I am known for being vocal when something gets to me, and the shipping press is no different. The last few months I have been reading survey after survey talking about the future of shipping and the skills that will be sought after by companies ten years from now.
Guess what? Go to an interview for a job in shipping exhibiting soft skills, more than you exhibit enthusiasm, conviction, determination, and I guarantee you, you will be labelled as “too soft” for the job, says an article published on splash247 website.
Be yourself
The same recruiters who will publish surveys talking about the skillsets managers in shipping will need in the next decade, i.e. transition from core skills to soft skills (empathy, cross-cultural communication, emotional intelligence etc.) are the same recruiters who will pass on your CV if it includes too much of the above and doesn’t smell of the good old “fake it till you make it” blah blah blah.
The buzzwords, that will get your CV through the text mining software and hopefully on an employers desk. I did not have it easy getting into shipping, connections and on the job experience will beat academic qualifications and luck every single time.
Be yourself. Don’t let your CV be a copy-paste of another 100,000 candidates
Recruitment process in shipping
The very recruitment process in shipping that is followed today, and recruiters have a lot of responsibility here, will advise you to follow the prescribed approach, the traditional approach.
“Make your CV stand out”, “highlight your achievements” i.e. use the standard recipe, but not a single one will advise you to try and highlight your soft skills, be it communication, cross cultural experience, empathy. The whole process is rigged to make you present yourself as the outdated “excellent candidate” who ticks all the boxes, but has very little to do with all the soft skills they are preaching about , which apparently will be in demand in shipping in the next 10 years.
Don’t be afraid to showcase who you are
In shipping, we say “characters make shipping guys”, and there is a good reason for it. So many people got their first job in shipping for all the wrong reasons. Drunk Old Shipbroker in London sits at the bar in the pub and randomly starts talking to a young chap next to him.
After a few pints too many at the end of the evening the broker invites the young chap to stop by their office the next day for an interview. I was working in Denmark a few years back, and it was time to select the next bunch of trainees who would be doing their practicum with the company.
Chartering director, fitness freak. Scrolls through CVs and just observes one guy has Ironman listed on his extracurricular activities. “Hey this guy is doing Ironman, cool! Let’s invite him.” Famous last words. The young chap is now business development director in the US for a top five global forwarder.
Just be yourself
Last but not least, and I know a few Greek folks might be reading this. It was during my Master’s year in London Metropolitan University. The lecturers would often invite people from the industry to give us talks and insights. One day, they invited Harry Vafias, who was also an ex-graduate of the university to talk to us. I don’t remember the whole talk, but I do remember him saying the following when closing his speech:
“Keep focused, make contacts, and just be yourselves and you will find your way.” A classmate of mine did respond to him at the time, and said: “Yes, but if I go to Company X as Mr Nobody, they will not listen to me and will ignore me.”
It was a fair point, and at the time I was on the one hand inspired by the words of Harry, a young Greek shipowner who made it big, but on the other hand I could totally identify with my classmate, as I too was looking for a job. Now, almost 16 years from that day, I understand exactly what Harry meant by saying “Just be yourself”.
Being genuine
If recruiters preach in their surveys about soft skills being the future of shipping, they should then also encourage candidates to promote the most important soft skill of all which is being genuine; and not push young candidates towards what I call the photocopy syndrome.
Don’t encourage 22-year-olds to write that they were someone big and important at school or that they were captain of their football team at university. Don’t encourage young candidates to exaggerate, so the end product (i.e. their CV) is presentable enough to fit a norm.
Your unique life, hobbies, character is what will help you stand out, not a CV that looks identical to the next guy or girl’s. Just be yourself and have a little faith in the process. The universe works in mysterious ways, and it works wonders.
Summary
- Go to an interview for a job in shipping exhibiting soft skills, more than you exhibit enthusiasm, conviction, determination, and I guarantee you, you will be labelled as “too soft” for the job.
- Be yourself. Don’t let your CV be a copy-paste of another 100,000 candidates.
- If recruiters preach in their surveys about soft skills being the future of shipping, they should then also encourage candidates to promote the most important soft skill of all which is being genuine.
- Just be yourself and have a little faith in the process. The universe works in mysterious ways, and it works wonders.
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Source: splash247.com
To make a resume work for you, you first need to work for it. Your chances of getting the long-awaited job depend on how correctly it is compiled. And under no circumstances should you lie on your resume; there is an excellent article on this topic here https://www.gotresumebuilder.com/career-advice/is-it-illegal-to-lie-on-a-resume-the-legality-of-resume-lies-in-2023