Marketing Yourself: How to Create a Resume that Grabs Attention

by Hallie Crawford, MA, CPCC

To create the perfect resume you need a good balance. Your resume should follow one of the standard formats that employers have come to expect, yet you should also learn how to best market and highlight your skills. Start to think of your career resume as your personal selling tool. Just like any other piece of written communication, your sole purpose in creating it is to persuade the reader that you're perfect person for the job.

As a career coach, I've come across many resumes over the years. Interestingly, many people leave off the "self-promotional" aspect of resume creation, instead preferring to list out the titles they held at each job in their career history, and describing the tasks they performed while working at those jobs. It's fine to let your potential employer know the responsibilities that have been entrusted to you, but don't leave it at that. You've got to let them know exactly why you are a better choice than the next job candidate who comes along. That means offering tangible evidence of your value.

Next time you think of something positive to include on your list of career accomplishments, figure out a way to position your statement about that accomplishment so that it appeals to the reader from a standpoint of need. Here are some very straightforward examples of how to turn achievements at your job into value-oriented statements that will help market you to your potential future boss.

List of Career Accomplishments:

• Consolidated budget, established sales projections for 2004
• Helped develop order processing and fulfillment procedures for new department
• Assumed temporary manager role during director's extended absence
• Responsible for daily customer service including communicating with vendors, troubleshooting order issues

Same List of Career Accomplishments, Highlighting Sought-After Skills and Demonstrating Value to Employer:

• Finance Management: Consolidated budget, established sales projections, reduced overhead costs by 40% for 2005.

• Exceptional Planning Skills: Helped develop order processing and fulfillment procedures for new department.

• Strong Leader: Assumed temporary manager role during director's extended absence.

• Solid Relationship Builder: Maintained excellent rapport with vendors on a daily basis.

• Effective Problem Solver: Handled day to day challenges, resolved customer service issues calmly and professionally.

As you can see, with the simple addition of a few bold category headers and the addition of a few strong words throughout the copy, you can easily develop a solid case for why you're the best candidate for the job. For some people, resume writing from the "selling" standpoint can be a challenge, which is why as a career counselor I recommend having a seasoned resume writer take a look at your resume and make changes as necessary.

To learn more, read our library of career articles, or contact me, Career Coach Hallie Crawford for a personal consultation today!

Copyright 2007 Hallie Crawford. All rights reserved.

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