Are Hard Skills a Bit Old Hat?
I remember making it to the final interview for an Instructional Designer role last year and feeling hopeful. It was a company that partnered with university faculty to help them align classroom content to learning outcomes online. The company branded themselves as having their own system of learning, one that could not be found elsewhere, to engage students. I was excited. I had designed online courses for Learning Management Systems (LMS), I had more than ample time aligning courses to outcomes, and I had spent the past 15 years finding ways to excite students from all majors in classrooms.
Long story short, I did not get the position. As standard practice, I like to ask for feedback from recruiters and hiring managers. I see interviewing as an opportunity to learn and strengthen future applications. In this instance, the recruiter responded, “We decided to go with a candidate who could hit the ground running.” Knowing they had a proprietary system in place that everyone would be trained to proficiency, this left me with some questions. After failing to secure other Instructional Designer opportunities, a serious look at my applications, along with consulting other Instructional Designers, began to show that perhaps my proficiency in software traditionally used across e-learning, such as Captivate and Articulate was lacking. However, the question remained, is this why I was passed up for this role? Was it something else? Naturally, this question can not be answered. The internet is not short of articles telling me not to blame myself. As we all know, applying for jobs can be like wishing for a Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Nobody ever goes in, and no real feedback ever comes out. (Although truthfully, I have received ample genuine feedback over the past year, and for that I am grateful).
I will continue to upskill, assess how I can become a stronger candidate, and remain a life-long learner. These are values and a frame of mind I will bring to any future employer.
If I could have a word with Hiring Managers…
Forget about hard skills. They’re teachable. You’re teaching them anyway. Don’t allow them to be the penultimate concern when screening candidates. They can be learned. What an opportunity organizations have to train and help employees upskill themselves! It is my position within the context of this piece, that to only hire candidates who “can hit the ground running” is absolutely shortsighted.
When I began to build my YouTube channel “Politicook”, I began searching for free editing software and discovered DaVinci Resolve. This program combines editing, color correction, visual effects, motion graphics and audio post production into one platform. It is my understanding that Blackmagic Design, which acquired DaVinci Resolve in 2009, is a hardware company that has a paywall most of us will never reach. Therefore it remains a hardware company that offers really powerful software for free as a strategy to guide you to their products. Although I had moderate exposure to video editing software prior to DaVinci Resolve, and I still have so much left to learn, this was new software for me. In a matter of days I had my first episode edited and posted. It was not perfect and I relied on feedback from others, but it was an absolute strong start. In this same way, countless candidates have soft skills that far outweigh their ability to do that one advanced thing they have yet to master on whatever fill-in-the-blank program Hiring Managers require.
Ph.D. graduates are taught, by nature of completing their Ph.D. programs, to persist, to handle competing requests, to deliver multiple projects at once, and to make a clear impact. Even though I was fortunate to have advisement that saw the potential of me and my work long before I did, the very design of a Ph.D. program is to force students to figure out how to research independently. In this respect, they navigate academic departments and archives, learn field specific conversations, and how to manage time. Additionally, there is always a moment in each semester when Ph.D. candidates and professors are taught to work at a level that would leave others confounded — grading papers, submitting conference proposals, submitting article drafts, prepping for committee meetings, teaching classes, and advising students — as deadlines often fall within the span of one week. After so many of us have experienced so much of this, it’s difficult to know how to process hearing a phrase like “We decided to go with a candidate who could hit the ground running.”
Food meets words
This week I made a new recipe: Dal Palak. This recipe is known as Indian comfort food and was submitted to The Immigrant Cookbook by Hari Nayak, chef, cookbook author, and restauranteur. This recipe wasn’t technically challenging, but it was new, unfamiliar, and made with ingredients that, as a resident of Southeastern Pennsylvania, I did not grow up with. Following this recipe is akin to learning a new skill on the job. It was in my reach of learning, I was introduced to taxonomy and pronunciation (still learning this + I am told this can be regional), and I saw how new ingredients work together. I know what comfort food looks like in Lancaster, PA and this recipe worked to expand my understanding of this, broadly. Like learning a new skill on the job or for a job, making this dish was a new skill. If I can follow a recipe based on my past kitchen experiences, my eagerness to try something new, and my ability to research, there’s a good chance I’ll succeed at making this dish.
To candidates searching…
Breathe, protect your resilient demeanor, and continue to communicate well. Continue to engage with your world in ways that exercise your soft skills, as they need to remain fresh and nimble. Try not to let the pressures of our world distract from what you are really good at doing. As you continue to expand your proficiencies, go easy on yourself. We all have so much to offer. Knowing and believing that is well over half the battle.
I realize the phrase “old hat” sounds antiquated enough that one would expect it to be reintroduced to the public through a Biden speech over the misguided values of the Whig party (or something like that), as we all check our calendars to see what year it is. We need to remember that only recently has there been a growing push to emphasize soft skills. In this respect, hard skills are in no way “old hat,” but they are teachable. Upskill as you are able. Only you know which hard skills future employers need to see as a requisite for an interview.
When in doubt, as you begin to wonder whether you will ever be a fit for a future employer, remember what my grandmother once said: “There’s a lid for every pot.”
Check out the Politicook episode here.
