P.S. I built the form in Visme which is worth checking out for your design needs - it’s like Canva, but less expensive with a few more features, and I’m trying to switch to smaller business where I can so I’m excited to support this one!!)

🙋Answering Your Questions🙋

Each week, I’ll answer a few of your questions in this section. You can submit your questions here.

This is a really tough transition as so many are focused on the same thing.

My biggest suggestions are:

1. Try to land a role with your school district, charter school network, education non-profit, etc. in the field that you’re interested in. They tend to see the skills a teacher brings and are used to helping teachers transition to something new. Back when I worked in education, all of our recruiters came out of the classroom!
   Ed tech could be another avenue - especially any roles supporting teachers (sales, customer success, support, etc.)

2. From there, I think you open up additional opportunities more easily. It’s hard to jump from the classroom to a totally new industry and job family.

3. Along the way, let your network know. Ask where other teachers have ended up and hold networking chats with them to understand their career path. Check out where their first non-classroom role was - those would be great companies and positions to explore since you know they hire teachers!

4. If you DO want to transition to a new industry, Learning and Development is usually the most obvious pathway. Tailor your resume to focus heavily on your experience with training adults.
   Entry level roles (coordinator, associate, or assistant titles; BDR/SDR roles, etc.) could also be a route to explore since these positions typically don’t expect expertise (if the compensation aligns with your expectations!
   

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