One thing I would say…if I had someone answered your question, Shonali, by saying “no, I probably don’t have all the necesary skills, but I am a hard worker and I pick things up fast,” they’d have my attention. If they could give me an example validated by references, well, I just might consider them depending on the competition. At the very least, I’d respect him/her.

When I used to interview folks (and I guess I still do, in a way, when I work with subcontractors), one of the questions I always asked was, “Do you understand what skills this job requires, and do you have them?” It’s one thing to see the job description, but it’s quite another to actually understand and put that in the context of one’s own experience and skill set.

When I was at the ASPCA, for example, I had a ton – a TON – of people who’d come in to interview for positions in my department (Media & Communications) and try to sell me on their “passion for animals.” Inside, I’d be going, “Really? That’s it?” Because passion for animals is all very well – after all, that was one of the reasons I was there too – but if they din’t have the skills to perform media relations, or do a ton of writing on a regular basis while maintaining high quality (say, for one of our editorial positions), what good would that passion be? It was amazing how many people thought they were qualified simply on the basis of their passion.

Passion’s wonderful, but skills are more important.

One of my former colleagues at Applebee’s and I used to do Intranet training. We always talked about how the successful community managers were the ones who cared and wanted to learn how the technology works, how it could best benefit their teams. How people go about problem solving, especially in unfamiliar territory, is a very important attribute to consider.