So why are so many job seekers afraid to tell their story?

If you look online all the latest job seeker advice is about developing relationships with recruiters, hiring teams and companies all for a chance to get hired. But how? How do you start the conversation with those who makes these decisions?

Well, turns out you have more power than you think, you are simply misusing it. Your resume is a good start but it only tells on side of the story – the duty or task oriented side. Resumes are emotionless, usually they don’t evoke a reaction or an emotional response. When reading job history and duties, you either understand it or you don’t, very little to latch on to. However, your cover letter is an excellent opportunity to tell your story – YOUR PROFESSIONAL STORY.

The cover letter isn’t the only missed opportunity – 95% of all recruiters check LinkedIn and Facebook when they get a new applicant. That deserves repeating, “95% of all recruiters check LinkedIn and Facebook…” so why wouldn’t you have a LinkedIn profile – they are free! You need to use the summary area to tell your story as well. And your Facebook should be clean – keep your bad habits and messy comments offline.

So many of us feel the resume doesn’t even convey our skills and talents – I get that, I don’t believe my own resume does me justice, either. That’s what in addition to my resume, I use my LinkedIn profile to tell deliver my narrative and show that I invest time into my credentials. I have 2 websites, this one, the ResumeCrusade and the CostofWork, and I write HR content for other companies as well. All of these things tell my story, it’s not just my resume – it’s my resume, cover letter, LinkedIn summary, Twitter profile, Facebook, Instagram and websites that work together to tell the story.

Now, are you using all your available resources to tell your story?

There could be that one recruiter out there that looks beyond the resume for their next great hire.

Need help with your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile, or with outplacement services, join the resumecrusade, contact me, ‘[email protected]’