Every day I am introduced to people who are in search of a job or making a career change, or deciding to start a business.  After all the pleasantries and friendly banter, the business aspects of the conversation usually start with where those person has been working, what they’ve done, their education, their skills and experience.  That’s only natural.  This is useful information and it’s right at hand; it’s information easily reached on the mental shelf, at eye level – no reaching or stretching, no turning over stuff searching around for data.  That’s what they know, that’s what’s been reflected back to them by their managers, colleagues, friends and family.  It’s their history, easily writ.

But is that their value?

Let’s examine this question.  I am confident we can all agree that skills and experience are necessary.  Every rocket scientist must study rocket science.   Every certified public accountant has passed rigorous examinations, such that we can trust that they have a body of knowledge which they can apply to resolve thorny, complex accountancy issues. When you visit your physician you assume, given the copious parchments framed on the wall, that s/he has the skills and experience necessary for diagnosis and treatment of your malady.  But let’s be honest here: what is it that we all talk about with our friends and family after we leave the doctor’s office?  Do we discuss their ability to efficiently and safely perform a laparoscopic cholocystectomy?   Are we really cognizant of what s/he was doing when we were heavily anesthetized and they carried on merrily with saws and hammers in a total hip replacement?  No, indeed, we have no way, we have no qualifications necessary to evaluate their skills and experience.

But we are, each of us, exquisitely qualified to evaluate their attributes.

That’s what we talk about when we leave the doctor’s office – their attributes.  After we leave the professionals office we discuss with our friends and neighbors how nice, or not nice, the doctor / dentist / attorney / CPA / career coach was.  This is a fact of human nature.  Nothing wrong with it.  Let’s just put this to work.

It is my contention that if you present yourself for an interview, you are being evaluated, not for your skills and experience, but for your attributes, which is your value. Your skills and experience are the commodity.  Think about it – would you have been invited to an interview if you did not demonstrate via you resume or other means, that you had the requisite skills and experience?   If you say you are an expert in electronic medical records, then your resume will support your affirmation.  If you are corporate counsel, then your work history backs it up.  Your skills then are a commodity.  Why?  Because others can meet or beat yours skills, but no one is exactly like you.  Your value is in your attributes.  Your skills can be deduced by the hiring manager from your resume or your LinkedIn profile, or your website, or maybe even your profiles on Facebook or MySpace.  But before the interview they don’t know your value.  Your true value is framed by your attributes, and your attributes are not evidenced until you show up for the interview.   Are you still skeptical?  Think about this – if you and several other candidates are fundamentally equivalent in terms of skills and experience, what is the hiring manager going to use to make a hiring determination?  Your attributes.  Because in the final analysis, that is your long term value.

Your attributes are what you really bring to the table.  They are, in the long run, more valuable than your current skills which will evanesce with time.  Your skills will disappear and become obsolete as technology and processes evolve.  That’s inexorable.  But the hiring manager knows, whether consciously or not – that your attributes are likely to remain, and in fact get stronger over time.

Do you know your attributes?  Do you know the value you bring to the interview?