Roadmap to the Executive Suite

Is Your Lack of Qualifications Holding You Back from Applying to Jobs?

April 07, 2022 Claudia Miller Season 2 Episode 2
Roadmap to the Executive Suite
Is Your Lack of Qualifications Holding You Back from Applying to Jobs?
Show Notes Transcript

So you are looking for a new opportunity, but you find yourself stuck because of the job qualifications you see in the postings that interest you. What is your next step? Do you really need to be 100% qualified for a job?

In this episode, I will talk about what being qualified for a job really looks like. I will share why you don’t have to be 100% qualified and what can happen if you are 100% qualified. I will share questions that you can ask yourself when assessing your qualifications for a job opening. I will also share an exercise that will help you check whether you are qualified or not for a job you want to apply to.


In This Podcast We Talk About:

  • Do you really need to be 100% qualified for a job?
  • What happens when you are 100% qualified for a job?
  • How to determine if you are qualified to apply for a job.
  • The essential questions you need to ask about qualifications from a job opening.
  • Claudia shares an exercise to help determine your qualifications for a job.


Links Mentioned:
Roadmap to the Executive Suite
Get to know more about My 90-Day Job Offer Program here.
Application to Work With Claudia Miller.

About me:
I started my career like many people do: in an entry level role making around $35K a year, was the first to arrive and last to leave, putting a 110% into my job…But it wasn’t enough. 

I was consistently being passed up for promotions and realized I was being underpaid compared to my colleagues. 

I knew that in order to get ahead in my career and be able to make the money I wanted… to support the lifestyle I wanted…something had to change. 

So, I started investing in myself. I worked with a career coach, resume writer, read every career book that I could get my hands on, enrolled in career courses, and studied colleagues wo seemed to be crushing it in their careers. And after investing over $20,000 in resources, coaches, and books…and spending thousands of hours over five years…I realized that many of the common advice out there did NOT move the needle when it came to advancing your career! 

Instead, I handpicked and carefully selected what worked to create my now signature program, 90-Day Job Offer, that is unlike anything that is out there. I wish a program like this existed when I was going through my career advancement and salary negotiations. If so, it would have been a fraction of the cost and saved me over four years of frustration of trial-and-error. 

Since then, my clients have taken my ready-to-use resources to advance their careers in 90-days or less, and secured on average a 56% increase in salary (to date my clients have received $30,000 - $120,000 in additional earned income per year)!!

I help women in technology land fulfilling, high-paying jobs at a company that values and appreciates them. I’m on a mission to help women in tech collectively earn over a $1M in the next year. 

Will you join me?

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

job, role, career, questions, clients, posting, experience, certification, qualifications, salary increases, challenged, company, hiring manager, feel, applying, manager, must haves, job postings, coach, skill sets

SPEAKERS

Claudia Miller

 

