Blog Post: Differentiate Yourself From the Competition

The word differentiate means to distinguish, to mark as different; to show, or be the distinction between two things. In other words, why should a hiring manager hire you over every other candidate they are looking at? What makes you UNIQUE? I am not talking about being different for the sake of being different, i.e. purple hair or platform shoes. I am talking about your ability to communicate your skills and abilities. I am talking about being able to connect with the hiring manager in such a way, that when you walk away you are memorable for all the right reasons.

Years ago when I was competing for jobs in the marketplace, I would imagine that I was the last person they wanted to interview. For whatever reason, they decided to give me a chance and I was at the bottom of their candidate list. My job when I walked into the interview was to interview in such a way that I moved from the bottom of the list to one of their top candidates. On a short list, they called me first. How do you interview in such a way that you move yourself from the least likely candidate that would get the job offer to the top of the list, and you got the first offer.

Differentiation is how you do it. Here are a few things for you look at in your job search strategy:

1. Does your resume look like all the other resumes in the pile?

2. Do you have a distinctive cover letter that gives a one page summary of who you are?

3. What do you know about the organization you are considering?

4. What do you know about the people interviewing you?

5. Why should they hire you over every other candidate they are interviewing?

6. Do you really want to work there or are you interviewing just to get a job?

These are some things to think about as you develop a job search strategy. If you don't know why they should hire you over every other candidate, you are not ready to interview. Get an answer to that question. If you need some help constructing an answer, feel free to contact me. I am happy to assist you as you prepare for your next interview!

Happy Job Hunting!

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