Make the Connection- How bad do you want it?

You're looking through job announcements, find a position that is perfect for you but your background is not a perfect match. This happens a lot with individuals looking to transition into a new industry, field, or position. What do you do? Well, it depends on how badly you want the position.

• The easy method is you submit your resume and cross your fingers that they just see how your background could tie into what they need, how your skills translate over, etc. Do you think that will be successful?
• We could put a bit more effort and do some research and submit a targeted resume, start researching to find a network contact and see if you can set up a conversation, get some insight and possibly even skip the Applicant Tracking System. This could be more successful, right?
• Or you could do maximum effort (my recommendation) and do your research into your own background, into the industry, into the company, and into the position. Utilize that research to target key players for networking, to build targeted resumes and materials, and to practice and develop targeted statements. Why would this lead to better success?

The more you know about what skills and traits are important to be successful in that position and what the job entails, the better positioned you are to make in-direct connections. Look, what you know and have done, that is an exact match and is a direct connection. It requires no effort from you or the recruiter/hiring manager to look past the obvious. "I need someone who has customer service experience. This individual did customer service representative for 5 years." - Direct Connection. "I need someone to be a Front Desk Representative with 2 years of experience. This resume says they were a Customer Service Representative (CSR)."- Not so obvious, but there is an in-direct connection, it's there, this person could take 5 years of CSR experience and translate it to how it sets them up to be a Front Desk Representative. If the individual included a cover letter and ensured their resume outlined that from their research, "you are looking for a Front Desk Representative that can build relationships with guests, manage conflict, handle money transactions, etc.. I bring 5 years of experience in building relationships, managing conflict through my time as a CSR, where I....." Do you see where I am going with this?

Recruiters and Hiring Managers etc. do not have the time to look past what is obvious to see how your background can be translated to meet their needs. It's one of the reasons why changing careers is hard work. Honestly, job searching itself is HARD WORK and if you're not finding that to be the case you might want to evaluate what you're not doing. I will stand by this, "The more research, effort and translations you make and can convey to the hiring manager/recruiter the better chance of getting the position and them being willing to take a chance on you. Do the work and make the connections.

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