What’s Your Superpower?
Finding Your Competitive Advantage to Get Hired
In today’s competitive job market, standing out is essential to getting hired. One single open job can bring in countless applicants, piling up on a hiring manager’s desk and all looking the same. How can you stand out? If you learn how to work your competitive advantage you can be a manager’s pick over someone who has even more skills or experience. Here’s how:
Pick Your Strengths & Highlight Them
What’s your competitive advantage? Maybe you aren’t sure yet, or maybe you are new to the job search process—and that’s okay! Think of your strengths as the skills that have most allowed you to succeed.
Perhaps you are a persistent person, seeing projects through until the end when others have lost interest. Or maybe your strength is that you are detail oriented–always able to see the little things that others overlook.
If You Have Experience in the Industry:
If you have apartment industry experience, then your competitive advantage will be your experience and the parts of the job you are best at. Make sure to highlight these in your resume and interview, along with any special awards or recognition you have received. This doesn’t mean you have to toot your own horn; but when asked to discuss your experience, focus on where you have excelled.
If You Don’t Have Experience in the Industry:
If you don’t have apartment job experience—do not fear! You still have skills that are relevant. Perhaps you have worked in a sales job or another people-oriented position; and these will have equipped you with communication skills that apply to an apartment job. If you don’t have a set of professional skills to go on, perhaps you want to sell your competitive advantage as your hard work, determination, or passion to succeed.
Keep in mind: most job seekers will say that they are hardworking and motivated. Your competitive advantage will come when you can show in your resume or interview why you embody the strengths you claim to have. For example, it is not enough to just say that you are motivated. But if you can tell a story of a time when you had to accomplish something very difficult and didn’t give up then you will stand out as motivated.
Your competitive advantage is unique to you.
You know your strengths and weaknesses better than anyone, so when you think about what to highlight in your job application be sincere in what you are best at. Hiring managers can see through a candidate who lists a strength that they don’t show proof of. It will also be difficult to stand out if you try to emphasize too many strengths: they will just come out jumbled and you won’t be memorable.
Use Your Superpower…
If you haven’t done it already, take a moment to figure out what your competitive advantage is—the trait that would be your superpower if you had to pick. Highlight your unique strengths during the job search process and you will both stand out and convince a hiring manager that you are the one for the job.
Get started today by submitting your resume for a job placement: Apply now.