by Rich Lemert » Wed Jun 29, 2005 5:33 pm
Nora
The only times I've ever seen someone who is an exact fit to a job description is when that description has been written with a specific individual in mind, or when the description has been written so broadly that almost no one is excluded - in which case it's next to worthless. At any other time the description represents the hiring manager's "wish list". Most hiring managers understand that they will probably not get what they want, and are trying to find someone with as many of the skills/experiences as they can.
One thing managers are notoriously poor about, though, is intuitively understanding how your skills can be put to use in their situation. It's not that they're incapable of understanding this, though, but rather the fact that they don't have time to try to understand your work (if they're not familiar with the topic) on top of all their other responsibilities. Thus, the burden of explaining how your experience is relevent falls upon your shoulders.
Let's say, for example, that you are really interested in applying for a cancer/oncology position. I'd skim through a few journals related to the topic, and look for work that was similar to what you've done. Maybe someone is using an animal model or tissue strain that you've used for a different purpose. You can highlight this fact in your cover letter. ("I've determined using strain xyz, a strain recently used by to
Also, take advantage of any informational interview opportunities to find out which of your skills would be valued by your target employers. When you're finding out how your contact as XYZ got into his current role, you can say something like "I've worked with xxx doing xyz; which skills that I picked up doing this would be of value in this type of position/for this company?"