Resume Digest Blog

Employers are after self-motivated people with drive. The type of person who can permeate the workplace with a healthy, positive attitude. Someone who sees every obstacle as a challenge to overcome, every problem as an opportunity to solve.

The only way you can have those attributes over a sustained period of time is by having some fire in your belly, something to live for, some passion to share...

Those people will be very charismatic during an interview but may non-the-less be screened out because of an average resume.

How do you translate the passion on paper? Step outside the box. When everybody else presents themselves as the sum total of their past work assignments, the champion tells a compelling story.

Instead of listing dates, places and mundane achievements, sell yourself as being the problem solver that you are.

Bear in mind that this is not for every run-of-the-mill type company. An average boss will feel threatened by hiring someone too bright who might take his job soon after...

Again a recession might just be the ticket to force an average company to put all hands on deck and score a marketing coup ahead of their competitors. That level of desperation might just be the climate you need to enter to make your mark. The challenge is to figure out who to talk to. The company might not be hiring right now... in fact they might just be doing the opposite trying to be more lean and mean. Only by reaching to the top can you get the audience that resonates with your message.

Your approach will be more like a partner than an employee. But if you come with ideas and no equity, they might just create a new position for you. Remember that a large number of positions filled never get advertised. Companies would rather procure a candidate through the grapevine rather than being, by a deluge of applicants. If you have never been a salesperson before, this is the one time in your life where you do have to sell your skills in the market place.

Taking rejection can easily be handled this way. Say your monthly salary will be $5,000 and it might take you to knock on 100 doors to get the role you want. Say to yourself each time someone turns you down: "I just made $50!" You might hope to bump into the person you will hire you first and forget about the other 99. But if it turns out to be the other way around you will have enough motivation to last the ordeal.