As the economic crisis deepens and more great talent is laid off, the employment market has shifted from a talent driven market to a buyer’s market. With few open jobs on the market, employers enjoy the benefit of being able to choose from great talent.
As a job seeker, how do you stand out from the crowd and be sure to receive that coveted phone call for an interview? The answer is simple: play to your strengths! Looking for a job is essentially a marketing and sales job. In order to close the deal, you have to know your product, do you research and find the customers.
Identify Your Niche
First, identify your niche and clarify what makes you attractive to potential employers by examining your strengths. If you don’t know what your strengths are and are unable to clearly articulate what you are looking for in your work life, you are wasting valuable time chasing an unidentified target.
Remember, your ideal target job is influenced by the skills you enjoy the most, your personal and career goals as well as important aspects of each job, type of team members and corporate culture you like and dislike most? It is of utmost importance that you can clearly articulate the job you are seeking and the experience and value you bring to the table, much like in a commercial.
Leverage Your Unique Background
Next, leverage your unique background by translating your skills and experience into contributions that matter. Don’t confuse job descriptions with significant contributions you have made in the past. Employers assume you know how to perform basic job functions based on the job title you are holding or held in the past.
The question your resume should answer is: how can you add value to this organization, what contributions have you made that has an impact. For example, did you increase efficiency in workflow processes by introducing new technology? Did you save the company or department valuable budget dollars by finding alternative vendors or resources? Learn from your past employers and positions!
Optimize Resume Structure
Finally, optimize the structure of your resume. A great resume is streamlined, with a concise career summary to illustrate your competitive advantage and includes a combination of a brief presentation of job responsibilities and a list of contributions. The more measurable your contributions the more attention a potential employer will pay to your resume. A basic structure of a resume should include the following:
- Contact Information
- Career Summary
- Professional Experience
- Education
- Professional Affiliations/Additional Experience or Skills
These points strongly improve your resume, and help you clarify your strengths, how to leverage your background and inform a potential employer on the possible value you can add. Playing to your strengths yields dividends in the networking and interview processes. Your success depends on how well you can articulate what you want to do and answer the question of “why hire you”!
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