How to Increase Your Hireability in Any Career

If you’re in the market for a new job, the search can be overwhelming. Figuring out how to stand out from the competition can seem impossible at times. But while it’s important to keep applying to jobs, make sure to think about these ways to make your application more attractive.

Customize Your Resume and Cover Letter

Having a clean, professional resume (also known as a CV or Curriculum Vitae) and cover letter is an important way for you to signal your personal brand, experience, and identity. As you think about customizing your resume/CV and cover letter, consider consulting with a resume expert. The process of working with a resume expert is a great way to package with is in your head and your past, bundled with your goals in a clean and meaningful process. Jerome Imhoff of The Resume Shop, INK is someone I have worked with in the past and to this day I still refer to his thoughtful questions and recommendations—if you are a student at a university or one who has recently graduated, there is usually someone at Career Services who will be able to help you out for free.

Gain New Skills

If you’re hoping to break into a new industry or expand your career possibilities, gaining new skills can increase your attractiveness to different companies. Think strategically about which skills would be especially helpful for you to develop.

If you are a graphic designer, you might want to enhance your ability to design a website with more practical coding expertise to enable you to both design and build the site. Building new skills can be done in spare time with convenient online classes. You should research before enrolling in an online course, as many of them are poorly designed.

Another way to build up new skills is to collaborate and offer to volunteer with the understanding you are using this as a way to develop and practice new skill sets.

Get Good Recommendations

Having good recommendations goes a long way in securing a position. If you can start to try and work in the same field as your dream job, try to network through your fellow employees and through your different bosses.

As you perform well in your position and work to produce quality work, they’ll get to know you better and be motivated to help you find a place where you will love your job. Finding your dream job usually happens through connections so this is definitely one of the best ways to go.

The job search can be excruciating. But as you work to make your applications more exciting to prospective employers, don’t let yourself get too down on yourself if you aren’t able to find the perfect job right away. Take some of the pressure off yourself by considering your next job as a stepping stone to your future goals. And as you apply some of these tips and work to round out your application more, you’ll start to see more success.