Align your experience to the job role

- When I worked in recruitment, every day, I briefed a team of recruiters on the roles they were hiring for and the type of candidates we were looking for. It was a well-oiled machine, and here is exactly how I would prepare for those meetings. I would go over the job description and narrow down the top three most important things we are looking for from candidates, which can be skills or experience, and my team will search for candidates based on those top three must-haves. So I want you to take the same approach to your interview preparation, understand what the three must-haves for the role are and then align your experience accordingly. Here's how. Most job descriptions have three main parts. Short description of what the role is about, main responsibilities, and requirements from candidates. You will notice that all three parts tend to mirror each other. Keep in mind that the more important a skill or experience for the role, the higher it will be on the list. The description would usually talk about the main goal of someone in this role, main deliverables, and who this person will be working with internally and externally. For example, let's take a marketing manager posting. The short description might mention that you will lead the development, implementation, and management of marketing activities, and the area of focus is digital marketing, specifically social media and e-commerce. In the responsibility section, you will typically see this explained further. That same marketing manager posting mentions that they're looking for someone to define and implement the annual marketing calendar, manage the digital marketing and social media strategies, support e-commerce channels, and manage creative agencies. We're seeing the same skills highlighted: digital marketing, including social media and e-commerce, plus working with creative agencies. Now in the requirements section, we once again see the same experiences like five plus years in digital marketing, plus the additional skills that will help you to be successful in this role, like communication skills and stakeholder management. So the employer is telling you the three most important pieces for the role: social media, e-commerce, and communication with various stakeholders. And those are the three areas of focus that you need to have for your interview answers. This means that those are the three areas that you will highlight in "tell me about yourself" to be seen as the candidate they need in the first few minutes. If you don't have the exact experience, it's not a big deal. Think about where else you have demonstrated similar skills. In the same example, if you haven't managed agencies before, is there a part of your experience where you worked with external parties or managed projects from start to finish where multiple parties were involved? Position that as your working with agencies experience, so to speak. When you choose which examples from your past experience you will share in your interview, start with the ones that align with the top three areas first. Similarly, when you are asked about something you are not good at, don't pick any skills that are one of the top three. When you share an example, even if it's not seemingly related to one of those three must-haves, you can connect it to one of them. Let's say in the marketing manager interview, you're asked about handling a conflict at work. At the end of your answer, you can add, "I understand that in this marketing manager role, I will be working with both internal and external stakeholders, and that conflicts are inevitable. With my proven conflict management framework, I feel confident that I will navigate these relationships effectively." Now, I want you to spend a few minutes reviewing the job description for the role you're interviewing for or would love to interview for, and identify the three must-haves for the role. Then I want you to find three core parts of your experience that align with the three must-haves.