Strategies to help you stand out from the crowd
Dear Sam: I don’t know what is wrong with my resume! I’ve sent out more than 100 copies to jobs I felt I was fully qualified for, and I’ve had very little interest. I’m a web and graphic designer, have an online portfolio, a degree in visual communications, a strong work history while in college, and have even completed internships in my field. What am I doing wrong? Is there something else I can do to improve my results? Help! – Julia in Chillicothe
Dear Julia: As a graphic designer, you first have to make sure that your resume is touting your talents. By this, I mean use your resume to showcase some of your work, either by designing your resume in a unique manner, or by including a snapshot of your portfolio. It is great to have an online portfolio for review, but unfortunately if the hiring manager does not have time to view your work online they will not get a sense of your creative talents. By including a mini-portfolio on your resume, your work will be seen immediately, and will better prompt the reader to visit your site and view more of your work. This also creates a much more interesting resume and, when coupled with strong content, is sure to make your resume stand out from the crowd.
As the ‘Dear Sam’ mailbox receives so many questions like this from people with very diverse backgrounds, I thought I would take this opportunity to highlight other creative tactics you can use to make a better first impression. Here are just some of the issues that come up time and time again from candidates who are having a hard time differentiating their skills from their competitors’.
For the administrative assistant: The most common complaint I hear from administrative assistants is that they do not have any accomplishments to highlight on their resume. Most feel that they have played a supportive role their entire career, and therefore cannot attribute any achievements solely to their efforts. But I have yet to work with an administrative assistant who didn’t have achievements of some kind — such as increasing organizational effectiveness by revamping the filing system, performing their job despite limited articulation of responsibilities, or even helping others better perform their jobs by seeking out and taking on bigger tasks. By showcasing where you have driven value for an organization, you will really position yourself ahead of the competition.
For the teacher: One of the fields I enjoy writing most about is teaching, because there are a number of ways you can make a resume stand out as a teacher. First, instead of opening your resume with your full name, use your teaching name, such as ‘Miss Charlie’. This unique approach immediately positions you as a teacher and engages the reader. I also find myself using imagery a lot on teaching resumes. Often this will be something as simple as ABC blocks, but I have also created teaching resumes with images of children playing, writing on the blackboard, etc. These images grab the reader’s attention and make a case for the strength of the content in the resume. Lastly, if you have them available, I suggest adding written comments you have received from parents and students. You can even present them in a handwritten-style font to add a personal touch to your resume. These testimonials, particularly if they are from your students, reinforce the claims on your resume and present an outsider’s view of your core competencies.
For the salesperson: One of the biggest mistakes I see in sales resumes is a lack of quantifiers. As a salesperson, your resume has to include quantifiers pertaining to your goals and actual achievements. Of course, if your quotas are small, or if you had trouble meeting your objectives, then quantifiers have to be used sparingly, but there are almost always ways to incorporate numbers into a sales resume. If you worked with a smaller company, try to quantify your successes in percentages as opposed to dollars. Doing so will keep you in the running for those opportunities in which you would handle much higher volumes. I also find that some of my clients in the sales arena have never had solid goals and objectives, and therefore think that they don’t have anything to measure their performance against. If this is the case, try to compare the results you achieved with those of your peers, your competitors, or industry averages. Lastly, if you just can’t use quantifiers, maybe you have some sales-related awards you can showcase at the beginning of your resume, comments from clients, or even pull quotes from your annual reviews.
For the multi-talented job seeker: I work with a lot of clients who tell me that, for a number of reasons, they are open to many different opportunities and can do pretty much anything. While this is wonderful for expanding the client’s prospects, it does make writing an effective resume more difficult. For clients in this situation, I showcase their background in the professional experience section, which will essentially stay the same regardless of the job opportunity. I then incorporate a list of competencies to allow for a very easy and quick way for the client to tailor their resume to each opportunity. I like to place this list down the left side of a resume in its own column or, if I don’t need to be quite as extensive, at the end of the qualifications summary. This competency list can include any type of experiences or skills that represents a person’s notable strengths. It is best if the job seeker develops a general set of these brief noun phases, and simply tailors them to each opportunity, based on the keywords in the job description that are aligned with their experience and education. This is a very simple thing anyone can do to create the tailored feel that hiring managers are looking for.