Claudia Miller  00:06

Welcome to roadmap to the executive suite podcast, a place where we talk about accelerate your careers all tailored to the ambitious woman. forget to have fun, feel empowered and get actionable steps to get you closer to your dream job and salary, no matter where you are in your career. I'm your host, Claudia Miller, but the INEC career coach and corporate trainer who helps ambitious women get the jobs they want, almost getting them up to $100,000 in salary increases. I've been featured in Forbes, MSNBC, and Business Insider put me there Top Global list of top innovative career coaches, and the creative 90 day job offer program where I teach career driven women like you my proprietary strategy on how to land a job you love in less than 90 days. Although getting 30 to $100,000 in salary increases, no matter if you're just starting in your career, or you're ready to pivot into the executive suite. My clients have been able to move to the next step in their careers successfully pivot into new industries without having to take a pay cut and broken into management without any prior experience. I'm coming to you with a new episode every week on Thursdays with mindset job search, interview skills and negotiation advice with actionable strategies you can implement today to help you get ahead in your career. Now let's get started with this week's episode. Hi. So I'll just get started. My name is Claudia Miller, if you don't know me, and I'm a Career Coach for women in tech, and I help career driven women get the jobs they want at salaries they love. And since COVID, my clients have been able to give jobs within 90 days or less and get anywhere between 30 to $100,000 in salary increases. So the average earned income increases around 54% Based on what they're currently making. And because of my clients success I made featured in Forbes, MSNBC, and Business Insider Global list of top 23 innovative career coaches. So the topic that I wanted to talk about today is, is your lack of qualifications holding you back from applying to jobs. And this is something that I see very frequently, and I hear a lot from my clients and some of my followers and you know, just candidates that I speak to that are currently job searching. And the myth is that you should fit 100% of the job qualifications. And that's not true. I've spoken to hiring managers and recruiters. And the way that I see it is job postings are more of like a wishlist, where it talks about ideally what they want in a candidate, but they are non negotiables. Not very applying for a doctor, of course, you need to be a core certified and licensed. But we're talking about other jobs that don't require such certification and licenses. So like in tech roles, program manager, project manager, you X, you know, data scientists, for engineers, like some of these roles can be where you're self taught, maybe you took a course maybe took a Udemy course or LinkedIn learning, there's many different resources, how you gather some of these skill sets. But when looking at a job posting, you don't need to meet 100% of the qualifications. And here's why. So I was looking research. And for candidates that apply to jobs that do qualify at 100% and get the job, they tend to feel unhappy at work and in that role in itself, because it's no longer challenging, and they're bored of it, then they end up hating their jobs, because it's nothing exciting for them, or they're learning something new. And they're feeling like they're becoming stagnant in the industry, because it's something they already know what to do. They're not learning anything new, because they fit 100% of the job posting, and they tend to start looking for new jobs. Now, this is not good for the company, because they invest a lot in hiring you and you know bringing it in, and is that good for you as a candidate because you spend a lot of time job searching. Looking for a job can sometimes be a full time job in itself. So it's not fair to you or the company to go into a role where you fit 100% of the qualifications, you will end up looking for new jobs very shortly right afterwards. And you're not going to be very content with your job overall. And it impacts productivity and employee engagement and it does impact the company's in itself as well. So do yourself a favor and do not expect to meet 100% of those job description qualifications. Instead, I would look more at job postings that are out there that have a little bit more, I would say anywhere between 30 to 50%. I mean, looking at that but also researching under Senator, what are some of the non negotiables? What exactly do I need to know? And a lot of these questions get answered when networking speaking to other people in those roles speaking to hiring managers, they're hiring for the role of the actual HR Recruiter or hiring manager that will become your manager if you were to get into that role. So there are some questions you can ask to get a better understanding of it of like, what are must haves? What are non negotiables? And then if they're like, well, we need someone that's certified in PMP. But she's a project management, you can ask well, you know, I am not certified in PMP. But I've done project management for the past 1015 years. And I work with both technical and non technical teams with budgets ranging from, you know, 100,000, all the way to 5 million, or it could be something like, I work with projects that short term, mid and long term. So the shortest have ranged from three weeks and the longest have taken around two years. Does my experience meet the qualifications? Even though I don't have that PMP certification? And they might say, oh, yeah, the experience that trumps anything right now over the