Original Image by Gerd Altmann https://pixabay.com/users/geralt-9301/
The primary goal of your resume and cover letter is to get you an interview for the job that you believe will be right for you, at a company that is a mutual good fit – that is you fit their needs and their culture fits your needs.
Let’s look at the structure of a typical job listing. Today’s recruitment software, usually part of any ATS, will guide the hirer when they write their job listing.
Typically, there is some boilerplate – a paragraph about the company at the top, and at the bottom the DEI/A statement, and anything mandated by state law. In CA they are required to show a salary range, and usually there will be some blurb about benefits and eligibility. Sometimes the company description is at the bottom – but it seems to be a recent trend to put it at the top.
- If the paragraph about the company is unique to this job, that’s important to notice. I have told the story before about the job at Pixar for a data entry person – emphatically not an animation or creative job – when they were so keen to discourage hopeful filmmakers that they used a different, and much drier, company description.
Then there should be a summary paragraph about the job itself that will either relate to the job title or startlingly won’t. If it has been well written, this is a place where the top three or four crucial job duties will be discernible, and the management structure will be apparent. That is to say, the person or people to whom you would report, or support will be mentioned. This overview is the first place that the pain points would be hinted at.
Question – are the top functions/duties essentially repeated or are there several different ones? Repetition means focus. Focus might be a pain point.
There are two sections that follow – usually first the Duties or Responsibilities of the position, and then the Qualifications they want.
A well written job description will chunk similar responsibilities together into single bullets. Sometimes, especially government jobs and education, the hirer will indicate a time percentage related to each function and then put sub-bullets. I don’t see a lot of that in entertainment jobs.
Question – do the responsibilities coordinate or refer back to the summary in a cohesive way?
Sometimes the summary is an ongoing statement about the job – maybe from the employee handbook – or expresses the hopes and goals for the position, while the nitty-gritty list of the day-to-day highlights stuff that should get done.
Usually following the duties is the bulleted section of Qualifications, sometimes divided into essential and preferred.
Sometimes this will contain “HR buzz speak” – pretty much more boilerplate, especially for the soft skills. Remember that soft skills by definition can apply to almost every job in a wide range of industries. Other bullets might include specific technology or references to particular workflows and past experience. However, sometimes there will be idiosyncratic phrases mixed in, and sometimes there will be repetition.
Question – do the mentioned qualifications refer directly to particular duties or are they more general?
Count Keywords
Count the repeated keywords of each job listing for two reasons.
- First, to understand exactly what they want, and what is important to them.
- Second, to ensure that it is a job that you actually want, that is right for you or a forward step on your career journey.
Once I have the list of most repeated words, I compare them with the summary paragraph. If there is consistency, then it is easy to tell brief stories – your specific examples – of how you accomplished something similar in the past. If there is inconsistency, that is to say the most repeated verbs/duties are different from the top few as written in the summary, that often signals a pain point, so start your stories with that problem-solve.
Repetition of Functions
I also note the functional groupings. These often give a clearer idea of the true nature of the position, such as whether it has opportunities for creative ideation. Take note of whether there are many uses of leadership or management verbs, or whether all the verbs relate to support.
- I copy the description to a document and then count with the colored highlighter function words and phrases that refer to various functions. Typically I will count Teams/Collaboration, Internal Communication, External Communication, Marketing words/branding, Office/Admin Support tasks, Creative tasks, Supervising others, Financial, Time Management/Deadlines, Technical tasks, and any other broad areas that the listing suggests to me.
The most repeated functions are the most important – a fail in these areas could cause pain. What is the problem that these functions solve?
Emphasis
Unusually strong emphasis of a particular characteristic with extra bullets, repeating a whole phrase in different sections, or adding a descriptor repeatedly, can indicate a pain point.
There are a couple of reasons why this might be so. When a job function seems relatively minor related to the job title, or should realistically only take up a small amount of time in your workday, yet it is mentioned repeatedly, that is likely a sign that this has been a problem in the past.
It could be that the last incumbent did not have these qualities, and it affected job performance and other team members. When a function or series of tasks has been a failure or even just an inconvenience, then it assumes an outsized value and becomes a pain point. The hirer is determined to avoid a similar disaster.
Another reason might be that more than one person has taken a pass at this job description – as may happen when the supervisor in the department writes the duties and summary, but the HR person adds other general content. It might be that the pain point of the needed skills was discussed and each person wanted to be sure it was addressed.
Inconsistency
Another thing to check is whether the responsibilities and duties outlined in the description align with the advertised job title. If the job title is a kind of bait-and-switch, that may be a red flag for you. Unfortunately, this can be prevalent in entertainment industry jobs where the job title suggests a higher level or more responsibilities but on closer inspection it’s an office PA job without real opportunities for promotion. Not that PA’s aren’t vital! They are – but people like to advance and grow their qualifications, which might be why the job title sounded appealing in the first place.
This is all rather generalized, and applies to any job search situation. However, the general problems of inefficiency, time management, or mix ups can happen anywhere including in a studio, network, production company or industry vendor.
Next Steps
Having ascertained that this job seems right for you, and researched the company as thoroughly as you can, the next step is to customize your resume to their priorities with the repeated keywords they use as synonyms for whatever might already be in your document, and to customize your cover letter with examples of past achievements that demonstrate your ability to solve their pain points.
Don’t ignore these clear calls for help when you customize your resume and cover letter. Tie the pain point and you as the solution together and repeat the keywords in several places. Include a specific example – a story about the time when your skill either solved or prevented a problem, and how you used this excellent quality in the past.
Describing the example to illuminate your abilities to solve their unspoken yet visible problems, is very similar to answering Process Questions, that I mentioned in this blog post.
- Express the problem and the negative effect it was having on the company.
- Say the step-by-step that you did to solve it.
- Express the positive results for the company practically and emotionally (eg Supervisor feeling secure and confident).
Conclusion
It’s often imprecise, but usually there is enough information to make reasonable guesses that are something you can build upon in your interview, when you can actually ask them about their needs.
When you go into this interview, there is a good chance that you will hear about the problems from the interviewer. Resist the desire to commiserate about that last fool they had in the job beyond, “That sounds frustrating”, and move on to the time when you solved a similar problem.
My absolute favorite job interview of all time is when C3PO first meets Uncle Owen.