It’s that time of year when college students start getting more aggressive about applying for internships and first-job-out-of-college jobs. As branding experts, we see everything in life through the lens of branding and marketing – including when you’re marketing yourself.
Some of the candidates we see do a very good job of applying best marketing tactics to their job search. Many who approach us, however, still miss the mark (like referring to us by another agency’s name!) Yup, that still happens. We thought we’d compile some of the misses we often see to help job seekers keep themselves in the running in their search.
We put together 6 of the key elements that can make a difference in standing out from the competition by simply applying tried- and true- best marketing practices to your efforts. Read the first 3 today and come back next week for the other half!
1. Finish your LinkedIn profile already! :)
Our observations are that many millennials find LinkedIn boring and tedious, especially compared to other social media. But it is often the first place hiring managers look to find out more about you and start to understand what your personal brand is, so block out some time and finish it up. An added bonus is that complete profiles are more likely to get unsolicited interest. What could make the job search easier than having companies come to you? It’s like SEO for your job search. One more thing…add a photo that shows your more professional side. LinkedIn is not the place to flaunt your fun-party side (that’s what Facebook and Snapchat are for.)
2. Guard your social media
Speaking of Facebook, please take a moment to block non-friends from seeing your pics. We are sure that college was a lot of fun, and there is probably lots of evidence of that in the form of photos. But you probably don’t want prospective employers to think there’s a risk you won’t make it into work on time, because you’re so much fun at a bar. We mention it, because we see it! Even if you think you know your privacy settings, double check. Or better yet, triple check.
3. PDF your resume
Yup, we still get a bunch of resumes as a Word document. We have nothing against Microsoft products. But often they don’t render the way the writer intended, and it’s super distracting. Even worse, your prospective employer might accidentally modify your Word document and never even notice. Further, it indicates a lack of attention to detail. Most of what we send to clients is in PDF form, so it renders the way we intend. We want to hire people who don’t forget that step.
Stay tuned for Part 2!