Dear Julia: As a graphic designer, you first have to make sure that your resume is touting your talents. By this, I mean use your resume to showcase some of your work, either by designing your resume in a unique manner, or by including a snapshot of your portfolio. It is great to have an online portfolio for review, but unfortunately if the hiring manager does not have time to view your work online they will not get a sense of your creative talents. By including a mini-portfolio on your resume, your work will be seen immediately, and will better prompt the reader to visit your site and view more of your work. This also creates a much more interesting resume and, when coupled with strong content, is sure to make your resume stand out from the crowd.
As the ‘Dear Sam’ mailbox receives so many questions like this from people with very diverse backgrounds, I thought I would take this opportunity to highlight other creative tactics you can use to make a better first impression. Here are just some of the issues that come up time and time again from candidates who are having a hard time differentiating their skills from their competitors’.
For the administrative assistant: The most common complaint I hear from administrative assistants is that they do not have any accomplishments to highlight on their resume. Most feel that they have played a supportive role their entire career, and therefore cannot attribute any achievements solely to their efforts. But I have yet to work with an administrative assistant who didn’t have achievements of some kind — such as increasing organizational effectiveness by revamping the filing system, performing their job despite limited articulation of responsibilities, or even helping others better perform their jobs by seeking out and taking on bigger tasks. By showcasing where you have driven value for an organization, you will really position yourself ahead of the competition.
For the teacher: One of the fields I enjoy writing most about is teaching, because there are a number of ways you can make a resume stand out as a teacher. First, instead of opening your resume with your full name, use your teaching name, such as ‘Miss Charlie’. This unique approach immediately positions you as a teacher and engages the reader. I also find myself using imagery a lot on teaching resumes. Often this will be something as simple as ABC blocks, but I have also created teaching resumes with images of children playing, writing on the blackboard, etc. These images grab the reader’s attention and make a case for the strength of the content in the resume. Lastly, if you have them available, I suggest adding written comments you have received from parents and students. You can even present them in a handwritten-style font to add a personal touch to your resume. These testimonials, particularly if they are from your students, reinforce the claims on your resume and present an outsider’s view of your core competencies.
For the salesperson: One of the biggest mistakes I see in sales resumes is a lack of quantifiers. As a salesperson, your resume has to include quantifiers pertaining to your goals and actual achievements. Of course, if your quotas are small, or if you had trouble meeting your objectives, then quantifiers have to be used sparingly, but there are almost always ways to incorporate numbers into a sales resume. If you worked with a smaller company, try to quantify your successes in percentages as opposed to dollars. Doing so will keep you in the running for those opportunities in which you would handle much higher volumes. I also find that some of my clients in the sales arena have never had solid goals and objectives, and therefore think that they don’t have anything to measure their performance against. If this is the case, try to compare the results you achieved with those of your peers, your competitors, or industry averages. Lastly, if you just can’t use quantifiers, maybe you have some sales-related awards you can showcase at the beginning of your resume, comments from clients, or even pull quotes from your annual reviews.
For the multi-talented job seeker: I work with a lot of clients who tell me that, for a number of reasons, they are open to many different opportunities and can do pretty much anything. While this is wonderful for expanding the client’s prospects, it does make writing an effective resume more difficult. For clients in this situation, I showcase their background in the professional experience section, which will essentially stay the same regardless of the job opportunity. I then incorporate a list of competencies to allow for a very easy and quick way for the client to tailor their resume to each opportunity. I like to place this list down the left side of a resume in its own column or, if I don’t need to be quite as extensive, at the end of the qualifications summary. This competency list can include any type of experiences or skills that represents a person’s notable strengths. It is best if the job seeker develops a general set of these brief noun phases, and simply tailors them to each opportunity, based on the keywords in the job description that are aligned with their experience and education. This is a very simple thing anyone can do to create the tailored feel that hiring managers are looking for.
posted by Dear Sam at Tuesday, January 03, 2006
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