I just reviewed a job posting for a mid to senior level IT position with a major electronics company. The list of qualifications was so generic that it was obvious that absolutely no effort was put into benchmarking the job and determining what the key qualifiers were. Here’s the list of qualifications:
- Strong organizational skills
- Team player, but also must be able to work independently o Strong problem determination skills in a multi platform environment
- Must be able to effectively interact with other IT professionals
- Clearly communicate with non technical clients
- Available for on-call rotation
- Some travel required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent work experience
It’s no wonder that most people’s resumes are boring and lack substance. Job seekers are writing them using poorly written job postings as their guide. So here are my questions for whoever is crafting these postings.
- How can an employer expect to get the best talent to apply for their open positions if they can’t even differentiate the position via the job posting?
- How can they expect job seekers to be passionate about these open positions when they are so bland and written so poorly?
- Why do hiring managers act surprised when people who aren’t a good fit post for their jobs? How would a job seeker know if they are a fit based on these useless descriptions?
And the sad thing is that this job spec is not unusual. Most job specs I read lack clear language, are full of corporate speak, or say nothing meaningful or specific about the job. Let’s face it. The job posting system is broken and it doesn’t look like it is getting fixed anytime soon. Spend a minimal amount of time on the job boards and get out and meet people. Talk about your real life accomplishments and successes that go past the general and generic information listed on a job posting. Build credibility, trust, and rapport by letting people know about the specific ways you impacted the company bottom line. Be memorable and not just another “team player with strong communication skills.”
Hi Barbara,
So many resumes come to me listing: team player, strong communication skills, good writing skills and other proverbial strengths for corporate roles. “The proof is in the pudding”… with real life accomplishments. The “copying and pasting” of job description into the resume, I agree, is not helpful.
The resume provides some evidence of the softer skills.
There could be a notion of some of the softer skills in recommendations one receives in social networking sites. But is there enough room to state specific things?
It could be, and I am posing a question, that this is a role a reference can point out.
Dan,
References are important too but there has to be enough compelling information on the resume to get to the reference phase. I still advocate for an accomplishment-focused, metrics-driven resume, but I believe that needs to be coupled with a persuasive pitch and a strong network. None of these strategies should be used in a vacuum-it’s the combination of strong marketing collateral and strong networks that generally works best.