{Guest post-er Joe Flood is back to share with us some amazing insightful, and maybe a little hard to accept, job-hunting advice.}

You’re fabulous – everyone knows that. But when looking for a job, your unique qualifications and experience don’t matter. What’s important is what the market (employers) are seeking.

Hiring managers may think to themselves, “We need another Mary,” meaning a go-getter who’s not afraid to call crusty old reporters. Or they have heard of this new thing called social media and want someone who knows the Twitter. Employers may have an annoyingly specific set of job requirements or a vague sense of what they’re looking for.

How do you match up with what they are seeking? You must meet the needs of the market.

For example, I think of myself as a writer. I’ve written a book, screenplays, articles and tons of web content. Is this important? To me, very. To the job market, somewhat. It’s nice that I can write but there are a lot of writers out there.

What’s more important is that I know HTML and web content management systems, have experience in the day to day management of government web sites, and can talk tech with IT staff. There’s demand for people
with this mix of technical and people skills.

When I was starting out in this field, my resume was focused on the stuff that I wrote. Managing web projects and my technical knowledge were skills I didn’t think were that important. Managing projects successfully seemed like common sense to me (be organized, set deadlines) and doesn’t everyone know Photoshop?

After checking out the positions that I was interested in on Monster, I changed my resume, highlighting my project management experience and adding a section at the end on technical skills. Those were skills
that the market was seeking.

My advice is to help potential employers find you by adapting your resume to the needs of the market. Research on Monster to find jobs that you’re interested in. See how they’re described, what they list as requirements. If you have those skills, highlight them on your resume. Don’t assume that an HR person will be able to deduce that you match the job requirements – use the same keywords and phrases in the job listing, if you have the experience. Make it easy for an employer to scan down your resume and find the terms they use when describing the job.

The bottom line: it’s not about you. It’s about meeting the needs of the people who want to give you a job.

Joe Flood is a writer, photographer and web person. He’s written articles, short stories, an award-winning screenplay and recently published his first novel, Murder in Ocean Hall. Learn more at joeflood.com.