14 Ways to Stand Out if You’re Applying to Jobs Right Now
That don’t take too much time
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Let’s get one thing out of the way: I am not a recruiter and I’m not a certified resume writer. What I am is someone who approaches job applications as a creative challenge. When I’ve applied to jobs in the past, I’ve always thought:
- How can I stand out?
- How can I make it clear I really, really want this job?
- How can I go beyond what everyone else is doing?
- How can I do these things in the most efficient way possible?
I’m also a content strategist by trade, which comes in handy here. Telling memorable stories is my thing.
By mid-March, it became clear that widespread layoffs were inevitable. As the months went on, I saw post after post from friends, current and former colleagues and other connections who were out of work. I didn’t have jobs for them, but I knew I had to do something. So I posted the following, which I’ve been happy to see all over LinkedIn the past several months.
It’s a chaotic time to apply for jobs at best. Many are juggling taking care of family and other obligations and have little time to devote to the search. And with so many people looking for a new role right now, it’s important to stand out.
Here’s the thing: I’m the mom of a four month old born at the start of the pandemic. I’m not going to pretend like anyone’s focus is at an all-time high or that anyone has the time and energy to devote to job searching right now. So I tried to fill this article with things that don’t take hours to do. Depending on your bandwidth, choose one of them, try all of them or go for something in between. My hope is that these tips will show employers how lucky they’d be to hire you.
Again, this advice is only proven with a sample size of one (me, in the past… and hopefully some of the people I’ve helped over the years). But when nothing is normal, isn’t that the best time to try something different? Let’s dive in.
