The process of looking for a job can be obtuse. You might feel the need for a genius like the one Benedict Cumberbatch plays in “The Imitation Game,” which is about breaking the Nazis’ enigma code in order to win World War II.
The job market has a language all of its own. Unless you become familiar with its idioms, you’ll likely open yourself to a considerable amount of unnecessary frustration. Often, the combination of a job seeker’s curiosity and desperation can lead to inaccurate assessments.
Here are four everyday examples of job market code and how to decipher them:
Code 1: You are working away at your desk, and a recruiter calls with this message: “I’m reaching out to you because you are known to be an expert in your field. I’m conducting a search for a [fill in the name of your role], and I’m inviting you to nominate anyone you think we should be considering.”
Deciphered: The recruiter probably wants you to nominate yourself for consideration. Rather than coming out and saying so, he will couch his language in such a way that the conversation can keep going even if you aren’t interested in the role for yourself.
Code 2: You will find in practically every job description something about the number of years of experience required.
Deciphered: You will likely never see an ad that says, “this job is great for a 20-something,” because, of course, it’s illegal for employers to discriminate by age. Still, many jobs are appropriate for people at a given point in their career trajectory, and by putting that in terms of years of experience, employers convey the seniority level associated with a given position. Moreover, the years of experience required for a job often correlate to a rough compensation level.
With this in mind, you don’t need to assume that the years of experience are so limited that if you are narrowly out of range you shouldn’t apply or won’t be considered. Simply understand that employers aren’t likely to place a very junior individual into a role that indeed requires the knowledge and sophistication that only can come from experience. And in a similar fashion, employers have legitimate reasons for not putting someone with 30 years of experience into a much more junior position.
Code 3: Interviewers recognize that their questions must sometimes be oblique in order to obtain the information they seek. For example, they might ask a candidate’s reference or the candidate directly: “If so-and-so were to stay at his/her/your current employer, what would need to happen in order to progress to the next level up?”
Deciphered: This is a round-about way of determining a person’s weakness or an area that needs improvement. Depending on the circumstance, one can steer the answer away from the individual and back to the workplace with something like, “Of course, that is a mute question since the entire department has been outsourced,” or “that spot has been earmarked for the business owner’s new son-in-law.” However, failing some external reality, the answer provided is likely to be the real answer to the stale, overworked question: “Tell me about your greatest weakness.”
Code 4: One way many candidates get tripped up is at the end of an interview when they are asked: ” Do you have any questions for me?”
Deciphered: It’s easy to take this question on its face and ask things about salary, benefits, the nature of the rest of the hiring process and so on. But what is going on is still very much a part of the interview. The questions the employer really wants you to ask are things that will show how well you understand the nature of the role and alternative ways of your being successful in it.
It all comes down to reflecting not just on the words employers use, but also the underlying message they convey. When you take the time to figure that out, you’ll become a much more sophisticated job seeker. Then you will be able to talk the talk you needed in order for you to walk the walk toward your next full-time role.
Happy hunting!
Arnie Fertig, MPA, is passionate about helping his Jobhuntercoach clients advance their careers by transforming frantic “I’ll apply to anything” searches into focused hunts for “great fit” opportunities. He brings to each client the extensive knowledge he gained when working in HR staffing and managing his boutique recruiting firm.
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How to Break 4 Enigma Codes of the Job Market originally appeared on usnews.com
