Find A Job, Or Change Industries, By Stressing Competencies Instead of Skills, Expert Says

Since companies frequently receive hundreds of resumes for each job posting, Bob Podgorski, an employment expert, advised job-seekers to stress what he called competencies rather than just recite the skills they performed in their previous jobs.

About 25 people came to the Niles Library Wednesday to hear Podgorski discuss "Competencies Vs. Skills" and demonstrate how to weave example of competencies, which are more in-depth and more transferable than skills, into their resumes to attract employers' interest.

Earlier:

"We have  an ability to tell an employer how we do things, and the extent to which we do them. That helps a company differentiate between one candidate and another," said Podgorski, who has 35 years of experience in human resources and coordinates the St. Hubert Job and Networking Ministry, a resource for job seekers.

What makes competencies different

Podgorski defined skills as specific abilities people use in a job, such as working with Microsoft Word; or functional proficiencies, such as operating a cash register, or the hand-mind coordination needed to produce a craft.

Competencies are more cognitive, and may involve problem-solving, adapting to new situations or synthesizing information from disparate sources to perceive trends.

Even though job-seekers know every company is different, they have a tendency, on their resumes and in interviews, to tell interviewers the skills they performed in their last job. Instead, Podgorski said, they need to highlight the competencies, or the broader cognitive abilities they developed and used, which they would apply in the new job. They also show the prospective employer how adaptable the job seeker is.

"We need to talk about how we’ve done something, such as managing  perceptions or setting priorities," he explained. "Managers want to know you’ll be able to connect in a changing environment."

Be Jessie, not Todd

To illustrate, he gave the examples of two employees who work in customer service. Todd works on the phone, taking customers' complaints, writing them up and referring them along. Jessie works face to face with customers and has some authority to resolve problems and keep customers happy.

While Todd uses only the most basic skills of listening, keyboarding and referral, Jessie has several competencies to list on his resume: Interpreting (what has customers upset), communicating (reassuring them he'll resolve the problem), interpersonal transactions (using voice, words and body language to calm people), dealing with ambiguity (he never knows what situations will arise), business acumen (keeping people happy with his company) and action orientation (he aims to solve problems).

Jessie would have a lot more competencies to tell a prospective employer during an interview, Podgorski noted, and that's exactly what he should talk about.

"When you talk about these competencies, you’re starting to tell an employer what value you would bring to their organization," he explained.

List competencies and skills on resume

Job seekers ought to sprinkle their competencies throughout their resumes along with their skills, Podgorski advised.

He gave a few examples of competencies to mention, and what to highlight:

• Strategic perspective. Companies want employees to understand the role they play in achieving the company's results.
• Agility.  The ability to think on your feet, or handle a crisis and turn it around into a value-added situation. 
• Dealing with ambiguity. If you get an assignment, but you don’t have all the facts to carry it out, you must be able to think it through based on the information you have.
• Drive for results. Tell the employer how you got to the company’s desired outcome. For example, “In customer service, I kept customers happy and we know it’s easier to keep customers than find new ones.”
• Building effective teams. Show how you supported others to do their work.
• Create vision. Management may have its vision, but employees can have their own vision of how to best fulfill their roles.
• Collaboration. Talk about how you collaborated with a customer, or supplier, and achieved a productive outcome.

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