How to stand out in a growing crowd of job seekers

The influx of unemployed people into the job market means you’ll need to shine a little brighter than before to land a position. While you may be the best candidate for the job you want, recruiters and hiring managers will have a lot of other people fighting for their attention. You need to cut through that noise and chaos to land that position.

You can stand out through your networking, which we covered last week with Dorie Clark, but it’s also important to make an impression through your resume and profile. So, I reached out to Jessica Hernandez, who is the president and CEO of Great Resumes Fast.

Grab attention up top

You’ll want to grab a recruiter’s or hiring manager’s attention by possibly leading with a specific position, she told me in an email. Showcase it by using industry-specific keywords and hard skills, which are the learnable ones you need to know to do the job. Use bulleted lists so there’s white space and they stand out. 

“Ditch the general career summary you see on most resumes and instead give them a quantifiable career snapshot that includes key points and successes from your career,” said Hernandez. “Keep it brief and quantifiable.” 

By quantifiable, she said it could be how much money you brought into the company, how many people you managed, the projects you led, how often you did certain tasks, and etc.

“All of these are quantifiable, and they show how you create value and deliver impact. These are what make you stand out as a candidate and even more so during a difficult time like the pandemic we’re all currently facing.” 

Show resilience

Especially now, it’s also important to show that you can overcome challenges. You can do that within your resume by answering three questions, said Hernandez.

1. What are some challenges you faced during your time in the position?
2. How did you address the obstacles you ran into throughout your work experience?
3. What was the outcome? Did you overcome? Was it a success? Can you add the result to your list of achievements?

Get creative with some sections

Hernandez also suggests using “call outs” on your resume. Those are “keyword-rich sections of content with clear separations between sections to give each point its own space without becoming crammed with information.” 

Those sections could be off to the side, titled “areas of expertise” or something similar that list quantifiable content. They can be especially useful if you use keywords that would attract a person’s or applicant tracking system’s attention. We discussed keywords several months ago with Dana Leavy-Detrick, director and founder of Brooklyn Resume Studio, and Chris Villanueva, founder and CEO of Let’s Eat, Grandma. You can read more about using them by clicking here.

“These ‘call outs’ are visual, break up content, give white space, but also cause the eye to focus its attention on important points you want to make sure the employer will see. Include your most noteworthy accomplishments in the call outs,” said Hernandez. 

Don’t forget your profile 

Chances are that recruiters and hiring managers will also look at your LinkedIn profile. Hernandez said you should ask people within your network to share specific and impactful recommendations.

“When you ask someone to recommend you share with them exactly what you’re hoping to address in the recommendation,” she said. “Maybe it’s the outcome of how you handled a specific project or how your timely intervention saved the company millions. The more specific someone can be in their recommendation the more it will stand out to employers and recruiters.”

As Dorie Clark spoke about in the edition mentioned above, it’s also important to engage with people online. “One of the quickest ways you can stand out is to start engaging with your connections, sharing updates relevant to your industry or area of expertise, connect with hiring manager/recruiters at your target companies and start engaging with their content,” Hernandez told me.

Additionally, she said it’s important to make your profile a unique experience. Don’t just copy and paste your resume. 

“Every single employer and recruiter I’ve spoken with in the past 13 years I’ve been in the industry has said they go to a candidate’s LinkedIn profile to find out more about them. Not to reread their resume,” she said. “Give them a memorable story of your career that resonates or that they can connect with in a way that a resume just doesn’t allow.” 

How do you plan to make yourself stand out during the job search process? Join the conversation.

? Speaking of resumes:

My colleagues at LinkedIn Learning have created a wonderful resource featuring several different courses related to job searching in a difficult economy. You can see the courses by clicking here, but I’ve also embedded one of those courses below. In it, Stacey Gordon explains best practices for writing a resume.

? State of the job market:

You may think that job seeking advice is a bit pointless during this difficult time, but — as we discussed in past editions — the economic downturn caused by the ongoing pandemic is not the same across industries and regions. While the U.S. Labor Department announced that a record-setting 6.6 million people filed unemployment claims for the first time between March 22 and March 28, new LinkedIn data show that Atlanta, Cleveland, Seattle, St. Louis, Denver and Dallas have been more resilient than other parts of the country when it comes to jobs. We’re doing our best to keep an updated list of employers hiring a substantial amount of people across the country.

Also, while I try my best not to talk too much about LinkedIn in this newsletter, my colleagues just launched several important job initiatives, including one to help show you the critical jobs that need to be filled right now.

? Need more job search help?

As I’ve said before, I will do my best to keep you up to date with the latest tools and tips to help you #GetHired. To keep track of those various pieces of information, I created a one-stop shop where I’m summarizing and linking to a lot of my newsletters. You’ll also find accompanying LinkedIn Learning courses below most of the topics. Click here to check out the guide.

? The follow-up:

Job seekers may feel the mental health strain of looking for work while stuck at home and hearing about millions of people filing for unemployment. There are steps they can take to safeguard their mental health, though. Lisa Orbé-Austin, a psychologist and executive coach at Dynamic Transitions Psychological Consulting, shared her suggestions in the last edition of #GetHired. She suggested creating routines, limiting the time you spend looking for work, taking a break from the news and considering talking to a professional. Here’s what people are saying about that advice.

? Up next:

In the next edition of #GetHired, we’ll heard from people who work in career services offices at colleges and universities around the U.S. about what the class of 2020 can do to set themselves up for success during this difficult time. Do you have your own advice for graduating students? Tell me in the comments below.

? Speaking of the pandemic...

My team at LinkedIn is curating a page of information about the pandemic from official sources, such as the World Health Organization. As someone who spent the better part of a decade as a health and medical reporter, I know that accurate information is among the best defenses we have in these situations. You can find LinkedIn’s page about the new coronavirus here: lnkd.in/virusfacts

Thanks for reading! Feel free to reach out to me if you have ideas on topics or questions I should address in future editions of #GetHired. You can also email me at GetHired[at]LinkedIn.com.

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