Focusing on your strengths in your resume and at job interviews

By on September 28, 2009 in Uncategorized

Resumes & job interviews

One of the most important things to remember when writing a resume or attending an interview is to sell yourself, think about what you have to offer the employer and why you are the best person for the job, what can you do to make yourself stand out and make sure the employer remembers you. Successful resumes and interviews are all about matching what you have to offer, your particular skills and achievements with what the company is looking for.

Concentrate on your five best skills or achievements

Before the interview takes place concentrate on your five best skills and how you can put them across to the interviewer in a way that will make you stand out from the crowd. Your objective is to match your best skills with the job on offer and get these points across to the interviewer ensuring when you leave the interview you will not be forgotten easily.

Think of ways that you can get your achievements across many times throughout the interview, for instance if you are having an interview for a position that requires great organisational skills and the interviewer starts off by saying “tell me a little about yourself”, now is the time to make a start on getting your point across and selling yourself of how well you are at organising. You could start off by saying “one of my key skills is organisation.” and continue with examples of skills in your previous jobs.

Later in the interview you could bring organisational skills up again in a different way, say for example as a story you tell.

When asked “what makes you the best person for the job” again reiterate how good your organisational skills are and how you could be a positive part of the working team.

By repeating your best skills over and over you are far more likely to remain on the interviewers mind than by just mentioning them once or twice during the interview.

Defining your strong points

You not only have to identify your five strongest points or skills but also make sure they relate to what the job has to offer, make sure you read through the job description several times and know what particular skills the company is looking for.

For example if the job description includes interacting with accounting and manufacturing departments think about what is needed to accomplish this and what kind of person the company are looking for.

This particular example would require excellent communication and interpersonal skills, if you are particularly skilled in these areas then make sure you keep letting the interviewer know this.

The point of the interview is to sell yourself as the best candidate for the position and by focusing on just a handful of skills and pointing these out, you will more than likely leave a good impression on the interviewer that won’t quickly be forgotten.

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