Customizing your resume: A Better Way to Analyzing and Understanding Job Descriptions
Job hunting is almost a job in itself, and if you are employed and looking, time may be quite sparse for you. In other words, you don’t have any time to waste. Even if you are not employed and might have the whole day to spend browsing around, it is not in your best interest to waste your time looking at jobs which you have no chance of getting. When you are spending your time looking at a job ad for which an employer would not even consider you, that is time you are not spending looking at a job ad that might be your best job ever.
Quality vs. quantity
You certainly don’t want to spend an hour just analyzing a
job description to figure out if you should apply or not, but if you are like most
people and only quickly read a job posting, say spending about 1 to 2 minutes
on it, and then applying by submitting your standard resume with a few quick
clicks, you are not doing yourself any favours. I call that shooting
blindfolded. For each 100 resumes, you might hit the target only a very few
times if any… the odds would be against you.
The goal would be to spend time only on job ads that are
worth it and that might lead to something tangible.
You should consider that you are worthy enough and owe it to
yourself to spend a few minutes analyzing a job ad. It’s time invested in your
future and your life. You deserve to spend those minutes on yourself. Analyzing
a job posting to understand the position thoroughly and figure out if it might
be a position for which you would be actually considered for (and therefore not
wasting your time and energy) and figure out if this job might be of interest
to you is time well spent.
The process does not have to be time consuming. With some
practice, after doing it a few times, it should take you just a few minutes.
Real-life example: Account manager job posting analysis
Let’s work with a real-life example I found on LinkedIn for
an Account Manager position for the CN, which is a publicly listed Canadian freight
railway company headquartered in Montreal.
Notice right away that there are already, one week after
posting, 113 people who have applied for this position. In reality, there are
probably more than that who have applied, considering other job sites where
this was posted, considering many people will apply directly on the company’s
website and considering the fact that there may be current employees of this
company that have or will apply internally for this job. Therefore, the
competition is fierce, and rightly so as this is a large company that
potentially offers good benefits and high pay, in addition to the fact that
having such a company in your resume definitely makes you look good and stand
out for future jobs.
The job description encompasses in order a description of
the company, a job summary, the main responsibilities, working conditions, and
the experience requirements, education, competencies, and technical skills.
Don’t waste your time: begin with eliminating
The first thing to look at, along with the title, is always
the level of experience required for the job. Often, a desired number of
years of experience will be provided, which is usually an indication of the
level and seniority of the job.
In this case, CN is looking for someone who has roughly 3
years of experience in account management or a similar type of work, experience
in the transportation and logistics services industry and in negotiating
contracts. These are the main considerations for the position.
If someone would have none of this experience, then they
should just move along to the next job posting. However, if someone had more
than or around the minimum 3 years in account management, including in contract
negotiation, but in another industry, then they might be considered for this
position, especially if they can check numerous other boxes. In essence, you
don`t have to have all the required experience, but the employer must see that
you can do the job.
When it comes to education, usually the younger and less
experienced the candidate, the more the education counts. In this case, if
someone had let’s say 5 years of experience in account management and in negotiating
contracts for a public transit organization and a bachelor’s degree in an
unrelated discipline, I highly doubt the employer would toss away the candidacy
for lack of having the desired diploma.
Up to this point, you would have spent only seconds to
decide to continue reading and analyzing or to move along to the next job ad…
Do you have solid soft skills to do that job?
Next in line is the desired competencies and skills. The
competencies listed here are basically soft skills, which are of great
importance in business as these, unlike hard skills, are much more difficult to
learn. Soft skills are major differentiators and if you don’t master, or are
good at, most of these skills, it would be an indicator that you will probably perform
poorly at this job and will probably not last very long.
Highlighting the key words within a job description allows you to isolate the most important elements and have a better overview and understanding of what the company is specifically looking for.
These competencies are pretty much a given for this type of
work. It’s quite obvious an account manager must possess these skills, but
these are elements that you will need to ensure stand out in your resume and
that also come through during the interview process: business acumen, strategic
thinking, effective communications and people skills along with an in-depth
interest in your clients.
How will you make these competencies shine through? How will
you demonstrate to the employer that these elements are an integral part of
you? How will you show the employer that you can simultaneously manage numerous
tasks or projects? Do you have numbers to back you up? How will you prove and
show that you have successfully and repeatedly handled deadline-oriented
demands? How are your active listening skills in communicating with clients? If
you don`t present yourself well in your resume and in your interviews, no one
will believe that you could present and communicate well with clients…
Also, if you don`t bother learning about the employer, for
instance how this account manager position fits within their business goals, or
getting interested about the employer’s needs and business objectives or
reading their annual report, who is going to believe that you have a customer-centric
approach towards clients? You have to walk the talk.
