Resume, Cover Letter, E-Mail: Are Yours Carbon Copies or a Picture Perfect Portrait?

Applying for jobs is not only time consuming, it is probably one of the most nerve-racking experiences ever.  You’ve spent hours if not days compiling materials just to put into your resume, you now have to move on to the cover letter, then after you’ve probably stressed yourself beyond reason you have to write them an e-mail! Now the question is, are you just creating carbon copy replicas of each of the priors or are you creating a written masterpiece? Each one building off of the last, creating the perfect picture of who you are.

The Resume

Your resume is the base layer, the primer of this portrait. It is what everything else is built on.  Your resume will have the essentials, who you are, how to get a hold of you, where you’ve worked, what you’ve done and various skills you possess.  This is not the time to try and focus on who you are.  Granted you can show pieces of your personality through layout and design, there’s time for that later.  The resume is just meant to give the base structure but definitely don’t be afraid to have a little fun with it, because it could definitely help with getting it (and you) noticed.

The Cover Letter

You’ve laid the base, now you can start working on the big picture. Don’t just repeat the same things you did in your resume. Take what you had in your resume and elaborate, bring it to life. Give stunning visuals of what you’ve done and don’t forget to say how it can benefit the company – they like it when you do that. Here is where you really get to shine and show who you are and what you bring to the table so truly don’t hold back, create something that is awe-inspiring and will land you the job of the century.

The E-Mail

By now you’re probably worn out, brain is toast and you’re out of inspiration. Don’t fret. Just stick it out a little longer and finish this masterpiece. The e-mail is where you will put all the finishing touches on all of the main points you’ve worked so hard to create. Give a quick reason as to why they should open your attachments and continue reading, what is it that makes you so appealing? Don’t forget to thank them in advance and once again, provide all of your contact information, you can never have that in too many places.  What good would it be if you did all this work and they couldn’t contact you?  Now, click send.

The Portrait as a Whole

When you’ve constructed your resume, cover letter and e-mail to the company you’re applying to it is truly a time for admiration. You need to check, recheck and triple check every detail of this process to ensure its perfection.  Like all art, it takes practice to be perfect but when you add your own personal flare to it and maintain optimism – you will succeed!

The Mystery May Be Gone, But Your Control Reigns Supreme

A long time ago, in a world seemingly forgotten, there was mystery to be had about one’s self. Long gone are the days when we didn’t know a thing about you and now here in full force are the days where, though I’ve never met you, I know how tall you are, when your birthday is, how many pets you own and what you like to top your ice cream with. Who are we to thank for this? Well, ourselves, but social media creators are the big ones here. Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily.

With outlets such as Facebook, we create elaborate profiles detailing just about every little aspect of our personal brand in order for our peers to know us better. Outlets such as Twitter keep us updated on what everyone is doing every second of the day. However, what was originally created to keep us in touch with friends, businesses have capitalized on as major screening sources for potential employees. This may sound pretty crappy but I assure you it can be played to your advantage, but then again it can also turn around and nip you in the butt.

The largest advantage of this lack of mystery is that you control it. I’m not talking privacy settings here because there’s about a billion ways around those. It’s all about what you post. You’ve heard it all before I’m sure, but I really do reiterate the notion of avoiding those party pictures where in every one you are holding another alcoholic beverage or the one where you’re running from the cops, I can’t even begin to tell you how much is wrong with that scenario. Are you posting just anything random just for the sake of doing it? Although, that is not always the best approach. It might work for you, but it’s not something I highly recommend. Utilize every field, every moment and every update, all to your advantage.

When you are the master of your content, you know all of it’s ins and outs. So, when you head into that interview, just remember, the mystery may be gone, but your control reigns supreme.

Marketing Yourself During a Recession

So you’ve graduated. You now have a piece of paper that you paid $200,000 for and you’re soaring on top of the world with your limitless hopes and dreams. You’re marketing yourself every way you know how. Yet, you can’t seem to find a job anywhere and you’re rapidly sinking into despair. Wow, this recession really bites, especially for us recent college graduates. I really hope it ends soon. However, the question is, what are you doing in the mean time? Hopefully, during this recession you’re marketing yourself. Though the job market is a rough one with unemployment of roughly 10%, which is extremely high no matter which way you look at it. If you’re part of this percentage, don’t fall prey to the crushing weight of a recession. Utilize this time to your benefit.

Internships are Virtually Recession-Proof (and a Great Way to Market Yourself)

The company gets an employee that doesn’t get a paycheck, take that recession! Besides, interns don’t just get the coffee anymore. As an intern you are just as much a part of the team as everyone else. Granted you might still get more of the little work that nobody else want to do but at least you’re working for the company. Now, a big part of this is that you make sure you get an internship in a field that you want to be in. We’re told all through school to make sure we have an internship or 20 under our belts. Well don’t just get an internship to have one. Make sure it’s beneficial to you and your future career. Another good thing to remember about internships is that you’re working for a company for free and if you’re willing to do this and you do it well, you never know, there may be a job waiting for you at the end of the 3-6 month tunnel.

