5 Ways Job Posts Seek Hybrid Professionals
“For many industries, specialty skills that were once separate from each other, and jobs that two or even three people in different departments used to do, are now being combined into one role.”
Hybrid work is on the rise, so start noticing it on job boards! Postings seeking hybrid professionals are appearing in more search results, but do you know how to spot them? It’s important to understand what to look for and how there are different clues embedded within job descriptions that signal this is a job for a hybrid professional.
Here are fives ways to spot a role that’s best suited for hybrid talent. If you’re a job seeker, use these tips and keywords to help you refine your job search and find more roles suited to your hybridity. If you’re an employer, these are tips to help you craft a better hybrid job description.
Below are actual job postings found online in August 2020.
1. The word hybrid is in the job title
Certainly, if you search for “hybrid jobs” you’ll likely find the word hybrid somewhere in the job title or job description. When the word hybrid is explicitly used, you’ll have to read carefully to see how the employer is using it. Sometimes, it’s not what you thought it was going to be. Other times, like this one, they really do need a hybrid professional.
This job is looking for someone to provide sales support internally in addition to external field-based support for the Client Field Specialists.
2. The job title itself sounds, well, hybrid
Hybrid jobs merge contradictory or opposing skills and identities. Look for clue words that hint at this like: coupled with, combination of, or someone who can ___ and ____.
In this example, Creative Technologist is a hybrid title. To be a creative and a technologist sounds like two divergent identities coming together. The phrase “coupled with” is the clue used in the last sentence of the first paragraph to show they’re looking for a hybrid.
The job description also says they want someone who understands the relationship between technology, strategy, design, and digital media production with software experience. This means they want a person with an array of professional identities that are woven together.
I often coach hybrid professionals to speak directly about the relationships between their multiple identities, and here, that’s exactly what this company is asking for. It’s not only that a hybrid possesses multiple identities, hybrids need to be able to articulate the importance of how they integrate their identities together. That’s how they express their value.
3. The job responsibilities are cross-disciplinary, cross-functional, or cross-sector
Roles such as a manager of public-private partnerships or an instructional designer who leads hybrid learning (online and in person experiences) are examples of employees who works in-between two or more spaces.
In this job post, Microsoft is looking for someone who can lead partnerships across education, business, labor, government, philanthropy, and nonprofits. That’s an intersectional role and requires a person who can shift between sectors and knowledge areas. This is a sign that they want a hybrid professional— someone who has background in more than one discipline and sector.
4. The job is a blend of multiple identities or roles
A hybrid job is a combination of roles. It doesn’t get more obvious than this example that Jump Associates is looking for a hybrid professional.
The first line of the job description starts with “Are you a hybrid thinker?” Then, the post lists different identities they’re looking for. They want someone who is literally a combination of the following identities:
One-part humanist + one-part technologist + one-part capitalist
A designer + MBA + degree in anthropology
A neuroscientist + filmmaker + entrepreneur
An accountant + sculptor + background in psychology
5. The job structure is hybrid
Dual reporting or a position that’s funded by more than one department or institution are usually signs that it’s a hybrid role.
In this posting for a social media manager, the candidate is expected to report to the Senior Director of Digital Communications Services as well as the Senior Director of Communications & Branding. Essentially, this person works between the digital communications and branding divisions. Also, this person must work with leaders in the field in addition to colleagues on the communications team. Moving between two different managers and multiple teams requires a hybrid professional.