By Melanie Szlucha, Redinc, LLC. www.redincllc.com

Providing resume writing, job interview coaching and job search coaching to clients around the world.

Frequently when I’m working with clients to write their resumes or prepare for job interviews, they admit that they’re not comfortable talking about their accomplishments. They were brought up not to brag, so having to sell themselves in the job search process goes against everything in their nature.

I completely understand where they’re coming from, so I try to put a different perspective on the situation.

1. Your accomplishments can’t speak for themselves if you don’t say them. Describing what you’ve done in a particular situation and the outcome lets the hiring manager or recruiter learn more about how you solve problems and how effective you are.
2. By only providing the job description of each role you’ve held, you’re not differentiating yourself from the competition. For example, if everyone who applied for a Marketing Director job only included what their job responsibilities were, the resumes would all look the same. Your unique accomplishments get an employer excited about what you could do for their organization.
3. Most people think of selling themselves as being pushy, but we all know that pushy salespeople often don’t get the sale. Selling yourself in this case means knowing what you’re good at and simply describing the situation. Let the employer draw their own conclusions.

The fact is that you can’t expect an employer to get excited about you as a candidate if you can’t show them that you’re worth the salary and benefits you’re asking for.

This is especially true when working with a recruiter who then needs to pitch you to their client. By working with them to give them the talking points they need, you make their job easier when presenting you to the hiring manager.

Melanie Szlucha has been a hiring manager for over 10 years. She founded RedInc, LLC to help job seekers by writing effective resumes and coaching them through job interviews. She is available to teach classes as well as work with individual clients improve their results at any phase of the job search process. Find out more at www.redincllc.com

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