How to let your skills shine

A new trend in hiring is taking some of the focus away from your previous roles and shining a light on your skills. Skills-based hiring, as the approach is known, can help job seekers and employers. Employers open themselves to a larger pool of candidates, including those in other fields with the skills to get the job done. Job seekers — especially those changing careers and without advanced degrees —?may also have a better chance of getting hired.

Christopher Taylor , who is known as The Occupation Optimist, recently joined LinkedIn News editor Andrew Seaman on #GetHired Live. They discussed how to let your skills shine as a job seeker and how to get noticed among employers using this new hiring approach. You can check out the conversation on the latest episode of Get Hired with Andrew Seaman . Christopher and Andrew also discussed getting recommendations on LinkedIn and how to know if you’re qualified for a job.

Check out the episode on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen. If you like the show, be sure to leave a rating and review. Your praise helps other people find the podcast.

Andrew: From LinkedIn News, this is Get Hired, a podcast for the ups and downs of our professional lives. I'm Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn’s Senior News Editor for job searches and careers. Each week on Get Hired, we talk about leveling up. Sometimes, we talk about finding work. Other times, we talk about excelling where you are right now. And through it all, we focus on how to stay true to yourself in the process. A term that I've been seeing more and more in the past few months, and you probably have too, is “skills-based hiring.” Finally, it seems that recruiters are much less interested in the titles you've held and more interested in what you bring to the table today. To help us navigate this change and what it might mean for your resume refresh or job hunt, I've enlisted recruiter and career coach, Christopher Taylor, AKA the Occupation Optimist. Chris joined me last month on my LinkedIn Live show to walk the Get Hired community through the ins and outs of skills-based hiring.?

Thanks so much for joining us.

Christopher: Absolutely. I'm excited to be here.

Andrew: One of the things that I'm curious about is really how did the Great Reshuffle change hiring?

Christopher: Yeah, I mean, skills-based hiring is definitely where it's at. I mean, at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you're bringing all your skills to the forefront. Things have changed big time. And at the end of the day, what you need to know is there's a lot more opportunity out there for you than ever before, to be completely honest with you. And right now, if you're looking to make any type of transition, you want to try something new or you just want to level up, now is absolutely the time to do it.

Andrew: You mentioned skills-based hiring. And can you quickly tell us a little bit about what that means and also how people could figure out what skills they have?

Christopher: Yeah. I mean, skills-based hiring, it's basically how you present yourself to a potential employer, right? You want to make sure that you are not only taking inventory of your skills, but also pushing your skills front and center. And that's something that a lot of people have trouble doing, but it's something that you absolutely can do regardless of what industry that you're a part of, regardless of, kind of, where you are on the organizational chart. I always like to tell folks that your resume serves as a great roadmap to help you speak to and guide others through what you've done, right? So, you want to make sure that your resume is focused on results, accomplishments, achievements, and quantifiable contributions, but not just from past positions, also from volunteer experiences, education, as well as community engagement. You really want to dig into your quantifiable results by considering, we'll say, performance appraisals, that always helps, as well as big wins. And anytime you're having trouble, you could always take a look at your current resume and ask yourself, "What was the impact of this task? What was the impact of that task?"

Andrew: How do you identify any gaps in the skills that you have in maybe a career you want to go to, or a job? How do you know what skills you need and how you could actually figure out, "Oh, I need to work on this or that."

Christopher: Yeah. That's a great question. So, I think that when you're thinking about skill gaps, the first thing you want to remember is you don't have to check every box of the job description’s “nice-to-haves,” right? So, job descriptions are typically written by recruiters who, at most, collaborate with hiring managers, but they typically haven't done the job themselves. No one who's putting together a job description is expecting you to have everything that's listed there.

Andrew: Definitely.

Christopher: So, if you've got 6 out of 10, you're looking good. Go for it. No one's got 10 out of 10. If you come across a job you're excited about, and the job sounds like something that you can do and you believe that you're able to sell yourself, you want to go for it. Now by “sell yourself,” I mean putting together a three to five bullet pitch of what you think that you can do for the company or what it is that you think that you bring to the table. Now, this is going to draw a bridge between where you are now and where you want to be, right? We also want to keep in mind that skill gaps tend to be especially evident in career, as well as industry, transitions, right? So, one, you want to do your homework on what your position of interest entails. Two, you want to check out LinkedIn to see profiles and backgrounds of those who hold similar roles. How do you compare? Can you start the same way that that person did? And then third, you want to consider ways to quickly build skills. So, one, I recommend volunteering your existing skills to an organization, strategically focusing on the skills that you want to acquire and pitching similar ways to help that organization. So, that's one quick way to build skills. Two, offer low price services via freelancing. Three, I would say, explore online courses and certifications, right? So, right now, today there's so many different ways to learn new skills, really from the comfort of your own home, from your living room. There are a number of free or low price opportunities out there. So, like LinkedIn Learning is the perfect example. And if you can't connect with an organization, or if you're having trouble acquiring freelance clients, consider getting to work on your own. And this could look like bringing together some of your own designs, writing content, putting together a project or two that wasn't necessarily assigned by an organization, but at least now you're really building those skills.

