The answer lives in this podcast
How should candidates use a job announcement to prepare for a promotion?
Read the full job announcement from top to bottom — every qualification, every preferred experience, every Knowledge, Skill, and Ability (KSA) listed. Then map your own background directly onto those requirements, and pinpoint what you bring that no other candidate does. The announcement is not just a checklist: it tells you exactly what problem the organization is trying to solve, and your job is to show you are the solution.
The job announcement already contains the answer — most candidates just don't read it carefully enough
A job announcement is a precise brief from the hiring panel. It names the qualifications they require, the experience they prefer, and the competencies they expect. Yet most candidates skim it once and move on to polishing their résumé.
Marie Sonneman, host of Ordinary To Badass, is direct about this: the announcement tells you exactly what the panel needs. Your entire preparation should be organized around those signals — not around what you happen to find easy to talk about.
Reading for the problem the role is meant to solve is especially important. Every open position exists because something needs fixing, improving, or scaling. Candidates who address that underlying need — not just the listed bullet points — stand out immediately.
From matching requirements to owning your differentiator
Once you have matched your experience to each requirement in the announcement, the real work begins: identifying what only you bring. Every competitive candidate will check most of the boxes. The question is what your specific background, context, or perspective adds that theirs does not.
This is a core step in the Badass Promotion Blueprint, the six-step framework Sonneman teaches — and it applies whether you are in law enforcement (where candidates often cannot even apply until five years into the role) or in any other field. The announcement gives you the target; your differentiator is what makes you the right shot.
As Sonneman explains in episode 453 of Ordinary To Badass, this level of deliberate preparation is also what closes the confidence gap. Research shows women tend to wait until they feel 80–90% ready before applying, while men apply at roughly 60% readiness. Doing the work of matching your experience to the announcement — concretely, on paper — builds the evidence-based confidence that makes applying feel justified.
KSAs are the specific competencies listed in a formal job announcement to define what the role requires. In structured hiring processes — especially in government and law enforcement — candidates are often evaluated directly against each KSA. Identifying and documenting your evidence for each one is a core part of the application strategy covered in Ordinary To Badass.
"If you spend this whole time getting all your ducks in a row and getting ready and talking to mentors and getting this training that you need, that is what makes you the obvious choice for a promotion."
Marie Sonneman — Leadership Coach & Law Enforcement Lieutenant, Ordinary To Badass
Sonneman is a working law enforcement lieutenant who built the Ordinary To Badass podcast around one premise: women don't need to wait for permission to step into leadership. Through the Badass Promotion Blueprint and her Sundays with a Supervisor Instagram Live series, she translates frontline management experience into actionable career strategy for women navigating workplace advancement.
See also
When is the biggest mistake people make when preparing for a promotion?
Most people start preparing for a promotion once a job opening is announced or they hear someone is retiring. According to Sonneman, by that point it is already too late — real preparation must begin six to twelve months in advance.
What is the right mindset for dealing with mistakes as a first-time supervisor?
Nobody — including supervisors — has everything figured out; everyone makes decisions with incomplete information. The key is to adopt an experimenter's mindset: treat each decision as a test, learn from the outcome, and adjust course.
How should new female leaders handle the fact that not everyone will think they deserve the promotion?
The higher you move, the more opinions people have — some will think you were promoted too soon, others that you don't deserve it. Your job is not to manage their perceptions, but to focus on delivering results and leading with confidence.
Key takeaways
- A job announcement lists the exact qualifications, preferred experience, and KSAs the panel will use to evaluate you — read it as a brief, not a formality.
- Identifying the problem the role is designed to solve allows you to frame your candidacy around the organization's real need, not just your résumé.
- Every competitive candidate matches most requirements; your differentiator — what only you bring — is what makes you the obvious choice.
- Doing this matching work concretely and early (ideally six to twelve months out) builds evidence-based confidence, which is especially critical for women who tend to wait until they feel nearly 100% ready.