You Are For Sale; A First Step to Worthwhile Employment
Written by John Rozewicki   
Wednesday, 03 May 2006
At a personal level we're all unique snowflakes. Unfortunately, to employers, we're all just resumés; just numbers. We are our years spent in the industry, university GPA, and often our typographical errors. It is a tough and cruel world, and the only variable you can control is yourself. Short of lying on your resumé, the only way to make yourself more than a number to employers is to realize that you are a product for sale.

A Numbers Game

In the past it took a decent amount of work to find people that were hireable. There were only so many candidates to choose from. With the advent of sites like Monster.com, it is now trivial to find people looking for employment. Job applicants must now compete with many times more people than they did before; making the competition as fierce as ever. More people applying means it takes more time and work for human resources personnel to evaluate resumés and job applicants. The less resumés they have on their desk the less work they have. They are literally looking for any reason to throw out your resumé.

Your Resumé is Not Who You Are as a Person

If you can get past the obvious caveats of submitting your resumé in the proper format and free of typographical errors there is one thing you can do. The trick is to be a compelling person. Everyone's resumé is boring no matter the length or the quality of the accomplishments. The people who are ultimately hired for jobs are the people who interview well. If you can get an interview you can get a job. A company would not waste time interviewing you if you did not meet the minimum qualifications. They've already done their job. It is up to you to prove yourself to be a worthwhile person during the interview. They've already seen your resumé. Now they want to see what you're like as a person.

Advertising and Selling Yourself

Bask in the fact that you are just a number. Let it wash over you, and then do all you can to advertise the hell out of yourself. Advertising works for products. It will work for people too. You can take control of a situation that many people don't feel they're in control of by doing these things: Have a good product. There will be backlash if a product does not meet expactations. Keep this in mind when deciding exactly how best to advertise yourself. Don't sell yourself as something you're not. Make yourself look better through advertising; not different. Be well-dressed and well-groomed. Products with better design and more attractive packaging sell better. Apple puts research and development money in to their product packaging because they know it helps sell hardware. You can do the same with yourself. Do not be shy. You will not ever see product packaging that doesn't disclose the strengths and even perceived strengths of what it is you're buying right out in the open. Do this as a person. Be up front about your strengths. Don't be afraid to spin relatively ordinary things in to an extraordinary light. It's all advertising. Products with more features sell better even if the added features are not critical. Consumer automobiles with more horsepower are more attractive, but beyond a certain number horsepower ceases to become important as you'll never be able to fully realize that potential in everyday driving situations. This doesn't matter. The car with more horsepower still looks better than the one with less horsepower even though the outcome is the same. Having useable skills unrelated to the job you are applying for will make you a better candidate. It means you'll be more robust as an employee. Their investment will have less of a chance of being wasted. Additionally, they'll want to invest more money in to you; i.e. pay you more.

The Overall Concept

These are really ways in which a person can take control of the interview process and use it to benefit themselves. Doing this will probably land you a better job than was possible before and even a better starting salary than you were expecting. These are not merely jobs you're applying for. They are stepping stones to greater things. Treat them and go after them as if you really want them. These ways listed here are just a few of the main beats. I'm sure there are more comparisons to be made between advertising products and advertising yourself in an interview. Please write your own in the comments below. I am curious to see interesting ways in which people might do this and how far this idea can be taken.
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