Search Results for: Collecting and Presenting References

October 27, 2014 Leave a Comment

Grab the Attention of Employers: Five Steps to Develop a Personal Branding Strategy

In this overcrowded job market, it’s difficult to stand out and be noticed by employers. We know that for each job advertised, the vast majority who apply will not make it to the interview. There’s not a lot of consistent data about this, but an expert in the field claims in a Workopolis article that the “Top 2%” of candidates make it to the interview”.

The Workopolis article suggests that to be seriously considered for a position, job seekers could try various strategies such as selectively applying for the most suitable jobs, preparing a resume that highlights how they could “stand out on the job”, and targeting applications to a each posting (i.e. not using generic resumes and cover letters).

Explaining how you can “stand out on the job” is probably the most difficult task facing candidates. Developing a strategy to achieve this goal is described by job search experts as “personal branding.”

What is personal branding?

Personal branding represents the actions taken by job seekers to stand out and be noticed. It is the process of identifying your most important employment assets, and developing and implementing a strategy of communicating this information to employers.

Why brand yourself?

The goal of personal branding is to stand out in a crowd. It’s commonly known as a strategy used by corporations to attract customers and investors, but is just as useful for job seekers to be noticed by employers.

As a candidate, you have a unique set of skills and assets to offer employers. It is up to you to ensure that they notice you and respond to your candidacy.

How do you brand yourself?

1. Identify your job target.

Make sure that you are 100 percent clear about the jobs to which you intend to apply: know the job title(s), industry and type of company. This will help you determine which of your skills and background are the most important to focus on when describing yourself

2. Understand the needs of the employer.

Clarify the most important skills and assets needed by employers for your target job:

Scan relevant job postings online and develop a list of all the qualifications listed by employers
Network with potential employers or with successful employees in your field and ask them for insight into the most valuable assets for the job.

3. Figure out your most important assets.

Identify your unique strengths as a candidate, which may include:

“Soft” or Transferable skills: your “I am” (personal) abilities (e.g. organizational, interpersonal, teamwork)
Hard skills: your “I can” skills which you have learnt (e.g. software, languages, specific professional knowledge)
Experience/background: your “I have” assets (e.g. education, certification, particular work, relevant personal or volunteer experience, specific number of years in a field, been promoted, been awarded/recognized, dealt with certain people — such as difficult customers)
Objective: your “I would like to” statement (e.g. “my goal is to work in a company/job where I can…”)

A candidate cannot just be “good enough” for a job. You need to figure out which of your strengths are unique and which provide you with an advantage over the many other candidates vying for the position. Perhaps your biggest asset is your flexibility and willingness to start at the bottom of the ladder? Maybe you have solid experience and specific product knowledge that many do not?

4. Develop a branding statement.

Based on what you have learned from job postings, develop a clear, honest and compelling statement, which you can use to describe yourself in simple terms. Keep in mind that if you have multiple goals, you might need to develop a few different versions of your branding statement, which focus on various combinations of your assets.

Write out your statement, learn to say it with ease and confidence. Be ready to talk about it and to explain it further, if asked. You might need to share examples from your work history to demonstrate your claims about yourself; have those ready.

5. Spread the word!

Take every opportunity you can to include your branding statement (or a version of it) in your communication with employers:

Add it to your resume — in the Summary of Qualifications/Profile
Integrate it into your “tell me about yourself” or elevator pitch introduction for interviews and networking opportunities
Add it to your social media profiles, such as on your LinkedIn Summary, your Twitter or blog profiles
Integrate it into your cover letter
Steer your references to include points from your statement in their letters

Approach your branding strategy in a proactive and deliberate way. The more planful and detailed your strategy, the better you will be at making sure that you are the tree that stands out in the overwhelming forest of candidates vying for that perfect job.