certification. So those are questions you want to ask to really ensure Do you really need that certification, because the last thing you want to do is spend money and time and delay and you get into the role because you think you need to have the certification, or you think you need to have your master's degree, or you think you need this other advanced degree out there. Most of the time with my clients do a lot of this research beforehand, 80% of the time they figure it out, or they find out that they don't need the certification, it's just a nice have, or they really have the skill set, there's just not certified. And the employer is okay with that. As long as you can do the job or you feel confident or you can find the resources, they're more than happy to have you on board. So it's really understanding like who the company is. And again, these are questions that you can ask the recruiter or you can ask the hiring manager. And one of the things too, that I've noticed is that some companies, not all, but there are some companies that have templates for job postings. So they'll say, Hey, we're looking for a project manager. And they might say, well, we have a template for Project Manager. Yeah, go ahead, post that. And then I'll just tailor the interview based on what I need. So they don't necessarily want to choose a job posting that everyone's really good at writing job descriptions in my already outdated in mind, it may be relevant to the department or roles that you're currently applying for. So don't discount yourself based on the job posting. Instead, let's uncover the unknown, let's find out the real truth. Maybe it is a company that they need someone to roll up their sleeves and immediately start working, if that's the case, because there have so many fires, and there's no one to train them. That might not be a very good situation for you if you have 30% of that skill set. But there are companies out there that might say actually, we do have training, or we have other ones that can go on board or roquet, as long as like you understand the concept of it, because things are changing so fast, especially in tech, that we just need someone that can be resourceful, and get the job done, or know who to ask, or what questions to ask and do the execution to get the work done. So like these are the things you want to know like, what is the state of this job posting? You know, what are you currently looking? What are your biggest challenges? What are your resources available to you? What are the must haves and non negotiables for this skill set? And even dig deeper? If they were to say, hey, we're looking for a manager that's has management experience, ask them? Can you be specific what type of manager experience where is your you're most interested in that you think will be valuable or an asset to this role. And it's like, well, we just want a manager, because the thing is, every manager has had their first management experience. There are no babies born out there that are born with VP level executive or management experience, we've all had to have our first manager experience. So don't let that prevent you from not having Management Director or senior director experience whatsoever, because everyone has had their first role. So this might be the time if you know you're writing in private and set to have your first manager director or whatever new role that you're going after. So don't discount yourself, don't rely on the job description. And there was actually some stats and data that I was reviewing that it was around 60% 60 to 62% of candidates said that what they're currently doing in their job does not reflect what was in the job posting. And to be honest, a lot of the jobs have changed since COVID. I had a client who used to be an experiential marketing manager. So they would go to trade shows and events and create the marketing the promotions to give away the experience for the company got hired two months later COVID happened locked down no more in person events, no more trade shows. And guess what my client had To change her whole entire role, like her role was changed to now you're in charge of virtual zoom events, she had no experience as she applied for the role, she probably would even have applied to the arc, she probably would have said, I've never worked with online virtual events I've already done in person, probably not even qualified. She took her experience, and adapted really quickly and fast to change those trade shows and events to more experiential, virtual zoom events that she had to do with no experience whatsoever. But she use a lot of those transferable skills, ask the right questions, had to find out the tax staff and how to figure that out on her own, and it was very successful in that role. So roles do change. And I bet you if I asked any of you to tell me what exactly your job posting has, you probably won't be able to remember or let me know. And you're like, I have no idea I've been working at this job. I don't even know what the job posting says. And even if he know what the job posting says, most of the time, like what I've heard is, I don't even do any of those things, or like that's what I started. But three months later, my role expanded. And I do so much more than that. And that is natural. That is normal. Prop business, Chicago wants to meet black and Latino small business owners ready to scale their business and grow through capital investments, visit roll business chicago.com forward slash community for more information on the black and Latino excellence Investment Summit. So that's another reason of why you don't want to rely on the job posting or job description. And you don't need to fit 100% of it. Instead, we want to know what transferable