When thinking of the most recent two jobs I’ve had (or currently have), neither had job descriptions. We had verbal discussions about the company or organization’s needs, the time budget, the salary budget, etc. Then we proceeded to craft the position and I accepted the job offer.
However, for this prompt, thinking of the last job I had with a job description, the job description did have a significant level of influence on my decision to apply. It defined work that I wanted to do and had experience doing. It also had the role, title, organization, and level that I was looking for and the job description outlined the skills needed and tasks to be done. The job description was very similar to the day-to-day outcomes that needed to be achieved and the knowledge that I needed to possess to get the work done. In regards to the way our book, Who, presents it, they had nailed the Scorecard part of the A method (p. 15). The outcomes and competencies were clear and the abilities they were seeking aligned with the outcomes.
Yet, the method on how I would accomplish the tasks and achieve the outcomes were different than what I had expected based on the job description. The job description hadn’t explained that I would essentially sit on two teams, which meant two weekly staff meetings, frequent dialogues with two different managers, occasional conflicting priorities and double the amount of informal networks to build. The job description also had not represented the level of attention and public scrutiny that was on the project we were working on, however, I had previous experience with media relations and congressional representatives so I was able to achieve and exceed their desired outcomes.
Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of the job description.
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