September 15, 2014 Leave a Comment

Resume Writing Basics – Step 5: Completing Your Resume

This is the final post in my ongoing Resume Writing Basics series, which included the following:

an overview of the basics of resume writing, including an outline of the information to be included in a resume
a detailed description of the formatting needed to create an easy-to-read resume
tips for writing a Profile Summary that catches employers’ attention
a guide for outlining an impressive Employment History

All that remains is to list your education and training, and volunteer experience, if relevant. Most resumes also end off with a mention of references.

List your education and training

Most employers are impressed by the candidate’s education, regardless of whether it is directly related to the job, so it is always worthwhile to include your highest education, as well as any other degrees of certifications. The best format: the degree, the school and its location (e.g. Bachelor of Art, Ryerson University, Toronto).

It is generally not necessary to include dates, as these just give the employer too much information about your approximate age. However, if you just recently graduated and you want to explain the employer what you have been doing in the last few years, add dates and consider bringing the section up higher up in the resume, above the Employment History.

In addition to all your degrees, it may be useful to list any relevant courses or certification you might have obtained. This might include any on-the-job training, as well. List only courses that are relevant to your work.

Don’t leave off volunteer work

Employers tend to be impressed by involvement in community activities, so it’s well worth including it in the resume.

You can add it, using the same format recommended for Employment History under a separate heading, or you may include the volunteer jobs in your employment history. If you add your volunteer roles to your jobs, make sure to clearly indicate the volunteer jobs clearly as such.

Mention (but don’t include) your references

It is generally recommended that candidates do not include references in or with their resume. So, by way of reassuring the employer that you do have references and will share them when the right time comes (i.e. at the interview), you can add a line at the end that states something to the that “References are Available Upon Request” (One of my clients even cheekily stated that “Enthusiastic References are Available Upon Request”).

Final note..

For resume samples, there are some good online resources such as The Balance’s Sample Resumes, Monster.ca and WorkBloom. Keep in mind though, that resumes differ by industry, country and sector. This means that job seekers should thoroughly research the best resume formats by consulting with employers and employees who work in their target jobs, before finalizing the resume.

July 14, 2014 Leave a Comment

Resume Writing Basics – Step 2: Create an easy-to-read resume

How you present your resume can be just as important as what you say, if you want to attract the interest of an employer. At first glance, even before even reading the resume, an employer’s impression will be determined based on the appearance of the document: its length, font, neatness, ease of reading and clarity. In this digital age, the challenge is to create a document which is easily read both on a screen (which is how most employers read resumes presently) as well as on paper.

To make the best possible first visual impression with your resume:

1. Create a clear and distinct letterhead at the top of the first page of the resume (not in the document header, since headers are not always visible) which includes:

your name — not necessarily your legal name; it’s more important to provide the name by which you are identified at work
your address — most people list their full street address; if you prefer not to do so, at least mention your city and province/state
your contact information — cell and home phone and email address
additional sources of information about you, such as a LinkedIn URL, twitter handle or website URL

This letterhead has multiple uses beyond the resume — it can be used on the cover letter that goes with the resume, as well as on the Thank You letter you send after the interview. You can also write your references list which you present to employers at the interview on a letterhead.

2. Make it easy to read: space your lines well (not too densely packed) and neatly, with lots of white space, so not to overwhelm the reader, while still keeping the document to no longer than two pages in length.

3. Keep the formatting simple: don’t overuse the bold or italics, and stay away from underlining all together (underlining makes a word look like a link).

4. Avoid CAPITALIZATION, even for headers; caps look like yelling — and when you capitalize more than two words in a line, it becomes difficult to read.

5. Don’t use images or complicated symbols as bullets on a list; a simple dot or dash is sufficient.

6. Justify/align your spacing to the left — “full” justification sometimes leaves awkward spacing in some lines in a document.

7. Choose a font which is readable both on screen and on paper — consider using a clean, san-sarif font such as Verdana, Calibri, or Tahoma,and stay away from the predictable, too-often used fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman.

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