skills they we can leverage it and use it for their industry. So for example, if you are client facing, and you're interested in project management, trust me, you've had project management experience working with clients, you probably had to work a lot with communication, you had to work with different leadership, whether the CEO or the leadership, or the director of ops, and you probably had to work with internally and external stakeholders, maybe had to work with contracts. So same thing, it's all projects, it's how you tell the story. And you want to align it to that industry, that's gonna make you stand out and have it be successful through your job search, not you feeling 100% of those qualifications in there. And I wanted to show you really quick of like a quick exercise that anyone can do when reviewing a job posting. So here's a example that I've created. Alright, so here's quickly how a job description and I just copied and pasted everything they had in there. But one thing to do is highlight in green, if you have experience, highlighted in yellow, maybe have the experience but you're not just 100% confident or maybe you haven't, but you're not certified. And red means I have no experience whatsoever. Don't even know what this means. I might even have to look up what exactly they're asking for. And you want to go through the job posting that typically they'll start with, Hey, here's who we are as a company. And this is a true job posting out there. I literally copied and pasted it. But it tells you like resources, who we are as a company, the benefits, and then starts with qualifications. Now if I was reviewing this, and this is just an example, I would say, oh, project management skills. I have project management skills. I'm gonna highlight that in great interpersonal skills. Yep, I have that I worked with cross functional teams, and delegation. I haven't really delegated. And it's something I'm not mostly comfortable with. But I've done it I have an idea of what delegation looks like. I'm just not 100% Confident, strategic roadmap for the team. Oh, I've been part of the team, where we've done strategic roadmaps, but I haven't necessarily created one or feel comfortable at 100% level. But if someone were to tell me, is this strategic roadmap or not, I would be able to say yes or no, like I have enough data, or information better than someone that literally doesn't even know what roadmap it means. And then we started going into this one. And we've noticed, oh, develop and establish poles haven't done that. I haven't managed a team before. I've coached and mentored through my nonprofit or I volunteer for this program where at my church, I've coached and mentor other people, but I haven't done performance appraisals. I haven't that member reviews or salary adjustments. So I'm going to put that as a right I don't feel comfortable. I need to figure out is this non negotiable or not? Can you want to go through the job posting through all of them and then make notes so for example, let's just say you know about, like for this one, I didn't major any of these, but I have experienced an XY and Z. Or maybe I don't have like a technical background like this, but sandboxing I've had some experience Maybe I need to ask a few questions. And even, you know, Cisco certifications, I don't have any Cisco certifications. But I know and I worked with these different software's or, you know, templates or anything out there. So you want to work questions that arise from doing this exercise. And the rule of thumb is to have at least 20 30% of the job posting in red. So you want to make sure because the red means these are all the areas so you're going to be able to learn, be able to be challenged, it's going to help you stay competitive, it will prevent you from being stagnant, because there's a lot of opportunities for you to learn. And again, you still want some yellow as well, because you want to strengthen those if they're relevant to your next role. And depending on how much you're able or need to use those skill sets. So this is like a quick exercise you can do to figure out is this a good enough role, I would say this is about good 30% Like this is healthy. And even like this actually has a, I would think a lot of greens, I will want to see more yellows in here than greens. But I will feel confident to apply to this role. Because I will feel confident that one, you know, I have a foundation understanding to I get distracted some of the skill sets that I currently have, but I'm not the best set yet. And then three has enough rights where I can learn all these things that I haven't yet. And I get exposed to all these different types and still become competitive in the field. I'm learning, I'm being challenged, and it's prepping me for the next step in my career. So that's just a quick exercise that you want to do when reviewing different job posting. And like I said, there are different tactics and strategies, but one thing I have to tell you is, do not discount yourself because you do not fit everything in the job posting, you should still apply to the job. Worst case scenario, you don't get an interview? Or if you do you have an opportunity now that you didn't say no to and you did get the interview, and then you can best tell yourself and ask those questions. You know, what are some non negotiables? What are must haves for this role? What is the hiring manager? What is the hardest skill for to hire for this role as well? You know, what exactly were the hiring manager? What are some of the challenges that they're looking to solve? Or this person to solve in the next 3060 90 days? Is there if you're in tech, of course, like it could be, you know, is this a role to continue the integration