Job Search Success: Communication skills over qualifications

Sarah Doody [00:00:00]: Hey there. I’m Sarah Doody, host of the Career Strategy Podcast. Many professionals are seeking more impact, flexibility, growth, and let’s face it, getting paid what they’re worth. But how do you unlock this in your career? It starts with strategy. I’m taking you behind the scenes of what’s working for my career coaching clients. You’ll hear strategies and actionable, yet sometimes against the grain, advice for how you can be the CEO of your career and stop dreading Mondays. Ready to level up your career? Let’s get after it. Hey, friend.

Sarah Doody [00:00:39]: Welcome back. And today’s episode is a bit of a mindset shift for your job search, and that is that your ability to communicate trumps your qualifications. So this idea came to me because I see so many candidates really, really hyperfixated on their qualifications. However, your qualifications don’t matter unless you can communicate them, right? No one will know how awesome your old boss thought you were or the cool things you worked on in your previous job if you cannot communicate that in your resume, in your LinkedIn, in answers to interview questions, etc. And, I see so many people struggling in their job search and maybe applying to jobs and not getting interviews or going through a couple of rounds of interviews and not getting a job offer. And rightly so, they get frustrated and they start to look inward and think that they’re the problem, right, That they are not qualified. That they must be inadequate. That other people must be better than them.

Sarah Doody [00:01:54]: That the things they thought they were good at may not be true. And all of this doubt and negativity and imposter syndrome starts to really overwhelm them, and I I get it. But the thing is, I think that if you’re struggling in your job search, it might not be a qualification problem. It might actually be a communication problem. You might be totally qualified, but it could be that you are not communicating that in your resume, in your LinkedIn, in your answers to job questions, in your portfolio, for example. And, you know, this is very important, this ability to communicate. And I think that many people kind of rush through the process of updating their resume, updating their LinkedIn, firing off cold emails, etc. And they don’t think really strategically about what each word is communicating.

Sarah Doody [00:02:55]: So let’s just take your resume, for example. You know, your resume is an opportunity to communicate all of your experience and details about you that make you unique. Now how many candidates mess this up frankly is that a couple of things. Number 1, at the top of their resume they don’t have kind of an elevator pitch for themselves to quickly communicate in one sentence who they are and what they do and what sets them apart. So that if the recruiter or hiring manager doesn’t have time to read your whole resume, but if they only read this one sentence or elevator pitch at the top of your resume, that might be enough to catch their attention. However, most people’s elevator pitch just sounds very vague, very cliche. Many people in my industry of user experience and product design say things like, I’m a designer with x years of experience, I don’t make products that change the world and meet people’s needs and create business for companies. And it’s very very just boring and will not tell anyone anything unique about you.

Sarah Doody [00:04:10]: Then if we move further down on your resume, you know, the bullet points that’s another place where people may be qualified but what they communicate through their bullet points is inadequate. Many times bullet points on the resume sound like a job description it just may be list of responsibilities, but it’s not going into details of the scope of the things you’re responsible for. The outcomes, the impact, even weaving in software and methodologies and frameworks that maybe you use in your previous jobs. And so when you really think about the details of the importance of communication just on your resume and potentially how many places there are to inadequately communicate your skills and experience on your resume, it makes you realize that maybe you need to go back and do a bit of an audit of your resume, of your LinkedIn, of your portfolio if you have one, and start there because if you’re applying to jobs and not getting interviews it’s more than likely a communication problem not a qualification problem. But I think maybe you’re guilty of this, you know, you jump to conclusions and assume you’re the problem and that you’re not qualified and then it starts this just spiral of negativity and it makes you feel inadequate, and then you end up maybe taking a break from your job search or getting desperate and applying to a volume of jobs and playing the numbers game, which is definitely not effective. So today I want you to hit pause on your job search and really do a bit of an audit of, like I said, your resume, LinkedIn, portfolio if you have one, potentially even cover letters, and think to yourself, you know, do I really have a qualification problem or maybe do I have a communication problem? And if you want help from myself or my team in figuring out if you have a qualification or a communication problem, head over to careerstrategylab.com, click on the courses tab in the navigation or the resources tab to find out if we have any upcoming short courses, learn more about our 3 month career coaching program, or if you have questions feel free to just send me a direct message on LinkedIn, mention this podcast episode so I know where you came from and I will do my best to get you an answer in about a week. Alright, thanks for listening. I hope you learned something new and remember, you may not be the problem.

Sarah Doody [00:06:55]: It may not be your qualifications. The problem might be a communication problem. So don’t give up on yourself or your job search. It may be a quick messaging fix. That’s all for today. I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for listening to the Career Strategy Podcast. Make sure to follow me, Sarah Doody, on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

Sarah Doody [00:07:19]: If anything in today’s episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear about it. Tag me on social media or send me a DM. And lastly, if you found this episode helpful, I’d really appreciate it if you could share it with a friend or give us a quick rating on Spotify or review on Apple Podcasts. Catch you later.