With exclusionary language, caveats, or qualifiers, job announcements can not only be intimidating but extremely confusing, leading some job seekers to believe they are qualified for a job when they aren’t or vice versa. In addition to this, and to make matters worse, when reading a job announcement it is not enough to pay close attention to what the announcement says explicitly, it is important to recognize a job announcement’s implicit content—to read beyond what is actually printed on the page.
What do I mean when I say “implicit content”? The qualifications section of a job announcement describes, in terms of professional experience, what a particular employer is looking for in a job candidate. In all likelihood, very few people have the relevant qualifications and experience that precisely match what is listed on the job announcement. Instead, you must look at the job announcement in terms of its general thrust. That is, while reading the job announcement, and in particular the relevant and/or required qualifications section, it is important to be able to extrapolate out what general skills and/or qualities an employer is looking for in a candidate. Even if you may not have the precise skill set for which a given employer is looking, you may have relevant transferrable skills.
For example, consider a job announcement that is looking for someone with experience managing a particular process, program, or project. Even if you have absolutely zero experience either in that field or managing that particular (or a like) process, program, or project, if you have experience in project coordination or program management in another divergent field, your experience coordinating projects or managing programs most certainly will translate even if your in-depth knowledge of a given field may not! Even if the job announcement may not say it, general skills, such as project coordination, program management, and experience researching, analyzing, and/or synthesizing thought (to name a few) are easily transferrable. Don’t allow the content of a job announcement to dissuade you—read between the lines and pay close attention to overarching themes within a job announcement. Employers are hiring–for example, see The Work Buzz’s List of 10!
Comments are closed.