Looking for a Job? Highlight Your Ability, Not Your Experience
When searching for a new job or preparing for an interview, most of us concern ourselves most with listing endless bullet points in our CV under ‘professional experience’ or ‘career history’ as it is sometimes referred to.
Likewise, most recruiters fix their gaze firmly upon this section of your CV, to see if you tick all the boxes they’ve pre-framed in their mind.
But is this all CV’s and interviews are good for? Reading through your past experience?
The problem with this is that your history only shows the interviewer what you’ve done in the past, useful – yes of course, but it doesn’t show them what you are capable of and expertly skilled at doing today!
Wouldn’t it be better to fill the recruiter with confidence that you are the candidate they’ve been searching for by doing something above and beyond what they’re expecting or what they can already see on your CV, something that truly wows them?
Additionally, to those of you who are Employers or Recruiters, wouldn’t it be nice to see some actual unique differential between the 1000+ CV’s you receive, whereby you can see the candidates in action? What if you could find exceptional talent in places you’d never even dreamed of?
This is a mindset shift that I believe both candidate AND employers/recruiters can benefit from.
So how on earth do you do that? It’s pretty simple actually.
In this article I’m going to share a short but intriguing TED Talk with you that highlights how and why we should be looking differently at recruitment and selection, as well as how we ‘sell’ ourselves most effectively as candidates.
“Don’t just show people what you’ve done in the past, actively
demonstrate what you’re capable of doing right now!”
Check out this 6 minute TED Talk below by Jason Shen who talks about why we as candidates and recruiters shouldn’t only be focusing on career history, but rather skills and abilities to widen our field of vision in the recruitment and selection game.
Click the video below to watch now. Remember to tell us what you think afterwards via our comments section!
Video Introduction: Very few of us hold jobs that line up directly with our past experiences or what we studied in college. Take TED Resident Jason Shen; he studied biology but later became a product manager at a tech company. In this quick, insightful talk about human potential, Shen shares some new thinking on how job seekers can make themselves more attractive — and why employers should look for ability over credentials.
What do you think of Jason’s talk and his ideas?
Can you see how this might help you as a candidate or as a recruiter in the future?
Will this influence your job application and interview strategy? Or will it change how and where you search for new talent for your business?
We’re interested to hear what you have to say! You can let us know your thoughts, ideas and experiences on this subject in the comments box below.
Sharing is caring, so feel free to share this article with your colleagues and friends via Facebook and LinkedIn!
Best,
Adam
P.S.: Was everything in this article and video easy to understand? If you’d like to expand your professional vocabulary and improve your ‘Business English’, check out our fantastic courses and services here!
For the definitions of the highlighted words check our Glossary.
About the Author
Adam Baker is the co-Founder and Course Director at Trust Native. He’s an Entrepreneur, Business Coach, and Sport & Organizational Psychologist with professional experience in both Europe and South America.
About the Author
Adam Baker is the co-Founder and Course Director at Trust Native. He’s an Entrepreneur, Business Coach, and Sport & Organizational Psychologist with professional experience in both Europe and South America.
Subscribe to our Newsletter!
We’ll email you occasionally with our latest posts & most interesting news.