Selling Yourself On A Resume
Hi, I'm Nicole Coggan, and today, I'm here to talk about selling yourself on the resume. Now, this is something that many of you do well, but some demographics if some of my customers have a little bit more difficulty with others. Now, not to point fingers or anything, but if you're a woman, you might want to watch this, and if you're in the over 50 demographic, this is also talking straight to you.
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So, as you know, your resume is currently competing with anywhere like 160 other applicants for some positions. So, you really need to stand out in the crowd and not be shy about your achievements.
Now, there is a certain demographic of my customers that have a little bit of trouble with this. For example, I'm going to use this example, it's slightly exaggerated but very relevant. As a general rule, if I'm writing a man's resume, I swear I could write ‘can fly a Boeing 747’. I don't even know if that's a real thing, you know, a big plane. I could write that on the guy's resume, and a dude would be like, oh, yeah, how hard can it be, and would just leave it on there. A slight exaggeration, but not too far off the mark.
Women, and I would say people over the age of 50, they're on the complete opposite end of the scale. So, you guys usually need the most help with selling yourself to employers. I’ll give you an example of some of the comments I've had from this demographic before. For example, if I use the word dynamic, a lot of this demographic will say, I don't really know if I'm dynamic, yeah, I don't know if that's a good word, maybe I shouldn't use any words like that to describe me just in case they think that I'm really dynamic. Or if I say fast typist, and they have a really good record of being a fast typist, they'll be like, can you, please, take out the word fast. They might expect me to be super, super fast. So, totally different from my male example of the flying the 747s or whatever they are. Men, as a general rule, I don't have a lot of problem with them, they're really happy to sell themselves. They'll sing from the rooftop and say, I've done this and this and this and this and this, and I want it all on my resume, and I want everyone to be able to see it. But some of the other demographics have a little bit more problem with that. For example, they'll say, oh, I don't think you should list those achievements on there, they make me sound better than I am. They don't make you sound better than you are because they're your achievements and you actually did achieve them, so, they're not making you sound better than you are, they are you, they're your achievements, and you need to own them. Because you're competing with the dudes that think they could fly the Boeing 747! So, when it comes to achievements, it is a big confidence things guys. If you have the achievements, you need to let your resume writer know, you need to make sure it's on your resume, and you need to make sure it is on the first page of that resume so that when the employer reads it, they see somebody that can get the job done. This is all a mindset thing. I want you to sit down, I want you to work out what your achievements are, and then when you do up your resume, I want them smack-bang on the first page. And I don't want to hear any excuses like, they'll think I'm way too good, they'll think I'm conceited, they'll think that I can do things I'm not - they're your achievements, list your achievements.
If you have any questions about this, or you need a little bit more help with the mindset, please, let me know, you can contact me by email below. And remember, confidence is key. If you can't sell yourself on your resume, you've got Buckley's chance of selling yourself at the interview and actually obtaining the jobs. Because for every person who's not banging their own drum and highlighting their achievements, there are 50 other applicants out there that are letting the employers know that they are the best of the best of the best.