Why You Should Build on Merit and Not Qualifications in Your Resume
On this site, we’ve talked about improving your visibility to employers through the use of sites like LinkedIn and reshaping your resume to look unique, but today, I want to talk about boosting the actual points listed on the resume itself. One of the biggest things employers will look at is experience. Experience is what sets your name apart from anyone else’s that is in contention for hire. No two people will have the same level or degree of experience when going for a job or partnership in business and it is important to use that to your advantage. As the job market changes, so do the things employers see as important and I want to dive into a few case studies to illustrate this fact, and how the kind of experience you bring to the table is always important.
Everyone reading this has heard of Google and their revolutionary approach to the workplace whether it be the expensive game rooms, spas, or time dedicating to letting their employees surf during the workday, we have all heard some story of Google changing the way offices are thought of. This approach to work doesn’t end in the office. This approach expands beyond even into their recruiting.
As one of the biggest and most prestigious internet powerhouses one would expect their recruitment to be very strict about qualifications, degrees, and work experience. The truth is, that isn’t always the case over there. An example of this can be seen in their Kaggle competitions. To put them briefly, a Kaggle competition is when a company posts a problem that needs to be solved through machine learning and many programmers will work to solve the problem. The winner is awarded with a monetary prize while the company gets rights to the algorithm written to solve the problem. The big takeaway for the programmer isn’t necessarily the cash prize but rather the prestige with winning or landing in the runners up for these competitions. Doing so boosts their credibility and shows they have the experience to solve professional-grade problems. Many can use these problems and similar competitions as their main sources of income while others use these opportunities to land interviews with more traditional jobs.
The important thing to notice with these competitions is the opportunity involved. As stated before, some start their own businesses using them and others will go on to work at Google or similar companies without having even a degree in their field at times. The reason for this is because they show merit. Merit is something other professionals can see without having to see words like “strong leader” or “highly qualified” on your resume.
In short, look for opportunities whether in your current work place, or online to create this merit in yourself. Often times it doesn’t have to be a large gesture. It could be volunteering to work on a certain project you normally don’t work on, learning a new skill and getting certified in it, or even just helping people in the work place around you. Anything you can bring to an employer or client that helps their business, will help yours in the long run.
Why Merit Is More Important Than Ever
As we move forward in our professional market, we consistently see the inflation of certain traits in the marketplace. For example, education. Before the year 1980, a lot of professional, living wage jobs were attainable with just a high school diploma. Shortly after, the standards switched to requiring a Bachelor’s degree and is still shifting even further to many of these same jobs requiring a Master’s degree. This means that for many people looking for jobs now, they would need to stay in school 6 years longer than their parents for the same job. As the price of school also increases, it becomes obvious that this inflation is not sustainable.
With schooling being important for many industry jobs, it becomes important to truly weigh the kind of career path one wants to take because of the overall investment of time and money it takes to obtain said schooling. This is why entrepreneurship is so attractive to many today. The investment is not so much on schooling, it is placed on the self and learning applicable skills through experience and business. Luckily a lot of companies are starting to work on the same principle. Large companies like Apple, Google, and many others have publicly relaxed their degree requirements in recent years so there is no need to fear if you cannot afford higher education. There is always more than one situation to every problem and it is important to keep your mind open to this. The professional market is in the midst of a huge change and to be at the front of this wave, you must think outside the box and prove your worth. Just having a degree will not cut it in 2020.
There are tons of resources online that you can use to help improve your resume from free templates to comparing yours to others in your field on sites such as LinkedIn. There are also professionals who will rate and edit your resume for you with little charge, helping you gain perspective to where your experience and accolades rank with others. Lastly, Blue Sky has a guide that lists all that I talked about above and more if you really want to improve your resume even further. Find the discounted link here
This was such a powerful portray of how resume’s should be organized nowadays. Back when I did my first resume when I was in college I never really put so much effort on increasing my merits block. I was told that the most important thing was the qualifications section. It has all changed so drastically in such a short amount of time, but I can definitely see why merits are a little more outstanding than what other people can see in you. This was such an eye opener for me and I’m pretty sure it has been for so many people as well.
It’s definitely contrary to what we are taught going into the professional world but once we are there, I think most people would start to agree with it. The value of certain qualifications is starting to become inflated and it is not sustainable
There are many diploma holders who are still unemployed. Diploma is not really a guarantee. I knew a lot of friends who struggle to land on a job. It’s about what an applicant is capable of doing and what he/ she can contribute to the field that really matters. Experience to the job you are applying for is an advantage but other related experiences and skills are also taken into consideration.
Another problem is that people sometimes do not know how to sell themselves. I also knew people who are skilled enough, they just do not know how to put it in their resume. Your post is a big help.
Selling yourself is the biggest part of getting a job I think. A lot of marketing goes into getting a position because at the end of the day, you’re convincing someone to invest in you