Recently, one of my fellow job seekers in my weekly support group meetings said, “It’s getting rough out there!” She’s under 32, dynamic and has a solid resume for her specific industry. She’s troubled that she has networked and applied for all these positions yet has still not found the right job fit after 6 months of unemployment. She attributes her lack of landing a job to the thousands of folks with great skills competing against her for the same positions. So how can she stand out from the masses in her job search?
Should she stand out on the corner of a busy intersection with a sign that says “will work for food”? No, that’s clearly too cheesy for a professional. However, in her industry, entertainment, she may wish to provide something about her background that is -- entertaining! Wouldn’t that cut through the pile of resumes and capture a decision maker’s attention?
If I were her, I would use the simple technology easily available these days and include a speaking resume tied to a theme song -- it is used widely in the greeting card industry. I’ve bought a few musical cards in the last year for special occasions, as I knew the card would bring a smile to the recipient’s face. Of course, such a specialized resume message must reflect an understanding of the company’s business and why she’s the best candidate. Time-consuming? Yes, but well worth it, if it lands you the right job.
While my target industries are not as entertaining, there are unique ways for me to differentiate myself. How did I figure out what they are? I asked a few key business people who always loved my skill sets about what they considered to be unique about my capabilities. Somehow, they can see what I can’t. So my informal sounding board told me that I really need to showcase my international business acumen as demonstrated by two expatriate positions. That global work experience is rather unique and speaks volumes to capabilities not typically found in most marketing veterans.
Now a cheesy way for me to demonstrate this would be to create my own Web page and have little video clips of me in local dress speaking the language and doing something cliché in setting depicting that culture, like the old “Saturday Night Live” Hans and Franz skit. Eye-catching and funny? Yes! Professional? No!
A professional approach would be to cull out testimonials from international customers that would attest to how I made a difference in their customer satisfaction through my proactive marketing actions. I’ve collected these testimonials in one document in a rather linear order. I just need to fine-tune them and apply them creativity to really make it stand out as its own piece.
What potentially cheesy approaches to standing out from the crowd of job seekers have you turned into a professional differentiation tool in your job search?
