Apply for the Job Already!!
Ever heard this statistic?
“Men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100% of the qualifications”
As Tara Mohr writes in a 2014 Harvard Business Review article, this statistic is often used to suggest women don’t have as much confidence as men. Her work to understand this in more detail is very interesting and shows that it is not as simple as confidence.
Her findings suggest a lack of understanding of the hiring process:
“What held them back from applying was not a mistaken perception about themselves, but a mistaken perception about the hiring process.”
Mohr surveyed American professional men and women and found two major differences in the results between the two sexes when asked “Why didn’t you apply for that job?”:
~~ I didn’t think they would hire me because I didn’t meet the qualifications and I didn’t want to put myself out their to fail: 22% of women vs. 13% of men said this was a reason
AND
~~ I was following the guidelines about who should apply: 15% of women vs 9% of mean had this as a reason not to apply for a job.
Mohr summarizes her findings related to women and their willingness to apply for jobs:
Almost 80% of the drivers for not applying for a job have to do with “believing the job qualifications are real requirements, and seeing the hiring process as more by-the-book and true to the on-paper guidelines than it really is”
This is important information for women –
BUT, when it comes to physicians looking to make a transition to the pharmaceutical/biotech industry I see this behavior in men and women!