Job Search – 6 Ways to Stand Out from the Competition

Finding the career trajectory that is right for you can take time. Once that happens, you want to make sure you are positioned as strategically as possible to snatch up the job of your dreams. I don’t want you to find a job that you know will light a fire in your soul, only to lose out to the next closest applicant.

There are creative and engaging ways to ensure you are being thoroughly reviewed by employers and recruiters today. As a multi-decade entrepreneur and educational expert myself, I want to share with you some of my most cherished tips for getting the job of your dreams. Let’s check them out below.

How to Stand Out from the Competition

1. Make It Personal (When You Can): If you want an employer to remember you and your resume, reach out and try. After an interview, send a follow-up email. Try and connect to people working at the company through LinkedIn. Do what you can to make it personal so you’re not just another resume. That’s why it’s so important to invest time into your imagery across your online networks.

• Do Your Research: The more time you put into your homework when finding a career, the more successful you will be. Instead of blasting a generic resume out to as many outlets as possible, why not tailor it per platform? Find the right job sites for you and bookmark them. Sign up for alerts and take the time to make the resume per site. If you put in your time and research, the ultimate end goal will be that much better.

• Get Your Own Experience: Who says you need to be officially on payroll to get industry experience? Too many people don’t want to work for free today. Offer to volunteer, shadow experts, and complete internships. If your dream job is to write for a newspaper, open your own blog and start researching and writing your own articles. This kind of hands-on experience will be hard for them to ignore when it comes time to make hiring decisions.

• Find a Way to Highlight All of Your Skills: Let’s say you are applying for a coding job, but you are also a highly proficient photographer. Let that be known in some way! Tell the interviewer that you can also offer up your photography skills for the finalized app shoots. This will help them see you as a doubly effective employee that they just can’t live without. Even if you think your skillsets are unrelated, try to think outside of the box.

• Embrace Your Creativity: I believe that everyone has a creative side. It might be singing and dancing, or something that’s more nuanced, like adding colors to words or numbers. Students often tell me that they are “just not creative.” I say that’s not true. Think about your creative assets and how you can employ them on the job. Thinking creatively is how some of the best innovations are brought about at a company. They want to know you are able to bring this kind of ideation.

• Show Your Grit: Life isn’t always easy. It can creep up on any one of us at any time. Some students have gone through intense hardship, while others are enduring the hardest moments of their lives. Show interviewers that you are resilient and come with some grit. They want to know that when the going gets tough, you’re able to buckle down and plow through. You don’t need to provide specific details – just communicate your commitment to work hard and be strong.

How else can I stand out from the competition?

Graduation Regalia from Honor Society A picture is worth a thousand words, which is why your graduation photos will impress recruiters when they see you decked out in accreditations and other accomplished regalia. When you join Honor Society as a member, we provide graduation regalia you can add to your appearance as you accept your diploma. Even better, we provide a certificate of membership you can frame at home. Every time you take on a Zoom interview call, they will see your accreditation in the background. It all culminates in an image of you being a hard-working person that is willing to go above and beyond for what they want.