Job Hunters – Add a Features/Benefits Dimension to Your Profile

The Challenge

Your average recruiter/HR professional eyeballs about 7,000-10,000 resumes a year.  During the 7.5 years I’ve been in the recruitment industry I cannot recall any candidates ever pressing me with what they had to offer and why it was relevant to me.  It was always ” I’m a good fit because I meet some of the Must Have(s) skills“.  It was my job to FILTER through the resumes to find the gems my client’s needed in order for me to make a placement. 

Being on the other side of the table is not easy – I will be the first to admit.  As a candidate you are in constant competition with dozens of other “qualified” people gunning for the same role.  Often times your competition has more years of experience, skills, abilities, etc. than you do.  Sure, you may be capable of competently doing the job but there is always going to be someone who is MORE CAPABLE at the same price. 

Sadly, as the marketplace matures, people are increasingly looked at as “service providers” rather than loyal employees.  We are all destined to function in a role that either decreases costs, increases revenue or both.  That’s it! 

There is nothing else that matters more than the value a candidate brings to the table for any job – from a Starbucks Barrista to a C-level executive.  Everyone has a part to play – especially during the market turmoil we are living through.

So the question remains – what can you do differently that no one else is doing that will make YOU stand out ahead of the pack and get noticed?

The Idea

As a recruitment professional I constantly had to fend off dozens of other agencies to gain the trust of my client enough for them to allow ME to find them skilled people (and pay me for positive results).  When I engaged my clients I did not SELL to them.  In fact I wouldn’t say I am anywhere near close to being the best sales person.  What I did well however, was talk about how my expertise could benefit them.   I’d focus on how quickly and accurately I can find them the best talent or offer up competitive analysis.   FYI – I spent 75% of the time listening and 25% talking.

My competitors would often talk about how many people they had working for them or how many offices across the country they had.  These are considered features of their company.  That’s great but guess what?  Clients/employers DON’T CARE…what they want is someone who could do the job and not loop the same, tired audio track.  Features are important though, don’t get me wrong, but they are symbiotic to how it benefits the client (employer).

Pretend you are a recruiting firm trying to sell your service to a National employer.  A much simplified Features/Benefit Statement would look something like this.  Many SELL the Features but never touch the benefits.

Features	Benefits
Acme Recruiting has 12 offices located across Canada.	We can service your individual branch offices for any roles in any location.
Acme Recruiting has a database of 100,000 resumes.	We can quickly attract, source and screen candidates, often within 48 hours using proprietary methods and candidates not available to the open market.

 

Executing the Features/Benefits Dimension to your profile

Using the above scenario, and in conjunction with a well written resume you can do several things to enhance your profile.  Create a one sheet Features/Benefits page that you can leave with an employer upon exiting the interview.  You can also use this method as a cover sheet, although I caution you to keep it short and sweet.

What we are really TRYING to say by creating this dimension to your profile is “here are MY features and this is how it benefits YOU (Employer/Recruiter)“.  Notice the My and You bolded. 

Let’s explore how we’d use the Features/Benefit dimension to our advantage (as a job seeker).  Keep in mind that it MUST be tailored to the role being applied for and be kept short, factual and relevant.   Facts and figures will rule the day though – try it for yourself.  I’ve done this for a fictitious IT Project Manager below. 

Features	Benefits
10 years of IT Project Management Experience	Proven tenured ability to handle high-stress IT projects, often budgeted at $5+ Million dollars with a 100% on-time success rate.
Project Management Certification (PMP)	Internationally recognized project delivery foundation which can be replicated across multiple departments, reducing costly and redundant mistakes by and average of 50%.
Ability to lead multiple teams simultaneously	Create a common point of contact, structured in a way that eliminated inter-team confusion, thus dropping the project scope from 12 months to 10 months and saving $500,000 by elimination of down-time.

The features are the fluffy parts people use to describe themselves on their resume.  The Benefits are the hard hitting facts that are relevant to the employer.  It will change for every job you apply to but remember – this is meant to “enhance” your profile with memorable bytes of information that employers can quickly absorb. 

By using this method I would be more than surprised if you did not receive a positive comment or two.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions.

This article was written by Jay Zaidi – jzaidi1@hotmail.com.

Advertisement