What will employers remember about you?
With so many candidates interviewing for a given position and only one interviewer, it is quite likely that you will not be remembered without referencing interview notes or some other type of material. If you’re anything like me, that means you need to shift your focus away from becoming the best candidate and towards selling yourself as the best candidate. That is, what are you doing to make yourself stand out amongst the crowd?
Before you can tackle that question, however, you need to know what it is about job candidates that make them memorable in the eyes of an employer. Obviously, your first step is to apply for a position that you are qualified for. That is, one in which you can be successful given the hard skills you have. But after that, what distinguishes one job candidate from another in an interview? Chances are, you’re interviewing against other job candidates that have very similar hard skills to you, or are at least equally capable of performing the given job. Given this, your soft skills are what will separate you from the crowd.
Employers will remember the type of impression you gave them from your interview – not how many articles you wrote at your last publications position. They’ll remember you for your confidence, social skills, integrity, passion, and positive outlook. They may or may not, however, remember your GPA.
This is a very important thing to keep in mind as you’re going through your job search. I like to think that the hard skills I present on my resume get me the interview, but the soft skills I show off in my interview get me the job. This may not be true for all situations, but I can tell you with certainty that soft skills play a major role in how well you do in an interview.
If you’re looking for a way to really get ahead, show your soft skills off before the interview with a video resume. Not only will you be a more memorable candidate because you went the extra mile to actually create a video resume, but you’ll be giving employers another set of strengths to remember you by in addition to the hard skills you list on your resume.
To get started today, visit www.jobma.com and create a free job seeker account. You can start applying to jobs with your video resume today!