Volunteers are Selfless (and Marketable)

Well the selfless thing isn’t always entirely true. Odds are you’re doing it to make yourself look better, but that’s not always a bad thing. It can be a great way to beef up the résumé while at the same time benefiting society, but there’s more to it than that. This is another great way to show you’re able to work hard even with no pay. Though it would be nice to be in something that could potentially benefit your future career, I personally feel that not as necessary here. It is a great way to spend your time being productive and keeps you from getting lazy.

Entrepreneurs Rule (and Guess What? Marketable)

Now’s your chance! You’re probably insanely in debt, have no job or if you do it’s only part-time and you’re college loans haven’t come due. Your mind is swarming with ideas. With the age of the Internet and technology being relatively cheap and affordable, what’s stopping you from taking all this free time you have and making something great out of it. Write a book, write a business plan about that Internet start-up you’ve been thinking about and there’s always that fun little freelance thing you hear so much about. You can do any of these and hopefully a million that I’ve not listed, just do them.

These are but a few of the options for marketing yourself during a recession. Remember, just because school is out and we’re in a recession doesn’t mean you get to quit learning or marketing yourself. It’s an eternal process. The more you do and learn outside of college, the more impressive your résumé becomes and the more beneficial you become as a working member of society. This of course will lead to the job of your dreams as long as you put forth the effort.

One of the Best Interview Tools: Your Personal Brand

Your personal brand is the best tool you have for your upcoming interview. You are likely in panic mode though. You feel like you are forgetting the basic details. Such as your name. Ultimately, this is one of those things that might not be in your favor. If you are not in panic mode, then I extend my congrats to you because you are one step closer to a good interview, but if you want a great interview, I have a personal tip for you that has helped me and many others make that leap. It is not really a big secret, especially over here at Brand-Yourself. Your personal brand — this is what you need to take to your interview. Just like you have a heard a million times before, selling your personal brand, but what does this truly mean? That is what I intend to clear up for you.

We have all been in this situation before: we were all set for the interview, but now that we are there we are sweating bullets the size of cannon balls. “Is my iron off? My apartment could be burning to the ground right now. Crap! I’m probably being robbed right now. My stuff is gone. What job am I applying for again?” Do not worry. Your iron is off. You still have an apartment, complete with all of your unstolen stuff. In fact, you have the most important tool you need for this interview, your brand! Who knows you better than you? Well, a stalker maybe, but that is a police issue that we are unfortunately unequipped to handle. Now bring your brand forward.

Take what you have prepared and put your spin on it. Make it sound like you were built for this job. We all love talking about ourselves, do not deny it. This is your opportunity to do it and to do it with style. The company wants to get a feel for your personality and what you bring to the table, they most likely do not want a pre-programmed robot that acts on command and if they are do you really want to be there?

Using Your Personal Brand in 3 easy steps:

1. Practice/break down the question.

2. Answer the question with a little “you” attached.

3. Repeat as needed.

Practice/Break Down the Question

Practice the questions beforehand that the interviewer might ask so that you are better prepared. Breaking down a question on the spot and giving back an intelligent answer on the spot is a very hard skill to master. By doing this you will not stumble all over the answer. Do not worry though. You are allowed a little stumbling. This process will just help you out a lot in the end and put a minimum on the mistakes.

Answer Question with a Little “You” Attached

Here is where you take those broken down parts and make them your own. We will take the two parts from the question above. You can start by stating what you know about how they do it. Show that you know their business. Then, when answering the part about your knowledge, you will not simply wish to say that you know it and that you can do more than just the bare minimum. You want to state approaches you have previously used to accomplish what they already do but with your own version of it and explain what it has done and why it has worked for you. I will use Twitter as an example as it is one of the fastest growing social marketing tools around, you could state something like, “I have noticed that your marketing has drawn in X amount of new business via Twitter but also I have noticed that your not retweeted as much as you could be. Have you considered shortening your tweets to around 120 characters so that others have the ability to retweet with minimal editing to allow it to fit? I feel this could bring in further word-of-mouth business.” Instead of regular run-of-the-mill answer, you have successfully just stated your knowledge of the matter while simultaneously showing your ability to innovate. You have attached a little of “you” into this answer.

Repeat

Do just that, repeat the process on the next question.

I speak all of this from personal experience and realize that interviews are extremely nerve-wracking. Just remain calm. Remember, you are who you are and your potential employer knows this — this is exactly why they called you. They want to know more about your personal branding. Thankfully, you have been perfecting this brand for years. You may not have even realized it and now you have an amazing opportunity at getting this job that you have always wanted.

For more posts about your personal brand and other interview tips check out these blog posts:

1. Using Social media to develop your personal brand
2. How to Write a Short, Professional Bio On Yourself (Learn from a master)
3. Branding Interview with Ola Rynge
4. How to Answer Interview Questions

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Jeffrey is a graduate of Michigan State University. Known in various lairs of the Interweb as makeyourownfun. A writer, an innovator and a true idea man. He loves pretty much everything to do with the arts. Whether it be designing new graphics or writing random thoughts in his journal, if he’s not creating, he’s probably sleeping; even then its a crazy world. He pushes everyone to be at their best and encourages creativity on all levels in order to inspire innovation.