The Mystery of Marketability: Do You Have a Clue How Competitive You Are?

To plan successful career paths, people need data, choices, science, and contacts. In my last post, I discussed the specific need for career insights to help people understand their options and choose the career path that fits them best. But after they've chosen their career path, they need to understand how to take the best first step to start that journey. They need to know how marketable they are right now and what roles or positions best fit their current skills and experience. They need to understand all the choices available to them — the most common steps people in their situation take and alternative options that will also help them reach their goal.

Matching skills with employer needs can be difficult. Facing job descriptions that lack taxonomy, consistency, and clarity, job seekers are left alone to decipher what it is an employer is actually looking for. Many employers aim high and ask for hefty qualifications, so job seekers must read between the lines and compare their resumes to the requested qualifications to determine if they’re viable candidates.  

Furthermore, for people who are employed but open to new opportunities, it can be difficult to assess and maintain their marketability. In addition to the responsibilities of their current job, they must juggle the task of keeping their skills and education up to date and knowing the gaps they need to fill.

No one finds it easy to determine their career marketability, and this is having a very negative impact on job searching today — for candidates and employers. A recent survey shows that 59 percent of HR professionals reported some level of basic skills deficit in job applicants over the last year, and 89 percent reported a deficit in applied skills.

What are we missing here?

Many attribute these statistics to a skills gap. I believe it’s more likely the result of job seekers not having the tools they need to accurately assess their qualifications and accurately determine how marketable they are. Like ships in the night, job seekers and employers are missing each other. But it’s not because of a lack of skills. It’s because of a lack of information. This is the true gap. The good news is we have the tools to bridge it.

The bad news is that much of the current advice on marketability falls short of empowering people to find the roles that are right for them. This advice usually consists of having the job seeker ask themselves a series of yes-or-no questions:

●     Do I have the education I need?

●     Do I have the skills I need?

●     Do I know my industry well?

●     Do I have a strong network?

The problem with this advice is two-fold. First, asking job seekers to assess and gauge their skills, experience, and connections is the equivalent of self-diagnosing a major medical problem, potentially with the help of WebMD (and we all know how scary that can be). Though self-assessment might point them in the right direction, these yes-or-no questions provide only limited certainty, and can be subjective.

To be able to fully understand where they stand and what kinds of opportunities are available to them right now, people must be able to get accurate information and expert opinions that are tailored, strategic, and comprehensive.

The second, and most important, problem with the advice above is simple: With the amount of data and level of technology we have today, we should be able to provide job seekers with the information and analysis they need to understand their marketability and make confident, successful next steps in their careers.

So, why aren’t we doing that?

The online job search has opened so many doors, but open doors mean nothing if people don’t know which ones to walk through. Job seekers are experiencing opportunity overload without the analytics to make those opportunities work.

It’s time to usher in the next phase of online job search with technology that doesn’t just put old methods on the internet, but changes the very nature of how job seekers make decisions, pursue opportunities, and approach their careers. It’s time to do away with guessing games. It’s time to give people the tools they need to accurately evaluate, appraise, and chart their marketability for a variety of roles.

Imagine the power this would give people. They would be able to pursue their next steps with confidence and success — no more wasted time on jobs that aren’t the right fit or professional development they didn’t need. Job seekers have been stalled out and blocked by the many hurdles on their career path for too long. I believe that solving the marketability problem will give job seekers the jump-start they need to begin progressing down their chosen career path and making their dreams a reality.

At randrr, our goal is to empower people to make great decisions about their careers. We are doing this by creating a career insights platform that will allow users to get an objective appraisal of their qualifications, see how they really stack up against the competition, and find the roles in which they’re equipped to succeed today. The days of the mystery of marketability are coming to an end.

About randrr

Great careers require good decisions. randrr is the career insights platform everyone can use to make smart career choices. With randrr, all the information anyone needs to enhance their career is now in one place. Our platform helps people know their marketability, where they stand in the job search process, and protects their personal privacy. randrr even helps people discover jobs and career paths that lead to their dream jobs. randrr puts the information needs of people — not recruiters or companies — first.