Research Before you Write
Dominique Koukol

Before writing a resume, there is a lot to “take stock” of. You need to know what your preferences, strengths and skills are. You need to know the kind of company culture you want to work in.  Once you have a good idea of these factors, it is time to understand well the requirements of the job. It’s not as obvious as it seems, so read on for some enlightening information. 

In taking stock of a job, the required skills must be closely considered. There are two kinds of skills needed for most jobs; some are technical skills and some are behavioral skills. The technical skills are the skills that involve concrete, often measurable actions…. They often sound like this on a job description:  ATP – Airplane Multiengine Land; “Types 65 words per minute”; “Advanced user of Microsoft Access”; “Working knowledge of consultative sales skills”; “Knowledge of pre-fabricated splinting”. 

Behavioral skills are a little trickier to identify than technical skills. Companies value these skills highly. They value them so much so that they will spend thousands of dollars contracting someone like me to teach them how to accurately assess these attributes in a 30 minute interview. If they are willing to spend this kind of loot to get it right, we’d better pay close attention to it in our resumes and cover letters.  

Behavioral skills are those “soft skills” that not only get you hired, they get you promoted. They also show up in job descriptions. They usually are mixed in with the technical competencies or may have a section of their own. Behavioral skills look like this on a job description: 

“Demonstrates decisiveness”; “High energy sales professional”; “Able to manage complex, cross-functional teams”; “Results driven”; “Able to thrive in high pressure situations”.   

Interview-Winning Resume Side Note: If you are a savvy job seeker, you will take note of these phrases in job descriptions and even research further to the specific company’s web site, where you will find loads more of them in the description of the company and their products and services and work force. I also look at a variety of job postings across the company. Often I will find the same phrases repeated across positions. This indicates it is a behavioral attribute the company values. Now you are hitting “gold”, because you are gathering insight into the values of the organization, and that translates to “candidate and company fit”, which now begins to separate the sheep from the goats on that resume pile in front of the hiring manager. It’s a sure-fire bet they will start looking for these preferences up front with your cover letter and resume. The ones who have the right skills and also match the company culture and values well are the ones that stand out.