How To Sell Yourself On A Resume? 9 Tips + Examples

How to sell yourself on a resume? 9 tips and strategies

Resume is a marketing document in the first place. Its purpose is to present your value and past successes to convince the employers that you'll excel in the job if hired. Yet, simply listing your previous experience and project is not enough. You need to pitch them and articulate your value as a potential employee to get noticed in today's highly competitive job market. First job resume tips here.

As the economy recovers from the pandemic-driven drop, it's the best time to compose a resume that will cater to recruiters needs and promote your value. Not only a selling resume piques the recruiters' attention faster, it also helps you negotiate a higher salary. In today's article, we will share some techniques for building a persuasive resume from the professional resume writers.

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How to sell yourself on a resume effectively?

According to the statistic, 40% of hiring managers spend under 1 minute reviewing each resume. Therefore, you need to spark their interest fast using the right words and accomplishments. Check out these 100 descriptive words for your resume. Here's how to do exactly this.

Explore company's expectations from the candidate

Take your time to carefully study not only the job posting, but also the company website, their goals and mission. Take note of the job title, keywords and language that describes the ideal candidate and make sure to include all of this in resume text. The majority of companies scan applications of candidates through ATS first. This software checks relevance to the job posting and eliminates irrelevant applications, so if your resume contains no keywords, your resume won't be seen by a real person.

Customize a resume for each specific role

Companies only consider resumes that are related to the jobs posted. Moreover, you will need to adjust the documents anyway for the ATS purposes. Make sure to change the job title based on the vacancy you are applying for. Resume summary might require customization as well, as you will need to explain how your skills will benefit this particular company.

Identify and highlight your strengths

Selling themselves is difficult for many great candidates. If you cannot think what you're great of and how these strengths are relevant to the job description, do a little homework first. Make a list of skills and achievements with the previous employers that you're most proud of. It is imperative to write if each experience directly or indirectly meets the requirements of the vacancy. Then, select the most relevant ones and make sure the resume highlights them well. Don't lie! Professional communities are small, and every employer can tap their network and do a background check. Including a non-existent degree or a job can cost you a chance for employment.

Brag your achievements and awards

Describe accomplishments with figures and give the context. In this way, you will give the hiring manager a clear idea of your competencies. Specify your industry, number of people you managed, cost savings or profitability you achieved. Measurable accomplishments make employers assume that you'll perform just as well (or better) once hired.

If you struggle to identify the accomplishments, here are some ideas:

• Winning a contest or a nomination in the job-related sphere;

• Participation in exhibitions, conferences and master classes;

• Pet projects and volunteering projects

• Publications, scientific conferences and research interests;

• An indication of hobbies if they are related to work (say, you work as a business analyst and are interested in machine learning models).

An example of selling your skills

Bad: Achieved excellent sales growth in 3 years as a salesperson.

Good: Increased sales by 20% in a year over 3 years comparing to 7% on average in the industry.

Bad: Set up the analytical software for the marketing department.

Good: Developed interactive dashboards for the marketing department, resulting in cutting costs by 32% and improved efficiency.

If you are not sure which achievements to include, hire a resume writer. They will present your achievements under the right angle and help correct the shortcomings and mistakes that can damage your job search.

Use customized cover letters

45% of recruiters will reject a resume for not including a letter. Yet, avoid submitting generic or copied-and-pasted letters. Recruiters can spot generic letters from afar, so you'll need to make extra effort here. Explain what makes you a good candidate for the position and provide examples of your past successes. When describing what you're great at, focus on the needs of the business and how your knowledge is related to their current needs. It is very tedious but necessary, since only customized letters that sell your skills for a particular role can spark attention and help in your job search.

Keep the document concise

Make the resume content well-structured, meaningful and consistent. In this case, it will be comfortable to scan through for a reader. Moreover, the way your resume is structure can tell about your personal attributes. If the text is well-structured, employers assume that the candidate knows how to work with information and can clearly outline the most important points.

Write a resume summary statement

Add a Career Summary section right after the contact information. This section is your elevator pitch and is meant to catch the attention of the reader before they move on to other sections. Write 3-4 sentences, and sell your most important career-related skills, personal qualities and previous accomplishments. For example, if they are looking for an account manager who'll need to work with the existing customer base, focus on your ability to maintain relationships and increase profitability.

Add quotes and testimonials

The feedback of others is an important indicator of how your career is going. Include comments of 2-3 people with whom you worked. Ask them to mention specific skills, company projects and other activities that demonstrated your knowledge and competencies. These quotes will work as an example of social proof and boost credibility to you as a professional. Since little candidates do this, your application will undoubtedly stand out and draw the attention!

Include links to professional social media and personal website

Strong online presence is incredibly effective when it comes to selling your professional skills. A well-designed personal website, career-related blog, LinkedIn profile and portfolio of works are more persuasive than a thousand words. If you have any of the above, be sure to add links to your resume to provide the employer with an additional proof of your professionalism and inspire them to call you.

Finding the right words to sell yourself in a job interview

Once you've made it to the interview, it's important to promote yourself just as confidently as you did it on a resume:

Avoid common mistakes

Interview deal-breakers include being late, inappropriate appearance, too relaxed or too tense behavior, lack of initiative and interest, and showing up unprepared. Other mistakes include no questions from your side and silence after the interview. Expert tip: write a thank-you note after the interview to express appreciation for the opportunity to tell about yourself and emphasize that this position is important for you.

Prepare a story about yourself in advance

During the interview, you'll need to tell a story about yourself, and it's hard to sell and market yourself when you're unprepared. Rehearse a short story about your most important career milestones, achievements and goals in front of the mirror so that it sound confident. You need to sound persuasive and convincing, and speak through examples and real case studies.

Do your homework

Explore the employer's website. Check the company's place in the market, whether it is thriving or going through hard times, what problems are of the highest priority for it, and who their CEO is. Look for information about the department in which the vacancy is open, including management, work culture, and values.

Keep calm and dignified

Even if you need a new job urgently, keep confident and calm. Don't go to extremes trying to please them, and let them know that you are considering other opportunities as well. Maintain a confident body language. Sit straight without legs or arms crossed, keep your chin up and maintain the eye contact. Remember that most of information is transmitted non-verbally!

Expand your career opportunities with a professional resume

If you don't work with resumes on a daily basis, it may be challenging to prioritize your experience and decide what career facts better sell you to an employer. At ResumePerk.com, you can order custom resume writing and one of our experts will prepare a strong resume for you, taking care of the writing style, accomplishments and keywords.

You will work one on one with the writer until your requirements are fully met. We offer customer support 24/7, writers with college degrees and the possibility to choose between the American and British writer. Ready to give your career a head start? Hurry up and order your resume package with a 20% discount today!