Andrew: Okay. Once you have, sort of skills that you say, "Okay, I took my inventory. I kind of know what my skills are, how proficient I am in them." How do you highlight that on your resume or your LinkedIn profiles or both? How do you actually say, "Hey, here's what I'm offering you."

Christopher: When it comes to highlighting those skills in the resume, we've got three main goals that I like to stick to. So, one, we want to show impact. Two, we want to show leadership presence. And then third, we want to ensure that that resume is really easy to read. But the most important piece of that is the need to show impact, right? So, that's quantifiable results, accomplishments, achievements, and contributions. So, at the end of the day, we always want to think numbers and we want to think results. So, let's say you're a freelance writer, and let's say you're looking for a full-time in-house role in marketing. And right now, you're making $25 a page. Consider how much your client's making on each page you write. That number multiplied by how many pages you've written is roughly the revenue that you've generated. So, those are types of numbers that you want to capture, right? We want to keep in mind that you can find quantifiable contributions anywhere. So, if you don't work in sales and you don't work in an industry that uses numbers very often, you can still quantify that resume. And you want to consider that there are a number of easily quantifiable aspects of employment, right? Across industries. So, we're going to say money, time, people, and rankings. You also want to consider what's most important to your company, right? What were you and/or your team trying to achieve? And if you're having trouble, you can always go with your best estimate or try to get close. And it's okay to cite a range rather than a specific number if you are, in fact, giving your best estimate. You also want to be sure that you're supplying out of the office skills, right? So, you're also taking a look at presentations, published works, on-campus leadership, internships, community leadership, and more. Now, how do we apply that to LinkedIn? Once you've reworked that resume to reflect your strongest skills and accomplishments, you want to feel free to copy and paste the information from your resume into your LinkedIn profile. Now this way, recruiters who may be taking a look, they don't even have to ask you for a copy of your resume to understand who you are, what you've done, and what you're capable of. Second, I'd say, you want to gather recommendations. Recommendations are always a great way to put your industry credibility on display. Third, you want to make sure you're using the LinkedIn activity section to showcase subject matter expertise. You want to make sure you're doing a lot of commenting and you want to make sure you're posting regularly. And then last, and this is huge, network, network, network some more. So, today we've got the ability to pretty much reach anyone across the world, right? LinkedIn is the best platform for networking hands down. We want to make sure that we're taking advantage of that. At the end of the day, we exhaust family, friends, and old coworkers pretty quickly. So, I recommend expanding your circle by reaching out to complete strangers in order to continue to build that network.

Andrew: We're going to take a quick break. When we get back, Chris takes us through keeping your skills on point and sealing the deal.

Andrew: We're back with the Occupation Optimist, Christopher Taylor. Now that you know how to highlight your skills, how can you make sure that you're keeping them fresh during the job search? Here's Chris.

Christopher: When it comes to keeping those skills fresh, making sure you're not becoming outdated, you want to prioritize continuous learning, right? So, this could look like taking courses. It could look like following an industry-specific blog that you enjoy, or getting involved in new and different projects in your current position. I'd also say, make sure you're embracing new technology and innovation. So, as new technology's being presented in your current position, you want to make sure that you're not only proficient in said technology, but that you're using it or planning to use it in a fresh new way that will benefit both the company and your own skill-building. And then last I'd say, you want to make sure that you are networking outside of your organization in order to bring in new ideas. So, you want to make sure you're connecting with strangers and connect with on a personal level. Did you go to the same college? Do you visit the city they live in on an annual basis? Are you both into the same hobbies, photography, the same causes, ask yourself what you two have in common. And to give you just like a really quick example of networking via LinkedIn, because anyone and everyone can do it, really simple. Sometimes, it's better to go less formal, right? So, let's say I was reaching out. It could be as easy as a message like, "Oh my God, can't believe I stumbled across another Hampton University grad in Seattle. I see that you're working for Bubble and it looks like you were recently promoted. I love meeting with other talented folks. Any chance you'd be up for a 10 minute call to do some idea sharing." Right? And this idea sharing should help you formulate and bring in new ideas.

Andrew: How do you narrow your job search? Because I think a lot of people, they do the spray and pray method, where they send as many applications as possible to as many jobs.

Christopher: First and foremost, you really have to take the time to get to know yourself. And I think one of the best ways to get to know yourself, and I love doing this exercise, just take half an hour. And I would say, write down three job descriptions that, to you, feel like the perfect job, right? And don't worry about whether or not this feels realistic. Don't worry about whether or not you've done this job in the past. Don't worry about whether or not you feel like you have these experiences. Then you want to go back and assign titles to those job descriptions you've written out, right? So, that's going to help to put you on track. It's going to help you from the alignment standpoint of “this is the type of role that I'm looking for, from a positional standpoint,” right? That's going to be one lane, but then the other lane you want to take a look at is going to be company culture. What type of company do you want to work for? What type of values do you want that company to embody? What type of company culture do you want to be a part of? What types of people do you want to work with and interact with on a daily basis, right? So, once you find alignment between what it is you want to do from a positional standpoint, right, and company culture, I think that's going to help you begin to drill down where you want to be.