or some of the systems or rollouts they've already been done? Or are they looking to develop new services or products? And if so, are they looking to target specific targets? segmentations? I mean, you can go into these roles more and understand where do you have commonalities? Where are you might say, like, Oh, I'm I need some questions. I don't have the certification. But is that a no deal? I've done a, b, and c, and I'm very familiar with the concept. And I did some research. And I actually, I could easily take a LinkedIn learning course in the weekend, and be ramped up to speed with cloud computing, or at least the foundations of cloud computing. So that'll be a great strategy for you to use to understand the case. Like, I'm coming to this, like, I well versed. If they tell you no, we're really looking for someone with management experience. Can you please elaborate, I'd like to learn more. Because while I may not have been a manager, I do have managed experience, I've been a team lead, I've managed a team at my church, or I volunteered and I run or I was part of a fundraiser where we fundraise $10,000. And I had to work with a team of 100 volunteers and helping them. So as far as management, I know how to work with different types of personalities. I know how to coach and mentor people agenda through, you know, different modalities outside of work. And then, as far as leadership, I'm part of an erg leadership group where you know, I lead the committee or whatever that is. But again, finding those commonalities and understanding that because at the end of the day, they might say, you know, what, you have all the non negotiables and must haves, everything else is just extra. And of course, it's the way you sell it, the way you brand yourself that aligned with that, but do not prevent yourself from applying to a job because if you don't feel 100%, and God forbid, if you've qualified 100% to a job, it's time for you to move up to the next step in the career ladder for you to feel challenged and be excited about the work that you do. Now, if you're like Claudia, I don't even know how to like, tell my story or transferable skills for this new job or how to even network with people. I don't even know how to connect. I'm an introvert or I'm going to in person but now everything's virtual. I don't know how to do that. It's okay, feel free to reach out I offer a complimentary career strategy call with me so that way, I get to learn more about what you're looking for where you're currently at. And then we can both strategize on what next steps should look like in order for you to move into that job you're looking for. Whether you're feeling lost in your career, you're looking to move to next steps, or you're looking to pivot into a new industry or type of role. Feel free to reach out I can connect give you that strategy that's going to help you get there in the next 90 days, or sooner depending on what your timeline looks like. So this is just a small portion of what I teach in my proprietary program called 90 day job offer. So it's really understanding what are the unknowns of this industry and this role, especially if you're pivoting to a new industry or type of role, we want to know what to announce? What are the must haves? What are the top or hardest skills to hire for in this role? How to do this research? How to identify all these answers to these questions. So that exercise I just showed you, it's like a small part of that. But it does make a big difference. And a lot of my clients have said, when they go through the exercise, they feel relieved, they feel confident. Now they're like, Oh, I thought if I had read, like, That would be horrible. And by the way, I've read triggers, you feel free to make that any color, pink, blue, whatever that it is, but know that you need to have a small percentage, like at least 30% of the job posting that you don't know, that is an opportunity to learn, grow and develop. And you're more likely to stay that role longer. And the company's happy because you're not leaving after three, six months, because there was not what expected or you're just bored of it and tired of it. So I'll add it to the link. But feel free to like I said, reach out to me for a career strategy, call complimentary, there's no obligation, and then I can help you kind of strategize what you need in your job search. So till next week, and don't forget, every Wednesday at 5pm Eastern Standard Time, I go live on my LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube now my YouTube page on additional career searching tips and how to accelerate in your career and get paid what you're worth. And you want to definitely take advantage right now in this employee driven market. And if you have any other questions or situations, feel free to private message me if you don't want your employer to know or added to the comments if you're unemployed or like I honestly don't even care of the notice that I've commented here. I want to know any questions or objections or challenges you're experiencing and because I'll be more than happy to create another live event, and I'm sure if you have that question or that objection, others are feeling the same way as well. All right till next time, and I'll see you next week. Bye. Did you know I have started 100% free Facebook group dedicated to making job searching easy for career driven women and help them master their interviewing networking inside negotiation skills. And we're doing free weekly trainings, covering everything from how to sell yourself to increasing your salary by 30% minimum. Plus, you'll be in there with a network of other ambitious women. So make sure to join us by texting us the word join 28449951523 And we'll see you there