{"id":298,"date":"2012-02-10T15:09:17","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T20:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/?p=298"},"modified":"2012-02-10T15:09:17","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T20:09:17","slug":"i-can-haz-mad-communication-skillz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/i-can-haz-mad-communication-skillz\/298","title":{"rendered":"I can haz mad communication skillz&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you say you have excellent communication skills, you\u2019re demonstrating that you don\u2019t. Communication skills are self evident, not self described.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/i-can-haz-cat.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-299\" title=\"I can haz mad communication skills\" src=\"http:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/i-can-haz-cat-300x221.jpg\" alt=\"I can haz cat\" width=\"300\" height=\"221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/i-can-haz-cat-300x221.jpg 300w, https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/i-can-haz-cat.jpg 507w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yet many hiring managers persistently write \u201cstrong communication skills\u201d as a requirement in job descriptions. Sadly, savvy job hunters must include the vile term \u201cexcellent communication skills\u201d in their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s\u00a0&#8230;or risk being rejected by an automated r\u00e9sum\u00e9\u00a0keyword scanner.<\/p>\n<p>The automated r\u00e9sum\u00e9\u00a0keyword scanner is a nasty robot that scans your r\u00e9sum\u00e9\u00a0before humans get a chance to review it. If your r\u00e9sum\u00e9 fails to\u00a0include all the requirements in the posted job description, you&#8217;ll get an automated rejection letter. A human being who has the power to hire you may never even see your\u00a0r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, in order to prove that you possess excellent communication skills, your r\u00e9sum\u00e9\u00a0must demonstrate poor written communication skills. Blind to the finer nuances of communication (sentence structure, word choice, posture, tone of voice, etc.), an adroitly programmed robot will systematically reject the most exceptional candidates.<\/p>\n<p>How Orwellian and twisted has job hunting become in 2012? And how might an excellent communicator get around the robot?<\/p>\n<p>The fault lies squarely with hiring managers. Why put &#8220;excellent communication skills&#8221; in a job description at all? It&#8217;s not like &#8220;an absence of communication skills&#8221; would ever be desirable. And when HR departments use robots to eliminate people, don&#8217;t be surprised when\u00a0r\u00e9sum\u00e9s include spammy, meta keyword-loaded sections titled &#8220;FOR AUTOMATED KEYWORD SCANNING ROBOTS ONLY&#8221;. You asked for it!<\/p>\n<p>After all, &#8216;audience identification &amp; analysis&#8217; is one of the first tasks a skilled communicator will perform!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you say you have excellent communication skills, you\u2019re demonstrating that you don\u2019t. Communication skills are self evident, not self described. Yet many hiring managers persistently write \u201cstrong communication skills\u201d as a requirement in job descriptions. Sadly, savvy job hunters must include the vile term \u201cexcellent communication skills\u201d in their r\u00e9sum\u00e9s\u00a0&#8230;or risk being rejected by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fun","category-presentation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}