Andrew: Your advice is so perfect because really, if you want to have a job that you are not miserable at, you do have to take a few days at least to do the research. And your job doesn't have to define you. It doesn't have to be your whole life, but it shouldn't be a place that makes you miserable seven to eight hours a day.

Christopher: And part of the research is on the company, right, you're seeking out and the industry, but a lot of that research is on yourself and what you're looking for and what makes you feel good, and what's worked in the past and what hasn't.

Andrew: What's the best way to ask for recommendations?

Christopher: When you're thinking about a recommendation on LinkedIn, they don't always have to come from management. Unlike references, for example, a recommendation can come from management, it could come from clients, it can come from your peers. Someone when you've worked on a project with, mentor, mentee, direct reports. And basically, it's going to paint you, right, from the viewpoint of a number of different individuals, right? But when you're asking for those recommendations, you want to realize that obviously you're valuing the time of others, right? So, I recommend, one, barter system, that works well. "Hey, I'm collecting recommendations right now. I'd love to get a recommendation from you. If you write me one, I'll write you one back." But the other system that works even better than this is trying to put yourself in that person's shoes, that you're asking the recommendation from. Go ahead and write the recommendation as if you were them, send it over and say, "Okay, I wanted to save you some time." Right? "Here's a good template. If you want to modify this, great. If you want to delete this and write your own, that's great too. If you want to copy and paste this and go with it, that's awesome." Right? "But at the end of the day, I wanted to save you 15, 20 minutes." And a lot of times using that method, it's going to get you a recommendation back a lot quicker versus if you say, "Hey, can you write one for me?" and just kind of leave it up to them.

Andrew: So, once you've gotten your recommendations in order and applied for those targeted jobs, highlighting your skills, is it appropriate to reach out to the hiring manager on LinkedIn to follow up? Here's Chris.

Christopher: I absolutely recommended it. I think by doing that, it's an absolute game changer. I mean, at the end of the day, you want to separate yourself from the masses, right? So, you're in a city like New York, you could be 1 of 500 applicants. If we're talking about a remote role, you may be one in a thousand roles. So, now the question is, how do you go about separating yourself from a thousand other applicants and reaching out to that hiring manager is going to greatly enhance the chance of that individual looking at your resume. What it comes down to is the fact that when you're a hiring manager and you're hiring someone, that hiring process could take 8 to 12 weeks, right? So, if the right candidate just happens to fall into my inbox, as a hiring manager, it's my lucky day.

Andrew: People forget that there are people and humans behind the application process. So, even though you're submitting on a computer, they're the ones who are going to look at a resume. They're the ones who are setting, sort of, expectations. So, do your homework and see where you've applied and also keep track of where you applied to know what you're waiting on and who might be contacting you back. For people listening to this conversation, what's one thing they could do today to really harness the skills they have to get ahead in their career? What's one piece of advice you have for them?

Christopher: I would think about, what's your personal brand, right? And if you take the buzzwords out of it, what do you do that separates you from the masses? Or what is that key piece of your career story that enables you to stand out? And I would say lean into it and it's going to help you out big time from a confidence standpoint. But in addition to that, it's going to help people understand who you are, what you bring to the table. It's going to paint you as a forward thinker and it's going to help folks understand what it is that you could possibly do to take their company to the next level.

Andrew: Chris, thank you so much for joining us.

Christopher: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Andrew: Zeroing in on your personal brand and the skills you've spent your career, or education, building will also help you get to the next level. Another thing that will help you get there, our Career Coach Corner's weekly tip. This tip comes all the way from New Zealand. Here's career coach Vai Kavthekar.

Vai: Never undersell your skills. Negotiate well, without pushing, but you need to get what you deserve.

Andrew: If you use Vay's tip or any other tip you've heard on Get Hired, and it leads to a job search or career win, send us a voice memo to [email protected]. We just might share it on the show.?

Remember, it's up to you to put our advice into practice. Still, you always have a community backing you up and cheering you on. Connect with me and the Get Hired community on LinkedIn to continue the conversation. You can also join my weekly Get Hired live show every Friday at noon Eastern time on the LinkedIn News page. And if you liked this episode, leave us a rating on Apple Podcast. It helps people like you, yes you, find the show. And of course, we'll continue this conversation next week, right here, wherever you like to listen.?

Get Hired is a production of LinkedIn News. The show is produced by Michele O'Brien, with help from Gianna Prudente, Derek Carl, and Taisha Henry. Joe DiGiorgi mixed our show. Florencia Iriondo is Head of Original Audio and Video. Dave Pond is Head of News Production. Dan Roth is the Editor In Chief of LinkedIn and I'm Andrew Seaman. Until next time, stay well and best of luck.