15 Min Unique Strength Framework
What's the one thing that sets you apart?
On a daily basis I get asked the question “how do I stand out” related to job searching. I don’t have one single answer to this, but I do have a framework that I use to uncover unique strengths. Here are the steps:
Without looking at your resume or LinkedIn, pretend you just met somebody for the first time and they asked you what three moments in your career you’d like to repeat, write them down.
Note that if you’re just entering the workforce this one is tricky, but you could perhaps pull from internships or even class projects.
Imagine we live in a world without the concept of money, write down three things that you think people would come to you for help with, or another way to say it, what would you be excited to teach others?
Look at your responses from steps 1 and 2. Highlight the common themes, skills, or qualities that appear in both lists. Then write down a core strength that is behind these, it likely represents your unique combination of what energizes you and what others naturally seek from you.
Now think about your resume/profile, or how you typically answer interview questions, do you highlight this strength?
In a sea of candidates where most resumes have similar content, and most candidates say similar things in interviews, the way to win is to stand out.
For me, likely I would end up with the idea of teaching / coaching. I taught skiing as my first job, I coached racing for years, and then I taught programming.
Teaching has also been what’s opened the most doors for me job wise. It’s what got my resume noticed at my current job, and numerous other opportunities have come my way because I spent time doing what I enjoyed and then highlighted this as a strength on my resume and in interviews.
What if my strength isn't marketable?
I’d answer that by asking how writing “I’m passionate about distributed systems” is any better? Whether it’s music, sports, art, movies, games, animals, etc; there’s a reason we’re excited about these things and if you can take what you’re excited about and integrate it into your work by understanding the core strengths behind them, you’ll not only do a better job, but you’ll get others more interested in hiring you to do that work.
When I’m giving an interview I can tell when somebody is excited about a topic vs. just talking about something to get the job. It’s authentic and a glimpse into who you really are.
So what’s your unique strength? No matter how good you are at coding, that’s probably not it. Try the exercise and find out, there’s a good chance it'll be more interesting than your current LinkedIn headline.
- Dan
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