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Skills-based hiring as a concept has become much more popular in recent years, with many employers (especially tech employers) advocating for the practice. But what does it actually entail? I know that when I first heard the term, I thought “…Aren’t most people hired on the basis of their skills?” And the answer is “sort of.”
When you write your resume, you may put under the education section that you’ve acquired a BS in Computer Science, with a specialization in software engineering. It’s a standard entry in a tech resume, but how informative is it really? Skills-based hiring asks candidates to answer the question, “But what can you actually do?” A resume tailored to a company that uses skills-based hiring practices may mention that, while acquiring your degree, you’ve worked in Python, C, C++, JavaScript, SQL, and Bash. A hiring manager can then look at your resume and know if you already know how to code in the languages they primarily use. Your resume will certainly look more attractive to a company that knows it doesn’t need to train you on the most basic aspects of the job. This is one of the benefits of skills-based hiring, as opposed to hiring that’s based on experience or education.
Of course, experience and education are also great indicators of whether or not someone will be a good fit for a job: if you’ve held an internship in a position similar to the one you’re applying for, that will certainly grab a hiring manager’s attention. But it’s the specifics that are inherent to skills-based hiring that are drawing folks to it. Working at a software company that primarily uses R and SQL and working at one that works primarily in Python and C++ are inherently different experiences. In addition, a skills-based resume gives you the chance to show off not only all the skills you know, but also how you’re a person who’s always looking for new skills to adopt and hone. This is something that you’d do well to discuss during the interview process as well, as it will be well-received. Speaking of interviewing, skills-based hiring processes can often involve skills assessments—whether that’s troubleshooting a coding issue or putting together a deck based on provided mock information.
Skills-based hiring doesn’t need to be specific to the tech field, either. It’s an easy field to implement the practice because most of the necessary skills are hard technical skills that are easily quantified on a resume. But soft skills certainly have a place on your resume, especially if you can quantify them. For example, “communication” is one of the most important job skills that you can have—but how do you demonstrate it? One way would be to highlight projects that required you to be a good communicator, like creating a monthly newsletter to go out to your team to update them on how projects are progressing or giving a presentation to your colleagues on a new topic in the industry. There are opportunities for everyone to showcase their skills on their resumes and during the hiring process, even if your skills aren’t listed so easily as things like programming languages.
So what is skills-based hiring, really? It’s a way for you to demonstrate that you specifically are a good candidate for the position you’re applying for. Lots of people have degrees, and while they’re often mandatory for positions, it’s easy for your resume to get lost when it’s being compared to a slew of people with similar education qualifications. Skills-based hiring allows employers to explore a wider, more diverse pool of candidates for their open positions, and allows job-seekers to show what makes them unique in the candidate pool.
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