Resume Tip: Market Yourself and Stand Out from the Crowd

Writing a great resume requires careful balance. While you should utilize a style that employers will be familiar with, you also need to find ways to highlight your abilities. Imagine your resume as an important self-marketing tool. The sole function of the well-written resume is to convince potential employers that YOU are the perfect candidate for the job you seek.

As a career coach, I've come across many resumes over the years. Interestingly, most people struggle with the "self-promotional" aspect of resume creation, instead preferring to list out the titles they held at each job in their career history, and describing the tasks they performed while working at those jobs. It's fine to let your potential employer know the responsibilities that have been entrusted to you, but don't leave it at that. You need to let them know exactly why you are a better choice than the next job candidate who comes along. That means offering tangible evidence of your value.

Next time you think of something positive to include on your list of career accomplishments, figure out a way to position the statement so that it appeals to the reader from a standpoint of need. Here are some very straightforward examples of how to turn achievements at your job into value-oriented statements that will help market you to your future boss.

List of Career Accomplishments:

• Consolidated budget, established sales projections for 2004
• Helped develop order processing and fulfillment procedures for new department
• Assumed temporary manager role during director's extended absence
• Responsible for daily customer service including communicating with vendors and troubleshooting order issues

Same List of Accomplishments, Highlighting Sought-After Skills and Value to Employer:

Finance Management: Consolidated budget, established sales projections, reduced overhead costs by 40% for 2005.

Exceptional Planning Skills: Helped develop order processing and fulfillment procedures for new department

Strong Leader: Assumed temporary manager role during director's extended absence.

Solid Relationship Builder: Maintained excellent rapport with vendors on a daily basis.

Effective Problem Solver: Handled day to day challenges, resolved customer service issues calmly and professionally.

As you can see, with the simple addition of a few bold category headers and a few strong words throughout the copy, you can easily develop a solid case for why you're the best candidate for the job. For some people, resume writing from the "selling" standpoint can be a challenge, which is why as a career counselor I recommend having a seasoned resume writer take a look at your resume and make changes as necessary. To learn more, click the URL at the bottom of this article for a personal career consultation today!