Unit 3: Marketing Your Professional Self
You do not need to be technically skilled to create an attractive resume. You can strengthen the language and organization of your resume by using action verbs, keywords, and clear headings or markers. Always edit and review your resume and cover letter to ensure their quality. It is often helpful to ask a friend to review your materials. Be sure to tailor your application materials to a specific position opening. In this unit, we continue the theme of developing marketing tools to introduce yourself, communicate your qualifications, and express your interest in the job. Clearly state how you would provide the ideal solution to the employer's hiring needs.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- describe techniques for making a concise, targeted, and powerful resume;
- describe STAR statements and how they contribute to powerful resumes;
- explain how to document gaps in your resume;
- explain the importance of proofreading your resume and cover letter;
- describe what types of negative information to avoid on your resume;
- explain the purpose of an online profile;
- describe the advantages of joining LinkedIn; and
- explain how to balance providing necessary information and protecting privacy online.
3.1: Polish Your Presentation
Whether you are a college student who is light on experience or has gaps in your work history, you should aim to convince your reader that you have taken advantage of opportunities to help you learn and grow, such as by taking college courses, starting a business, or volunteering. Your resume is not a reflective document but a forward-looking advertisement of your current strengths and potential. So, you may need to update it to toss out statements that are not relevant to your job search.
Read this article, which poses questions to help you present yourself in an organized, dynamic, and professional manner. For example, you should remove resume items that no longer fit, eliminate irrelevant sections, and trim down descriptions to create a more concise and powerful resume.
Read this article, which explains how to take your resume from an informative but rather dull list of your qualifications to an expression of your passion for what you do and what you will bring to the table for the employer.
This article continues the discussion of using STAR statements. Recruiters and hiring managers prefer stories, not duties. Does your resume describe memorable events, put your work in context, and highlight the benefits of your efforts? You should include at least one STAR statement for each unique task in your resume.
Hiring managers and recruiters need to grasp the connection between your coursework, internships, volunteer work, and their business needs. Remember this when describing your educational history and work background.
You may need to adjust your resume to account for employment gaps or jobs you only held briefly. Unfortunately, your failure to address these gaps can eliminate you from consideration. Perhaps you needed to leave the labor force to raise your family or care for a family member. Employers will perceive you to be a viable, competitive candidate as long as you can discuss how you took advantage of this time to continue to learn and obtain relevant skills.
Hiring managers will not overlook gaps in your work history. This article suggests ways to handle these gaps by providing constructive information about career-related and worthy activities you obtained during this time. He also describes ways to hide gaps or make them less obvious on your resume.
This article reminds us that spell-check does not guarantee accuracy. Be sure to check for proper grammar, use appropriate keywords, and present a visually appealing resume. Your goal is not to wow the reader with fancy fonts and colors but to tell your story in a business-like way with no spelling, grammatical errors, or distractions.
Does your resume market your skills and talents effectively? Think about your presentation from the viewpoint of the hiring manager or recruiter. By advertising your relevant qualifications that make you the perfect candidate for the job, your resume is a marketing tool to help you get an interview, not a tool to complain about past failures.
This article offers additional advice on making your resume relevant and showing you have the skills and qualifications the job description specifies. For example, you could document and store your early career details for future use. Remember that your resume should reflect your current career status and potential. It needs to be forward-looking and relevant.
Some position openings lack a job description, and you may have to speculate on the requirements for the job. This article aims to help you construct your best sales pitch since you may have to make some assumptions about the job criteria. Use STAR statements and action words to convince the reader you have a results-oriented work ethic.
3.2: Targeting Your Search
When you apply for a job, you should identify the industry, position, and geographic location where you want to work. As mentioned above, your resume and cover letter should offer a polished statement about who you are, where you have been, and where you want to go. Think of yourself as a product that is only interesting to employers and recruiters if you appeal to their hiring needs and preferences.
This article describes and provides examples of three elements of a well-defined and targeted job search strategy. It explains how to narrow your search and filter the possibilities.
3.3: Informational Interviews
An informational interview is when you meet with someone who performs a job you are seeking so you can ask questions about the industry (and possibly the company where you want to work) to gain insight into questions you might be asked during a job interview in that field or that particular company. This is also a great way to network, learn about some pros and cons of working in the field, and gain some insider knowledge.
For example, if you make a good impression, the insider you interview may tell you about upcoming job opportunities, recommend you to a colleague, or suggest you craft your resume in a way that will help you get in the door. College alumni are good sources to target since they often enjoy helping a fellow alma mater before and after graduation.
Watch this video, which explains what an informational interview is, how you should prepare, and how you should follow up (with a handwritten thank-you note). Someone offering to spend valuable time with you during an informational interview would probably appreciate your buying them coffee or lunch, if possible.
Informational interviews are an excellent strategy for building your network, especially if you are a recent college graduate. They can be more helpful for gaining interview experience because both parties feel less pressure – they are free to speak more openly about the industry, company, and position because there is no actual job offer or position opening. Informational interviews can provide a pathway to meeting professionals in the industry who know about open positions before they are approved or posted.
3.4 Professional Organizations
Consider joining a professional organization related to your discipline to keep up with trends in the field, such as the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRP), if you are looking for a job in human resources. Many professional organizations have job search tabs on their website, targeted to the type of position you are seeking. You can also meet individuals to contact for informational interviews. Add the professional organization to your LinkedIn account since hiring managers often search for professionals and proactively invite candidates to apply for open positions, such as those with a certified public accountant (CFP) or certified financial planner (CFP) license.
Read this article on the benefits of joining a professional association in your field.
3.5 Workplace and Recruitment Trends
There is a new focus on remote technology skills. Since 2020 and the pandemic, many previously in-person positions have become remote or hybrid. In some cases, a candidate who can demonstrate their remote technology skills, such as proficiency in the Zoom suite of applications, is a way to stand out among applicants.
3.6: Creating an Online Presence
Many of today's employers and recruiters prefer to review online resumes so they can use keywords to filter and search through thousands of resumes. In these situations, job candidates with resumes or CVs posted online in a scannable format have an advantage. These articles offer advice for creating an online profile and discuss several social media sites.
To ensure companies can find you easily, you should consider creating a social media presence and making your resume accessible online. This article cites advantages but cautions you against posting personal information on social networking sites. Nothing remains private once it is on the web. Most employers will access your professional information on LinkedIn and other sites such as Facebook.
This article explains how to use social media to promote yourself online and post your resume or CV. It discusses the social media sites LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and some niche online communities.
Many employers use LinkedIn to search for qualified job applicants. This article explains why you should post your resume and profile on LinkedIn and the type of information you should include. Remember to proofread your materials and include keywords that relate to the skills you think the employers you are targeting will search for.
Read this article to learn how LinkedIn contrasts with Facebook and how to get the most out of your LinkedIn account. The power of LinkedIn is the number of employers who will look at your resume and the relationships you maintain and build as part of your network.
What should you include in your online profile? This article addresses how to balance the need to provide information to employers via social media and the need to protect your privacy. Recruiters and employers need information to make decisions about interviews, hiring, and promotions. However, identity thieves, marketing spammers, and computer hackers can exploit those who provide too much information and cause major havoc in their personal lives. This is a balancing act since you do not want to make your information so obscure that employers cannot contact you.
This video offers valuable tips for creating your LinkedIn profile.