Don't Have Experience They're Looking For?

Dear Liz,

What does one do when all you've had are admin positions, you finish
your education with a B.A and M.S. but employers want X number of
years of experience to be able to qualify for managerial positions.
Now that I am well educated, I seem to lack the experience that
company's want. I feel between a rock and a hard place like getting
an education as an adult was somewhat pointless. Any advice??

Pam

Hi Pam! You have the experience. We just have to
translate what you've done into terms the hiring manager is looking
for (or his or her designated HR screener). They want to see their
own favorite terms on your resume. We can put 'em there! You'll need
to customize your resume for almost every position you apply for.
Here's an example:

Job opening: Manager of a Medical Office

Let's say you don't have any medical experience. That's okay; we know
what these folks care about. They care about confidentiality, careful
handling of patient records, appointment scheduling, billing, and
negotiation with the insurance carriers. Let's say your background is
administrative, mostly in consumer-products companies. We'd write a
cover letter like this:

Dear Amanda,

Congratulations on the addition of Dr. Stephanie Perlmutter to your
physician staff! Dr. Perlmutter brings an impressive background that
should be especially appealing to your patients looking for holistic
healthcare alternatives. [We got the Dr. Perlmutter news from the
practice's website, and we Googled Dr. P. to learn more about her.]

I'm writing to let you know of my interest in the Practice Manager
job opportunity. I've spent the past 12 years running high-volume and
client-focused departments where careful record-keeping and
confidentiality were top priorities. In my current role, I oversee
client records and handle the sometimes thorny negotiations with
vendors. I supervise three staff members, and spend a lot of my time
training and mentoring them through tricky client situations. [We're
drawing every possible parallel between your life in a CPG Marketing
department and the screener's life in a medical office.]

My guess is that you're looking for a stable, process-friendly leader
with great people skills and a calm manner to keep the practice's
office running smoothly and cheerfully, juggling daily fire-fighting
and long-term practice management projects with aplomb. I'd love to
meet at your convenience and brainstorm with you.

Sincerely,

Pam Smith

Then, we'd look for a live person to send the letter to - not
just the "talent@xyzmedicalpractice.com" email address. We'd find
that person via Google or LinkedIn or our own networks, and we'd send
the letter to him or her directly. That should get you an interview.
Then, we'd zero in on how your background in all sorts of non-medical
settings qualifies you beautifully for this physican-practice job. At
that point, the only person who could beat you out for the role would
be someone who's already doing the exact same job - and you might
beat that person anyway (not that we're into a competitive thing, but
we need to face reality) because you're going to bring three or four
killer office-management ideas to the interview with you!

After the interview, you'll send along a pithy follow-up email
message with another fantastic idea that didn't come up at the
interview. That's the approach, in a nutshell. Customize, get inside
the hiring folks' head and talk about their needs as opposed to our
talents. Everyone has talents. Not everyone has anticipated
the "client's" needs and developed solutions for those needs. Cheers -

Liz