In the almost 30 years that I have advised MIIS students and alumni one key piece of advice stands out which is to think like an employer. As your application for an internship or job must match an employer’s needs to be seriously considered for a position, you will have to know what the employer wants to get hired. So many MIIS students look at the job search as a process of finding employers who match their skillset. That thinking can be a critical mistake as most employers have spent hours narrowing down what they are looking for in candidates and if your documents do not reflect their needs, your applications will quickly go into the “no” pile. So, how do you customize yourself to employer needs?
First of all, look carefully at the internship or job description. Usually, there is a qualifications section that enumerates the specific skills, knowledges and abilities (SKAs) that an employer team has spent hours editing to get the talent list right. You must show in your cover letter, resume and interviews that you have the required set of SKAs and that you have a significant portion of the “preferred” SKAs. The logical task in front of you is to analyze the description and prioritize the SKAs by what seems to be the priority order of the employer. In many cases, those SKAs mentioned first are the most important. Next, analyze your background to connect your experience and training to the top 10-15 SKAs. Lastly, customize your cover letter and resume to reflect that your background is front and center related to the top employer SKAs. Your cover letter is the teaser of top 3-5 skills described which leads to the desire to read more details in your resume.
As you enumerate your SKAs to the employer in both documents, use the same words the employer uses to describe your skillset. The more words of theirs you use, the more familiar sounding you are to employers. This process allows you to think like the employers, sound like the employers and create that required match employers are looking for in their applicants. When they see a match, your application goes into their “yes” pile.
One thing to remember is that a description is written with the ideal candidate in mind. Does the ideal candidate exist out here? The answer is that employers rarely find the perfect candidate for their openings. They usually find a small collection of applicants have most or many of the SKAs they seek. Through sifting through cover letters, resumes and conducting countless interviews, they eventually choose the one candidate who has the most SKAs listed with the best personality fit for the organization. They also hire the best fit who is usually not the perfect fit.
Hopefully, the above advice will get you started thinking like an employer which will spill over to writing and interviewing like an “employer empowered” applicant. Good luck!
– Jeff Wood
Career & Academic Adviser
jwood@miis.edu