Commodity - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Resume Personal Branding Best Practices Part 2 - Superior/Commodity - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Weve all been taught to create one multi-purpose resume that could be used for any job we might apply for. This strategy worked before the days of digital resumes, job boards, online applications, and applicant tracking systems. It worked when there were shortages of candidates. Branding yourself as a commodity just isnt good enough anymore When you combine the technological changes that have transformed hiring practices with job changes, the one-size-fits-all resume strategy doesnt work well anymore. In yesterdays job market, you just had to get close to get a good job In todays job market, you have to present yourself as an exact match in order to even get interviews. Contrast this with how todays job seekers brand yourselves. Todays job seekers are unfamiliar with customizing resumes, so most of you use a personal brand that describes you as a commodity candidate one whos qualified to do many things. This was fine when being close was good enough when you could wait until an interview to show youre an exact fit. But it wont work when you need to show youre an exact fit in order to even get interviews in the first place. How most candidates brand yourselves as commodities Most job seekers cant help but brand themselves as a commodity because its how weve all been taught. Weve been taught by our college placement office to make ourselves look just like everyone else, which helps brand the college as the provider of a consistent quality of worker. Weve been taught by government, community, church and alumni resources, by outplacement, even most recruiters, career coaches and career authors. Weve been taught to create a general introduction that tells the employer why we might be good for many opportunities, rather than brand ourselves as the superior candidate for that specific opportunity. How most candidates brand themselves: Objective statements: When there are many qualified candidates, like today, employers dont care what your objective is. They dont care what you want, until they are ready to make you a job offer by that time, theyve asked. Creating a first impression about what you want doesnt tell the employer why youre the perfect candidate for their position it just makes you look like everyone else. Profile and summary sections: Profile and summary sections brand you as a commodity by their very nature because the entire intent of profile/summary sections are to throw a bunch of stuff against the wall to see what sticks. This random branding doesnt differentiate you from 99% of the other candidates who do the exact same thing. Key skills section: Throwing up a bunch of key skills brands you as a commodity. How could it possibly brand you as a superior candidate? The whole reason you have a key skills section at the beginning of your resume is because you dont know what that employer is looking for, so instead you dump a laundry list of skills, crossing your fingers and hoping that you match some of the employers needs. What you can do instead to brand yourself as a superior candidate Start out by forgetting what youve been taught about resumes. Youve been taught to brand yourself as a commodity when it didnt matter because there was such a shortage of skilled candidates that you could get a job just by random job search methods. If you sent enough of the same resume to enough people, you could get close, which was enough to get you a job. Instead use these steps to brand yourself as the superior candidate for the job: Superior information: The better the information you have about your target employer and hiring manager the better you can brand yourself as a superior candidate. Even though we were taught to use publicly available information on Google, company websites and job descriptions, its inferior. You can find superior information by talking to people within the employer and hiring managers department. Choose the right information: All employer information is not created equal. When you first learn the hiring managers priorities, you can emphasize the problems that youve already solved that are similar to the hiring managers priorities. To a hiring manager, a superior candidate has already solved problems that are similar to the hiring managers priority problems. Timing: Gaining this information before you customize your resume is critical. Most candidates dont do much research until they prepare for interviews after already branding themselves as a commodity. Most candidates dont talk to people inside the hiring managers department until they interview. You dont have to be most candidates by gaining this information early in the process, you give yourself the best chance at branding yourself as a superior candidate. So ask yourself do you really want to go the traditional route and brand yourself as a commodity? Or will you break new ground and brand yourself as a superior candidate? Author: Phil Rosenberg  is President of  http://www.reCareered.com, a leading job search information website and gives complimentary job search webinars at  http://ResumeWebinar.com. Phil also runs the Career Central group, one of Linkedin’s largest groups for job seekers and has built one of the 20 largest personal networks on Linkedin globally.