The thought of building a resume to be the perfect template for a hiring manager to notice you can be stressful. There are many different professions out there, such as product management, business development, or UI/UX. If you’re in UI/UX, (or it’s your desired field), check out this article on how to make your resume stand out out to hiring managers. In this particular article, we’re focusing just on the marketing industry!
There are many routes you can take in marketing, such as focuses on product, digital, influencer, social media, growth, and community. We hope this article gives you some extra insight on the question, “How do I make my resume stand out as a marketer?”
Read the application instructions
All applications are different, and all hiring managers have a different process to looking through them. “When my company recruits, we specify that applicants need to fill in the application form. Yes, it takes time, and yes, it’s repeating what’s on your CV, but it enables me to compare and contrast different applications much more quickly, I simply won’t look at the CV and we make this very clear. This makes life easier for the recruiter by breaking up paragraphs that make different points, and if you’re applying for a content role, check spelling and grammar, make sure you sell yourself and write with some creativity, not just bullets,” says Nikki Mullineux.
Be prepared
No, not just knowing the right things to say to “sell yourself,” but making sure to know who you are interviewing for. “When an interviewee shows they’ve taken the time to understand the company, customer and product, i.e. talked to customers, mystery shopped our product, put their thoughts together in a leave behind, it helps them to stand out,” says Stacy Schulist, a marketing leader and traveling mentor. “This also provides an opportunity to showcase how they think, communicate and demonstrate their enthusiasm.”
“It is also beneficial if they’ve reviewed my background, if I’m the hiring manager, so their questions can be more relevant,” continues Stacy. “I think we all want to hire someone who’s interested in working with us, and not just our company.”
Have a place to showcase your work
Your writing, or other work, should be highlighted on places like Rise or a personal website to be easily accessible for recruiters or hiring managers. This way you can make your resume stand out in a more dynamic way!
We found this great advice via a thread on Reddit, and felt it was valuable to share on our platform.
Entry Level Marketing Resume Help I’m a recent graduate with a degree in marketing and general management (double major). I’ve been looking for an entry-level job in marketing for a little over two months now. I thought I would upload my resume and example cover letter to see where things can be improved and made better. A couple of things to note. My aim would be to get into branding starting as a content creator or to become an account executive in advertising. I have done graphics work for in-class projects. Often times I was the go to guy in group projects for getting this done. Other than that I have no professional training in graphics design. I have sales experience so that may help for accounts. I have very little experience in marketing, barely any. The work I did was for a tiny start-up marketing company and only lasted for 4 months (summer work). 95% of the work was cold calling. I tried to spin this position as best as possible in my resume. I included all my other jobs that have given me some professional skills just so you can see what I have in my arsenal. I need ways to trim this or to make it more concise (I’m sure some can be omitted) I feel that my cover letter is really wordy (over time it just got bigger and bigger). I had a coworker recently tell me to not make it more than five sentences because that is all that hiring managers generally read. At the same time though, how do you spin everything positively? I originally was going to make my resume really fancy and graphical. However, I heard that this turns off employers because it ends up coming across as flair in the absence of substance (which I feel in my case is sort of true) I need suggestions on how to better target the areas which I am aiming for, and how to make everything concise in order to fit onto less pages. Don’t hold back the critique. Any suggestions on design and content will be greatly appreciated. The images for all pages are contained in the link below. Thanks |
“If you are looking to get into content writing, have a place to showcase your writing such on LinkedIn or a personal website and either call it out in skills section or cover letter. If you don’t have writing samples, start writing and submitting to local papers, blogs, literally anywhere- just to get your writing out there and to give yourself practice. Also, to show that you currently write and have something of quality to show. You can also do some freelance to build your writing portfolio. Get to understand content writing and how it’s created, using buyer personas and target markets, and targeting on the sales funnel. You might already know all of this which would be great.”
“Continue to educate yourself. Become Hubspot Certified, it’s free but all the rage. It helped me get my job. Google analytics, Google Adwords, SEO, SEM, Social Media Platforms, inbound marketing, storytelling, branding, design, typeface, WordPress. Learn it or at least know about it to some extent. Read blogs or books on all these topics and stay abreast so you can mention something in an interview. Marketing agency people love when you know stuff.”
Make my resume stand out in Product Marketing
There are a lot of different paths a person can pursue when it comes marketing. One of them is the very strategic path of product marketing which many would call the gap between product management and marketing communications. Derek Wong had many thoughts to contribute on how to succeed in this field.
“Product marketing has influence over many areas. GTM, financial model, product roadmap, market research, competitive landscape, sales enablement, pricing and packaging, being the voice of a customer, having the ability to craft a story that resonates with the market and analysts, etc. And product marketers tackle these areas through natural and strong partnership with cross functional teams. Working on these initiatives also provide a holistic view for product marketers to understand how different pieces of the puzzle fit together and help them do their jobs better,” says Derek.
“Most people will agree that product marketing is a very strategic role, but most companies don’t consider product marketing a revenue-driven position. In other words, if you’re not a profit center, you’re a cost center. So it’s important for product marketing to show values and ROI, especially to the executive team and the board. There are a couple of ways to do that:
Have a voice and an opinion at the table and be the subject matter expert in at least one core area in your company. That will give you visibility and credibility.
Have shared OKRs with cross functional teams, especially if they have revenue targets, so you can show quantifiable successes. For example, work with Sales to increase the win rate by 10% against your top competitor in this quarter.”
Krystyna Coyle, a membership marketing manager, has some extremely insightful advice on how to improve your overall presentation to a hiring manager:
Narrow down specifically what you hope to get from your next role
“This could include the size of the business, how established they are, who you would report to, the roles of the job, the industry, and the salary range.”
How to make my resume stand out from the crowd
“I’ve created a CV that is bright and colorful, and I hope will stand out from the crowd. The CV is available on my website to see and I’m publicly requesting feedback from various community groups and slack channels. People are generous with their feedback and often others will make referrals.” Find Krystyna’s Rise profile here.
Contact multiple recruitment agencies
“If they ask you what stage you are at embellish slightly and say you’re interviewing at several places, mention you have an interview tomorrow. This creates urgency for them. Recruiters earn commission and if you’re about to get snapped up, they won’t get any.”
Contact people on LinkedIn or Rise who are working in the role you currently want to pursue
“I will ask if I can speak with them about their role to get some advice. Often, they’re very willing and either become friendly acquaintances and/or introduce me to their hiring manager.” This website is also extremely resourceful while job hunting:
Rise is here to help you shine light on all of the skills that will make you standout. We want you to highlight the best parts of yourself to grow successfully in your professional career. We hope you now feel more empowered with answers to the question, “How do I make my resume stand out as a marketer?”
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