TOP 6 THINGS HIRING MANAGERS KNOW

I was talking to a manager this week. She was on an interview panel for one of the rare openings at her work. She knew one of the applicants because he is an internal candidate and knew he could do the job. However, she had to put him down as a “maybe” on the interview list. Why? Because he wrote himself up to be a manager, not the line person this job requires.

Let me repeat that last sentence. He wrote himself up to be a manager, not the line person this job requires. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of tailoring your application materials to the requirements of the job posting.

BE the Job Posting

Scrutinize the job posting and use their words and phrases in your résumé and cover letter. List only those skills needed for the job as it is posted. Use only the examples from your work experience that illustrates those skills. Use the words and phrases from the job posting in your application materials. This will demonstrate you have done your homework and can translate your experience into their terms. Using their words is critical if they do a keyword search of your résumé. For example, if you are applying for a sales job, a key word won’t be “sales,” more probably it’ll be “closed.”

What Hiring Managers Know

Here are a few things hiring managers know about the candidates for their jobs. 

1. They know some applicants are under-qualified. These people apply for every job opening they hear about. These people are the bane of every hiring manager and other applicants. They waste the manager’s time and their own time. It is these people that cause you to have to work so hard to find a job.

2. They know some applicants are over-qualified for the job. This can be a good news – bad news dilemma. Good news in that they can get someone very good with the potential to do more than is required. They won’t have to worry about the job being done right. This person may be able to expand the job in the direction they want it to go. To put it in other words, they are getting more than they are paying for.

3. The bad news about over-qualified applicants is this person may not be happy working at this lower level. Therefore, this may just be a stopgap job for them and they still might be looking. Or, they might cause discord in the group, or not be happy taking direction from someone they may feel is not as qualified as they think they are. The hiring manager may also feel that you will judge them/the department/other employees because of your greater experience. They may think you are gunning for their job, too. It is all of these fears that you must address when you are over-qualified and apply for the job.

4. Hiring managers know it is an employers’ market. They expect you to tailor your résumé and cover letter to their needs and requirements. If you don’t, they think you are lazy, or don’t have what they need, or are not really interested in their job. In the computer age, you have no good excuse for not tailoring your résumé to each job opening.

5. The hiring managers I have spoken with are still trying to get top dollar out of their reduced budgets for top quality candidates. The level of “top dollar” may be less than it used to be, but they aren’t trying to hire cheaply. I think that is important to note. They are still trying to pay as much as they can. So, even though they are hiring fewer people, they are still paying as well as they are able.

6. Employers want to see results. They want to see how you grew at a company or within a job. What are your concrete accomplishments? They do not want to see a list of job duties or clichés on your résumé. Illustrate your accomplishments with numbers or percentages (e.g., 9% improvement in productivity; 12% reduction in expenses). Doing so will also demonstrate your attention to the business bottom line. Something every business is constantly monitoring today.

Get Out of Your Own Way

Like the applicant at the top of this article, don’t list what you want to do or what you think of as the pinnacle of your career thus far. List what you can do that the job requires. That applicant is over-qualified for the job. He lost a manager job, two jobs ago. It appears he is still mourning that loss. He applied for a line job that he won’t get because he listed his skills at the wrong level. He is stuck in the past. Don’t make these mistakes.

This Week’s Coaching:

1. Take a job posting and highlight all the key words. Find a way to use those key words in your résumé and cover letter. (e.g., them: collaborate, you: team player. Make the change to “collaborate.”)

2. Beyond the job posting, what are the keywords for the job for which you are applying? Think industry and company. Write down at least five.

3. Are you illustrating your accomplishments in your résumé? Purge out the job duties. Put in examples of your accomplishments.

4. Do your application materials reflect the level of the job for which you are applying? If you are applying for a manager spot, are you illustrating your decision-making and leadership? If you are applying for a line job, are you illustrating that you are a good follower?

I’m curious about your job hunting experiences. Let me know via the comments section below or by sending me an email, the answers to this week’s coaching questions.

A dream with a plan is a goal. A goal without a plan is just a dream.

All things are possible,

Elisabeth

Elisabeth Adler-Lund

Executive and Life Coaching

Telephone: 916 • 803•1494

E-mail: eal@EALCoaching.com