Hiring professionals need to look beyond their go-to talent pools and start looking more closely at the skills a job seeker brings to an interview, according to Wendi Safstrom, president, SHRM Foundation.

WorkingNation sat down with Safstrom at SHRM 2022 Annual Conference & Expo in New Orleans.

“We’re working with HR professionals to change their model a little bit. When they’re reading resumes or they’re writing job descriptions, or even the questions they ask of a candidate to be more focused on life experience, the kinds of technical and soft skills that they bring to the workforce – as opposed to tell me about yourself, where’d you go to college, and tell me about all this experience you may or may not have had.”

Safstrom suggests that job candidates be able to articulate their life experience. “Practice, practice, telling your story. Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone can take their own personal story and apply it to that position or that job that they’re looking for. Make sure that you’re comfortable telling your story and relate it to the job that you’re interviewing for at the time.”

Learn more about SHRM Foundation.