Standing out as an applicant (Part 1)
Many clients have asked me, “Jess, how do we stand out in a pile of applicants with similar backgrounds”. My answer:
You have to find a way to think outside the box whilst operating inside of the box.
Applying for jobs takes time and effort. When done well, it’s an iterative and thoughtful process. In this two-part series to create a standout application, I will touch on looking for THE right job and then how you can use unconventional tactics to help your application stand out in the pile.
First, you should start with a solid resume. We covered off the basic elements of a good resume here in this blog. Next, you should find your sounding board to help you better understand and reflect on your strengths and weaknesses. Being introspective and understanding where you excel and where you may fall short, enables you to select roles which are more appropriate for you.
Remember, selecting the right roles, involves starting from the beginning and understanding what it is that you SHOULD and what it is that you MUST do. Read on here for the full blog about starting your career journey. In summary, picking the right career path involves understanding what makes you ‘tick’ and what you feel compelled to do despite societal pressures. Once you understand this, the path forward becomes much clearer.
Lastly, you can take the information you have to share out with your network and inform them of exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re unsure, you can highlight to key individuals in your network what your strengths are and what you enjoy doing. It’s impossible for you to be aware of all the positions out there so leverage those around you and their contacts to help you create your ideal job description.
Now you may be asking how so much of this is about the actual writing of the application itself. Truth is, there is so much more to applying for a role than writing a piece to submit. It’s believing that the role you’re applying for is for you and you alone. When you have this attitude, it translates across your written submission and elevates it above other submissions. Passion and self-belief are contagious and this is what you want your submission to embody. But how can we capture our passion and self-belief in writing?
When you’re passionate and believe in yourself, you put your heart into what you do. When you put your heart into what you do, you dedicate yourself to what you’re doing. With dedication comes, revision, 100% effort and detail orientedness. So when you write your submission, you must start early, have others you trust (i.e. your sounding board) review your submission and revise it thoroughly.
Below are my basic steps for how you should tackle a job application which you believe is THE ONE for you. Remember that it’s likely not feasible and will be exhausting to put this amount of effort into every single application so use these tactics for THE job you really want. If it’s one you’re only partially interested in, feel free to use a mix of tactics below as applicable to your situation.
Step 1: Research the company and the hiring manager.
Find out all you can about the role, their values, their org structure (you can decipher this on LinkedIn), strategy, etc. Find out all you can. In this phase, think critically about whether this role is for you. In your research, you may find out something about this company which doesn’t align with your values so it’s important that you don’t skip this step.
Step 2: Identify key players in the organisation.
This will not be of immediate use, but if you’re able to connect with anyone from the organisation. Ideally, someone of a similar level to the role, you can speak with them about the key competencies the HR team looks for. If the meeting goes well, you may even be able to leverage that relationship and develop an internal champion.
Step 3: Highlight key words in the Job Description (JD).
Alongside the company’s values, the key words are ‘key’ in ensuring your application passes through the system. At times, I tell clients to change and include keywords throughout their resume as they are named in the job description. Why? Larger companies have internal auditing systems which exclude resumes by lack of key work hits. This is usually for governments or other larger organisation with large numbers of applications. If it’s an HR person who will be reviewing the resume, use the ‘expected qualifications’ list as a checklist of skills you must highlight on your resume. Use the same language as they’ve used in their JD. Remember, very rarely will you have an HR professional extrapolate from your resume. In fact, it’s better to be as prescriptive as possible.
Step 4: Have several people review your application.
This may seem like overkill, but we all view the world with a different lens so having multiple reviewers will help to ensure you haven’t missed anything on your resume. They may also provide some insight into where you can strengthen your presentation of yourself.
Step 5: Leave it alone and revisit it after a few days.
The final step is to leave your application alone. This may seem counter intuitive, but this is why I advise to start in advance so you can factor in this time. When you leave your document alone, it enables you to revisit it with fresh eyes. In fact, constantly starting at the same doc doesn’t make for productive work so take a break. Both you and your application will benefit from it.
Once you’re happy with where your application is at and you’re proud you’ve put your best effort in, it’s time to activate the non-traditional tactics. These are my secret tactics I use to get my application to the top of the pile. It’s the things you don’t learn from websites, mentoring centres or formal education.
Stay tuned because I will cover the things you always wish you knew in my next blog.
