Beyond the Resume: Tips for Marketing Yourself to Employers

The job-seeking process entails much more than a perfect and polished resume. Marketing yourself involves honestly presenting your positive features in a way that interests the other person. When marketing yourself, your potential employers will be looking for many values and attributes as they seek to understand you.

Evaluate your Market
Knowledge of your job industry is very crucial. To learn about the industry, reach out to professionals who have experience in this field and inquire if they may be willing to sit down and talk with you. You should also conduct research on the firm that will interview you. Knowing about the industry and or company in advance helps you to be well prepared and gain self-confidence which is crucial for the process.

Sell Yourself By Asking Questions
Interviewers will be impressed with your knowledge of the firm and the industry. This sets you apart from others as most interviewers remember more of what they have said during a meeting than what the applicants have said. Questions in an interview make you come across as a strategic thinker with an open mind.

Establish a Rapport
When you go to an interview or a networking event, you should be swift enough to create a good relationship with the person across next to you. A firm handshake, maintaining eye contact and keeping the mood upbeat are some of the ways of enhancing a close rapport. After all, personality is considered as one of the most important parts of hiring.

Identify your Skills and Unique Selling Points
Your prospective employer will be interested in your skills, work ethic, and expertise. Therefore, you should know your strengths and what you can achieve at the company. Marketing specialists with public relations degrees recommend viewing yourself as a brand with customers to impress. Your description of your skills and competencies should set you apart. Your interviewer will remember your stories and not generalizations, hence it is important that you sell yourself with specific examples. Your unique selling point could be specialized training or a combination of past experiences and personal interests. Once you have honed them, make sure your potential employer knows about them.

Marketing yourself to employers should never be a hard sell. In this uncertain economy and competitive job market, you should be able to convince them that you have the skills and knowledge to take their company and industry forward. These four tips mentioned above will ultimately assist you in building a self-marketing pillar that will propel you towards greater job opportunities.

This guest post was written by Emma Sturgis. Emma is a freelance writer based in Boston, MA. She writes most often on business and education. To see more from Emma, say hi on Twitter @EmmaSturgis2.