As a side note, if an employer is a publicly listed entity,
because they are obliged by law to provide certain information publicly, I
would strongly advise to go read documentation that is available on their
website, such as the annual report. Maybe you have noticed the ONE TEAM (all in
capital letters) in the competencies description. In this particular case, this
is a concept the company addresses in their annual report. So it’s worth doing
this research if you are interested and decide to apply for the job.
An employer is not a mind reader, especially when it comes
to soft skills. You have to show and clearly demonstrate to the employer what
you’ve got, what you bring to the table and how it fits with their needs. An
employer is self-centred, they care about their needs.
The technical skills, which are hard skills and therefore
easier to learn, appeared in the original LinkedIn job posting completely at
the end. This says that it is last on their wish list, and therefore of not
great importance. But notice here that this is the second time that industry
knowledge is mentioned, adding a bit of emphasis of having an experience and
understanding of the intricacies of the industry. If someone would not have
this experience while checking numerous other boxes, I would say to think and
prepare to address this lack of experience/understanding in their cover letter
and during the interviews, since it would come up. They would want to know how
you would compensate for this lack, especially during your early months on the
job. You might want to show that you easily and quickly learn new technical skills
with tangible examples.
Regarding the computer knowledge requirements, there is
nothing out of the ordinary here, but you may want to keep this in mind when
you prepare your interview questions for the employer. You may want to simply
get a clarification of their expectations (what is a high level of computer
knowledge for them?) and the software used.
Digging Deeper
Let`s now understand the job itself in-depth. We know already an applicant should preferably have at least 3 years of experience in account management in the transportation industry as well as in negotiating contracts on top of some all-important soft skills. Digging deeper, let’s see how the applicant would show their matching competences and what types of questions the applicant should start thinking about.
Managing numerous key accounts
Key accounts are of great importance for a company because
they bring in a large part of the business, so they usually want to have great
people to fill these shoes. The person should therefore have strong
relationship building skills and have an ease in making contacts and
maintaining these contacts. A highly client focused approach would be required
for treating these star clients with attentiveness and care. Would you be able
to demonstrate to the employer that you have these experiences and skills? How
many accounts have you managed? How large were these accounts? Have you been
recognized by clients as a reliable and pleasant go-to-resource for their
needs? Do you dig deep and ask probing questions to clients to gain a better
understanding of their business? Other elements that come to mind would include
account planning, key relationships with stakeholders at the clients’, in-depth
understanding of clients’ needs.
Developing strategies to grow accounts
A good understanding of business combined with very good
skills in strategic selling and influencing stakeholders would be a must. Would
you be able to include some percentages in your resume to support your
competences in growing and developing accounts?
Achieving revenue targets
Can you show this with numbers? Can you provide the employer
with data and statistics? For instance, in your resume, would you be able to
write that you have consistently achieved, or better yet, exceeded by X% your
annual targets for the past X years? If someone had received a recognition or
promotion due to their exceeding their targets, this would definitely be
something to mention in a resume.
Collaborating and resolving issues with operations personnel
Would you be able to mention something about resolving an
important issue that has saved the company time and money? Maybe solidified relationships
with various departments which improved and facilitated relationships?
Developed relationships that allowed you to positively impact the effectiveness
of operations personnel? Have you positioned yourself as a key pivotal resource
to identify business opportunities?
Facilitating cross-selling opportunities
Are you always on the lookout for opportunities to grow an
account? Do you take it upon yourself to learn about the company’s full line of
service so that you may be a resource to clients and keep them informed? Do you
keep yourself informed of industry developments and ensure to share all
relevant data with your clients according to their needs? Have you ‘opened
doors’ in certain accounts by doing this?
Forecasting and planning accurately
Do you have good planning skills? Are you good at examining,
analyzing and understanding trends and data? Are you able to spot hidden
currents and patterns? Are you familiar with and good at juggling qualitative
and quantitative methods of forecasting? Do you have a proven record of
accurately forecasting? Do you have numbers to back it up?
Renewing and negotiating contracts
How familiar and comfortable are you with the intricacies of
technicalities in contracts? How many contracts have you renewed or negotiated
in your career? Do you have what it takes to influence others prior and during
contract negotiations? Have you successfully negotiated complex and delicate
contracts? Have you been able to reverse and defuse tense situations during
negotiations?
Job Summary
By this time, you should have a good understanding of the job posting. The job summary posted by the employer should simply confirm your understanding of the work to be performed and you should now have a good idea as to if you might qualify and be considered for this opportunity, as well as if the position may be of interest to you.
Coming out ahead
The analysis of the job description should have provided you
with insights about the experiences you have that you should highlight in your
resume. In the case where you would apply, you should already be ahead since
your competences to focus on should be clear in your mind. Adapting your resume
and writing your cover letter should now go easier and faster than if you had
just perused the job description for less than 30 seconds, thus increasing your
chances of being seriously considered by the employer’s HR staff instead of
ending up in the recycling bin with 98% of other applicants.
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