When applying for a job, who are more confident - men or women Viewpoint careers advice blog

When applying for a job, who are more confident - men or women For as long as I have been working, there has been an ongoing dialogue surrounding the “confidence gap” between men and women. This gained momentum after a 2003 study by Cornell University, which suggested that men tend to overestimate both their skills and performance when presented with a task, whereas women tend to underestimate these, even when both genders are equally qualified to complete said task. Naturally, working within the recruitment sector, I wondered whether this confidence gap rang true when applying for jobs. Specifically, I was interested to find out whether men are more confident than women when it comes to applying for roles which they aren’t 100% qualified for. So, I decided to conduct a poll which was promoted via our blog and featured in my previous post: “Men apply for jobs on Mars, women on Venus”. The poll asked the respondent to confirm their gender, and then to state whether they were likely to apply for a job if they felt that their skills and experience only matched 80% or less of the criteria listed on the job specification. How big is the confidence gap when applying for jobs?       Analysing the data in a different way, I wanted to see if geography, (and possibly culture), had a part to play alongside gender when it comes to confidence levels and job applications. When I looked at the results by location, I found that in the UK, Ireland and Europe, men are more confident than women when applying for roles. Yet, in North America it’s the other way around, and across Australia and New Zealand, there would appear to be no difference. I have detailed the breakdown for you below: To me, this is a real shame. Because no candidate will be 100% perfect, and most employers will appreciate this, and won’t be looking for someone who meets every single pre-requisite. But if this isn’t clear on the job description, they could be deterring potential talent without realising.What is apparent in the above results, is that the majority of job seekers around the world, regardless of gender, didn’t feel confident enough to apply for jobs that they considered to be a stretch in terms of their skills and experience. So if you are currently hiring for a new member of the team, here’s my advice for building a job specification which is more welcoming to those talented, but less than confident jobseekers: Prioritise the essentials Of course, some hard skills will be fundamental to the role you’re recruiting for, but surely there are some which can be taught on the job? Think about the hard skills vs the soft traits which would benefit this position such as being a fast learner or having a curious mind-set. I would then advise that you emphasise in order of importance the absolutely crucial hard skills which you don’t have the resource to teach, then the softer traits which will help the successful applicant pick up the rest. In separating the “must-haves” from the “nice-to-haves” on the job description, and describing the softer, more universal pre-requisites, you will make your job advert far less intimidating and isolating to job seekers. Create a more welcoming tone Secondly, I think you should be striving to create a more welcoming tone which better depicts the type of person who would suit this role. You could achieve this by describing the personality traits which would benefit this role, as well as the company culture, the dynamic of the team, and how individuals are respected and supported. I think this is far more encouraging to a candidate than just a bulleted list of credentials, and is more likely to give them the confidence to apply for the job. Share success stories Lastly, if you can, describe the development opportunities within your organisation on the job description. You could share other people’s stories or link to case studies of employee career journeys. These stories should reflect employees who joined the organisation and developed their skills to progress their career since then. In doing this, the candidate will hopefully be able to envisage their own career journey within your organisation, as well as their own personal development. So it seems that while issues of relative self-doubt and confidence when applying for a job may not be a gender-specific issue, it is an issue, nonetheless. And in order to attract a wider pool of potentially suitable candidates, employers must change the way the job description is put together, and position the opportunity to show these jobseekers that the successful applicant can be hired on the basis of their potential rather than how many boxes they tick. What’s more, when those applications come through, they should open their mind and be willing to know what they can compromise on in terms of skills and experience, particularly when soft skills and personality fit represent a strong match. In doing this, employers will find themselves appealing to those candidates who have the capacity to grow as a person and a professional, and deliver great results to the company. You can find more of our leadership content below:    4 reasons employees don’t quit, for decades 3 ways to boost confidence in an underperformer Are you selling your employer brand short?