Worried that you’re ineligible for a job because you don’t have technical chops? We have good news for you.
Good employers know that while past experience and hard skills are important, their team dynamic is even more important. If they hire someone who is highly skilled technically, but can’t work well with others, that’s a huge mismatch that could reduce productivity, damage customer relationships, and hurt the company’s bottom line.
When it comes to making hiring decisions, good employers know to look at the big picture, i.e. take the attitude, personality, and potential of their candidates into significant consideration.
If you see a job listing that appeals to you, but you’re hesitant to go for it because of a lack of certain technical skills, we encourage you to apply to the position, and highlight the following skills in your resume and during your interview. While every job requires a slightly different personality or set of soft skills, these are the major themes that your application materials should cover.
- Teamwork and collaboration. Even if your desired job requires mostly independent work, at some point, you’ll have to team up with coworkers to accomplish a task. In your resume and interview, demonstrate how you were able to gain support for a project or initiative or how you resolved a conflict with a coworker or customer.
- Transferrable skills. Being versatile and adaptable is crucial in today’s fast-paced, always-changing work culture, regardless of industry. Demonstrate how you identified a process inefficiency and the steps you took to resolve it, or how you made a difficult decision (even if it’s a small decision like choosing the restaurant for an office celebration).
- Open mindedness. In many companies, there’s no such thing as a “typical” day. Employers want to see that you’re open to working on different problems, taking on various projects, and changing course as needed. Demonstrate how you handled having to follow instructions even when you disagreed with your manager’s decision, or when you’ve changed your mind about a work decision and what happened as a result.
- Growth. Instead of a specific number of accomplishments or amount of time you spent at your previous job, good employers want to see that you’ve progressed consistently, i.e. have met challenges, taken on more tasks, etc. Demonstrate that you’ve been able to achieve goals and that you can provide constructive criticism of the management style of your previous employer.
- Look the part. This is a pretty obvious skill, but especially important if you spend a lot of face time with customers. Employers need to see that you put effort into your appearance and have a basic sense of style. Customers are more likely to spend money on a company with staff who look like they know what they’re talking about.
- Sales. Regardless of the industry you’re in, you need to know how to promote your company’s offerings. Employers are looking for someone who can be a little aggressive without turning off customers, and someone who can present the company as the best choice while maintaining honesty and integrity.
This blog post was adapted from an article in Eye Care Leaders Magazine.
