Blackburn College - Marketing Yourself to Potential Employers

Marketing Yourself to Potential Employers

Marketing Yourself Once you have developed a career goal and have taken the steps necessary to make yourself "employable" you must market yourself. How you present yourself says a lot about you. From the cover letter you send along with your resume, your resume and finally how you appear at the interview can make the difference in success or rejection. Take the time to prepare well and you will be successful!

Your cover letter and resume to a potential employer is often the only contact you will have prior to an interview. It is important that your cover letter introduces you properly and conveys to the potential employer why you are "best" for that job!

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Cover letters are just as they imply; a "cover" for an enclosure. Your cover letter announces your resume. It must have impact but must not "substitute for or regurgitate" your resume content. Your cover letter must provide "sizzle", capture the readers attention, stress the employer’s need and your value, and encourage the employer to read your resume.* Remember, as a Blackburn student you participated in a work program. This gives you additional "job" experience. Be sure to emphasize this in your cover letter and resume and stress the skills your work program has given you.

Cover Letter Tips*

Use good quality paper.
Be direct, powerful and error free.
Avoid jargon and passive voice.
Address to a specific name and title.
Keep it one page, short and to the point.
Stress your experience, skills and value.

*Adapted from High Impact Resumes and Letters by Ronald L. Krannich and William J. Banis

Your resume is your "personal history". It tells about your education, your work experience, and your special skills and abilities. Your resume is your opportunity to convince a potential employer that you are the "best" candidate for his or her job! A good resume often means a good job!

Your resume is your marketing plan. Sell yourself! Find out about the company you are applying to. Find out what strengths and characteristics they value and be sure your resume stresses those skills which best match up to the job requirements and the companies expectations. The goals of a resume are 1) to show off your achievements, attributes, and accumulation of experience and 2) to minimize possible weaknesses.*

*Adapted from Resumes That Knock Em Dead by Martin John Yates

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