Industry-Specific Acronyms and Jargon Matters: You will need more than a book to Learn the Industry Specific Jargon

. RSS

Why write this book? Working with hundreds of people in creating their LinkedIn profiles, resumes, networking, and job search skills and trying to find the job posting that their skills and past job titles fit were experiences that showed clearly that words mattered and were often the source of perceived problems.  The search doesn’t always take you to what you’re looking for.

Warren Buffet said, "Bad terminology is the enemy of good thinking."

Industry-Specific Acronyms are often the result of creating words that don’t have much to do with job descriptions. They may have been created to expand or dilute the description for the company’s own reasons.

The job description is more important than the titles to find career matches. On the other side of the coin a simple jobskill-related title can diminish your perceived importance.

If you don't know these terms, it will make you look like an outsider, but many who know and use them still need to understand why they are used.

With many of my other books on personal reinvention, the importance of our own life stories, understanding the influence of choice and consequence, networking and finding a job or making a career change, a book about acronyms and business jargon may seem a surprise. Still, it is intended to add value to these to all these areas.

Sometimes when you look at a job listing, the required skills have industry-specific labels or are grouped under an industry-specific acronym. Everyone is expected to know the acronym, but it may need to be more straightforward if you consider applying from another related industry.

The first step is to inventory your job skills and know what you have. Jobs happen when the employer sees a good match of skills to needs. Understanding how to label and define your skills will be needed: Networking can help uncover what you don’t know. Getting feedback from more than the HR department on potential jobs is essential. Learning in advance about how skills are described is critical if you are changing industries and don’t want to walk into an interview not knowing that.

Job sites, recruitment consultants, CVs / résumés, and Google all have their uses in your career change. But they’re not the place to start. Focus instead on connecting with people. The power of being in front of people is to present the whole you – something a CV or résumé can’t do.