We’ve been hearing a lot in the news lately about the real estate market and that got me thinking, not about real estate as we are accustomed to, but rather resume, application and LinkedIn real estate. We are missing out on so many opportunities to sell ourselves in these areas that it’s crucial you know about them so you can immediately fix them.
Let’s start with the biggest real estate area; your resume:
There are two resumes that I want to talk about; one and two page resumes. When writing a one page resume, this is for people who have minimal experience, it is crucial that you fill up the entire page. For people who have enough experience for two pages, make sure it is a full two pages, not a page and a half.
That’s the simple part, now what do you fill all the white space with? Try to stand out from the crowd instead of conforming. We all know what the typical resume looks like; lots of bullet points! Change it up. Recently, I was working with a client who only had ¾ of a page worth of content, so we added in a career competencies section which was a combination of their strengths and accomplishments in one.
In addition to this, don’t be afraid to change the margins on your resume. This is an easy way to squeeze in that extra space you may need and utilize that white space.
Next, let’s discuss the application.
Many applications will ask open ended questions to learn more about you before screening you. Unfortunately, many people either leave this section blank or write, see resume. Once again, you’re missing a fantastic opportunity to sell yourself with this great real estate. The most common questions you will see are, “Why should we hire you?” and/or “Why are you applying to this job?”. In both of these questions, you need to sell yourself. Do not write an essay, but be able to deliver your “elevator speech” into a well written paragraph.
Lastly, LinkedIn.
There are two great sections on LinkedIn where you are probably losing great real estate; the first being underneath your name on the top and secondly your hobbies.
Underneath your name, most people usually put their job titles and that’s it, but you can add so much more. For example:
Jane Smith – Finance Manager versus Jane Smith, Finance Manager | Consolidated Forecasting | Accounting | Budgeting | A/R+A/P |.
Why do I favor the latter example? It not only tells the reader immediately what your skills are, it also adds keywords to your profile. This will increase your odds of showing up in a search and higher in those results.
As for your hobbies, so many people list things like boating, cars, traveling, etc… Honestly, no one cares that you are fisherman or like cars, LinkedIn is all about professional business. Use this real estate to sell yourself! List your professional hobbies and extracurricular activities. This is your chance to show the reader of your profile that you do more than the typical 9-5. You’re actually passionate about what you do and try to spend your free time enhancing your skills.
This should serve as a Launchpad for you to question where else you might have white space real estate. The goal is to continually sell yourself and show the reader of your resume, application and/or LinkedIn profile that you mean business and that you are the best person for them to hire.
If you want the best odds possible for landing your dream job then you need to let me rewrite your resume for you; you need to admit you need resume help. If you’re unsure then you can email me at marc(at)abetterinterview.com. I am here to help you and I want you to land your dream job!
Be sure to check out my video in regards to my resume writing service, here.
