Finding Your Differentiator

In my work with job hunters, I often find myself helping the other person to confront the ultimate employer question:

Why should we hire you?

The best answer is to say, "You should hire me because I can do X for you and your company."

But how do you figure out what X is?

I call it, Finding Your Differentiator.

And the way to discover it is by working, really working, on your resume.

As the job hunter works on their professional summary, their accomplishments, and the identification of key capabilities, they get closer to their differentiator(s).

As an example, one of my clients was a bank branch manager from a well-known bank. After several one-on-one meetings to delve into her experiences, accomplishments, and skills, it dawned on her that her differentiator is:

~ She takes under-performing branches and transforms them into award winning branches.

She not only had an aha moment, but she seemed to shift into a higher gear of feeling positive about herself.

So how did she learn that about herself?

By really digging into her resume:

- opening up each work experience and going beyond "responsible for" statements

- finding and mining the accomplishments that demonstrate what she is capable of doing

- writing each one, using the Action/Target/Result format (e.g. “Trained all employees at 15 branches, on new operating model of customer service, increasing Net Promoter Score in the first year.”)

The process of working on the resume helped her examine the Challenges that she faced, the Actions that she took, and the Results that she achieved.

And in doing that, she was able to discern her Story, her Brand, her Differentiator.

Bottom Line: When it comes to your resume, it's not a cut and paste exercise. Don't rush it. Don't ask someone else to write it for you.

Writing your resume can be a process of self-discovery.

Originally posted by Terrence Seamon, July 25, 2009 at Here We Are. Now