TO STAND OUT IN JOB SEARCH - QUANTIFY

Let's face it, Job Search is hard. It is probably the hardest JOB you will ever have. Successful job search requires the same degree of commitment as any other job; a full commitment of your time, efforts, creativity, morale and motivational energy. If that was not enough to seem intimidating, it is that dreaded job that the majority of workers avoid like the plague: A Sales Job.

In Job Search, you are selling yourself to employers; selling your talents, your skills, your education, your experience and your character as a worker. But did you know that employers are not buying most job-seeker's sales pitches? The reason why they are not buying these pitches is actually pretty easy to understand. It is so easy for job candidates to list out a bunch of impressive sounding skills and qualities, which employers often find out later, were not all that real. Besides, if every resume and interview answer simply lists the same skills and qualifications, how is an employer to accurately rate one candidate compared to another?

For this reason, hiring managers and resume screeners are not simply looking for lists of qualifications, they are looking for some sort of proof that you have those qualifications, and that you have them at a higher level than your competition for the job. I advise my clients, instead of focusing on lists of skills, abilities and experiences, to provide examples of how their past work accomplishments prove that they have such qualifications. That is the first great secret to selling yourself to an employer as the best candidate.

The second secret is equally powerful, and that is to allow an employer to visualize you doing the tasks of the job well in the past by not just listing your achievements in your past jobs, but by quantifying those achievements. You can provide quantification in terms of MONEY you made or saved for your employer, TIME you spent doing the job, or time you saved the employer by improving process, and the number of PEOPLE you served or led and to what degree you made things better for those people. Think MONEY, TIME and PEOPLE.

Add accomplishments when you market yourself through resumes, cover letters, online profiles and interview answers. Stand out above the competition by quantifying those achievements to empower the employer to visualize you succeeding in the job. If they visualize you shining in the job, they will hire you.