During a conversation, he said, “Please, I need your help. I haven't searched for a job change in the last 15 years, and now I feel frustrated about the process of job search. My CV does not match any skill mentioned in the job description and I even don't have any idea how to fit every word of it.” Ujjawal Shukla works as senior vice-president, marketing in a big company in Abu Dhabi. “Being away from India for so long has contributed to that fear of me,” he concluded his huffed conversation. I waited for his next sentence and realised that he was quiet now. So I asked him why he feels the need to fit every word of a given description, and that means with every advertised job he would be changing the CV multiple times.
Are you also looking for a change and are in the dilemma of a similar kind? Read on to find out the do's and don'ts: Skills needed on the job mean technical knowledge or your subject knowledge. The rest are behavioural competencies. It is not possible to match each of them. If you tweak your CV accordingly, then either you are applying for the next Avenger's job as a superhero or upfront lying. Let your CV reflect clearly as what kind of career you are making. Whether it is moving on from a job after two years or 15 years, it is the same.
Your career is a mix of each job you have taken and it has helped you grow from there. The skills you acquire are the contributing factors to each demand, the job description talks about. Do not confuse switching jobs with switching careers. Often they are two different entities. You may have worked as a trainee engineer to begin with, and grew as a technical manager in the same field of operations. You have not switched careers. But if you joined as a trainee engineer on the shop floor of any manufacturing unit, but moved on to become a process trainer of any I-T organisation, then that is switching careers. You will have to justify each such switch in the interview.
As you climb the ladder, interviews are more focused on what you know, the previous job and mainly your contribution to its growth and the value you would bring in from those. The job description may demand “a mentor and change agent”. Look through your career and see how you helped change peers or colleagues as better individuals and as a team. Understand the job description, floral language can be deterrent here. Once I had received a call to come and train “the path navigators and the pilots”. The truck manufacturing company meant truck drivers and helpers. Look for familiar terms matching your experience and responsibilities. Look at the job title clearly. In some telecom organisations, COO is circle operation officer. The title, cluster head may mean a big cluster of people or just a small group, since it is in employers control as what would be the size of the cluster.
Are you applying to jobs beyond your regular and known expertise? It may be a good idea to stretch yourself, sometimes, for a new position. Most people after a certain age and experience are expected to hit the ground running when they land up a new job. If that looks like a lot of effort to fit in the new job by its description, take it. That is how your next promotion in the same organisation or in the next move will come in. Most people look very confident in any new role they walk into. That comes from a basic, innate ability to seek and fulfill challenges. Remember, each one of us has a first day and the last day on any job. Make it a point to match your CV with skills, which are technical and subject matter expertise and cannot be acquired overnight. Do try to justify the behavioural competencies as they are easy to learn and show. Being a team leader needs a mindset which can be worked upon.
The writer is a strategic advisor and premium educator with Harvard Business Publishing