In meeting after meeting with recruiter after recruiter, a few themes start appearing and re-appearing. One of these recurring themes from the world’s hiring decision makers is the importance of technology-related skills in the workplace. I hear it a lot from traders and those in related fields, and I hear it from folks in the marketing and advertising world. Highly marketable skills to have in your education and/or professional background are mathematics, computer programming, and engineering.

Scratching your head and thinking, “Gee, I’d like to be a trader, or a marketing professional… but I’m not really honing any of those tech skills in the classroom.” Well, what you can do is demonstrate a passion for and proficiency in those skills in your own life. In this day and age, it’s safe to assume that many of you are more tech savvy than your future boss, just by virtue of the technologies you’ve adopted in your personal life. For example, do you enjoy digital entertainment, such as online gaming? Or are you active on social media sights? Tout it on your resume! Talk about it in your interviews! Just make absolutely sure that you represent yourself professionally on all social media outlets, folks, because trust me, your future employers are looking at them. Keep those photos from Friday night stored safely and soundly someplace else.

You can also — and should also — be fluent in Microsoft Excel. This qualification seems to be a box employers check, a baseline requirement that demonstrates something important you can and must bring to any job with an analytical or modeling component. And not just in trading or marketing analysis! Investment bankers and other types of finance professionals across the board stipulate the importance of Excel skills starting on day one on the job. Find a problem in your academic or even personal life that you can solve by creating an Excel model, and talk about it in your interviews.

In the bigger-picture sense, be prepared to document and discuss ways that you have become proficient in technology (e.g. hardware or software) and used it to solve problems. These skills mastered in real life translate to the ability to do so on the job.

If you have the necessary resources — namely, time, money, interest and accumen — take up a programming language, such as scripting languages or statistics packages. Some examples include Java, C++, Mathematica, MathLab or Python. A simple web search will point you in the right direction. You may or may not ever use them, but they shine like a gold star on your resume–particularly for employers in investment banking, sales and trading, and marketing/market research.  

And don’t forget about Bloomberg. That funny-looking computer terminal in the back of the Turchin Library. Jump on, dive in and get certified. Having Bloomberg certification on your resume stands out and further demonstrates the tech expertise that is in such high demand in the job market.

Entertainment… airlines… hotels… manufacturing sales… equity research…

What do all these industries have in common? Executives and recruiters from companies in each of these industry categories has shared with me a criteria they use for narrowing down wide pools of well qualified candidates to a few front-runners. “A demonstrated passion for our business is key,” they say.

Like you, I never imagined I would be using the words “passion” and “manufacturing sales” in the same sentence. But you know I’m always telling you to THINK LIKE AN EMPLOYER. And what employer doesn’t want employees that are passionate about what they do?

So how do you document something as intangible as “passion” on a resume? Good question! Some specific tips for demonstrating a passion for a seemingly cut-and-dry business can be found in another piece of advice I have given before… Let your career documents tell a story. Your resume may not contain experience that is specific to the airline industry, for instance. But, you may have held some service-industry jobs while getting your degree. Highlighting this experience on your resume does demonstrate a passion for customer service. And the airlines, like their esteemed colleagues in hospitality, retail, healthcare, etc., are customer-service businesses. Their bottom line is driven by customers… preferably satisfied customers. So if you can’t demonstrate that you have some experience and love of customer service, you’re barking up the wrong industry tree, and they know this.

Somesimes you may have to dig a little deeper to demonstrate that all-important passion for your intended company or career field. Maybe you haven’t quite figured out why you are interested in an industry or company… you just ARE. Well if you were interviewing someone for a job at your company and they explained that they wanted to work for you becaues they just DID, you probably wouldn’t be too compelled to hire them. Take your experience and your goals and spin them into something that would make you want to hire you.

Make sure to check in for some frequent self-exploration about what it is that motivates you, and be able to talk about it fluently in your networking and interviewing. In doing your research for your career search, you can probably find something in the story behind any seemignly boring old company, industry or person that ignites your passion. Or at least your interest! You can make such findings a part of your strategy and repetoire in cover letters, resumes, interviews and networking conversations. For instance, “I read that XYZ company was founded by Les Morris, who was formerly a clock maker with no prior business leadership experience. Through hard work and ambition, he attained phenomenal success. Stories such as Mr. Morris’s are exactly what motivated me to go to business school…”

They say you can’t teach passion. But you can be advised that lots of great employers are hot for signs of it in their new recruits, and plan accordingly.