Think in Pictures
18 August 2006They say a picture paints a thousand words… but it takes words to say that. Nonetheless, this metaphor can be applied to your application to paint a picture in the mind of an employer to make you stand out from the crowd. Rather than waffle on about this, let me get to the point. An I.T. person could describe their networking skills as:
Solid networking skills.
But what sort of picture does that paint in your mind? Just someone with good networking skills… the same as all the other I.T. people applying for the job. What sort of picture does this next phrase paint?
Sleeves-rolled-up networking skills.
It paints the pictures of a hard-working, been-there-done-that, confident and experienced networking professional. But, and here’s the key, the ‘sleeves rolled up’ phrase says all the above in just 5 words not 12.
If you can use these sorts of everyday phrases to better describe your skills or experience, then do it. It makes your application (and therefore you) sound more down-to-earth and helps you say great things about your skills etc. without you sounding like an ego-maniac. For example:
I would love to be your new admin assistant. In my last job I was valued for my ability to take on more work, work under pressure and everyone would come to me to help them out with all sorts of tasks.
The picture that comes to my mind is this person is a “Go To” person. If you want or need something, this person has their finger on the pulse of the company and can get things done. An objective like this comes to mind:
Objective: To be the “Go to person” in your organization freeing up time and resources for other departments to increase sales and reduce costs. Using my ESP-like abilities to anticipate team and customer needs before they arise and sleeves-rolled-up clerical and admin abilities that allow me to do the work of 2 admin assistants.
See how simple English and some simple phrases can say GREAT things about you without coming right out and blatantly saying those things?
Making it easy for people to understand your skills:
One of the biggest problems I see in I.T., Engineering and other specialized or scientific applications is the applicants rattle off their qualifications, programming languages etc. and expect the poor H.R. person or employer to be able to decipher these things into something that ‘fits’ what they’re looking for.
Once again, some simple English can paint a better picture than a paragraph of gobbledeegook.
We can turn:
Microsoft MCSE and Novell NetWare CNE
Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Novell NetWare management experience
Into something more meaningful by giving the skill a description and then talking about it in plain English:
Networking: I’m a computer ‘therapist’. I make computers talk to each other even though they absolutely refused to do so in the past. My experience in Microsoft MCSE and Novell NetWare CNE will help you reduce downtime, improve communications for your people and your customers.
The example above still gives the employer the technical information that may be important to the job posting but wraps it up in some fancy packaging that says… I make computers TALK to each other.
Let me stay with the I.T. examples for a minute and create an image of a powerful web developer/programmer in an objective statement for a resume:
Objective: To create ‘kick butt’ applications and GUI’s that elegantly solve your company’s toughest IT problems and make them so easy to use, a 4-year old could use them. Using my extensive skills in:
‘Kick butt’ paints… powerful, and the ‘4 year-old’ paints… easy to use.
One important aspect to using this strategy is that it allows you to put something in your letter most other applicants won’t have… your PERSONALITY!
Here’s a winning letter that readers have adapted to really make them stand out from the crowd in countless different industries:
I am a dynamic figure, often seen analyzing networks and helping my colleagues. I have been known to remodel LANs on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient. I manage time very well.
On a business trip to Brazil, using only a Cisco 2500 and CAT5 wire, I once single-handedly wired ten small offices in the Amazon Basin . I like to trouble shoot IP problems and Frame Networks. When I’m bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. On Wednesdays, evenings, I repair electrical appliances free of charge for the elderly.
I am an abstract network artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless troubleshooter. I don’t perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail from my fellow workers. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. I use to bat .400 in Little League. Children and co-workers trust me.
I can hurl AUI connectors at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I once read the whole Cisco.com web page in one day and still had time to calculate the cost of a whole corporate network in US dollars. I know the exact location of every router in a network. I have performed a major data center move in 1993. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on business trip in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery.
I work hard, enjoy doing a job well, am loyal, am dedicated, and my bills are all paid.
I worked with doctors who have performed open-heart surgery, and I once shook President Ford’s hand, Lastly I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to work for you and support your network.
You won’t see too many cover letters like that which is exactly my point. This cover letter paints a picture of someone who is good at what they do, a little out of the ordinary and, more importantly, a FUN person… so it nearly always goes straight to the top of the INTERVIEW pile. Meanwhile all the other applications are fighting it out for interviews by trying to show how they have great skills and experience… and as you know, most of those skills and experiences are about the same.
A Word of Warning: Some readers have copied the above example and have forgotten they also need the personality to ‘back up’ the letter in an interview… I submit the example above to show you not to be afraid to put some of YOUR personality in your cover letters and resumes.
Using Numbers to paint a picture:
I’m going to cover this more in the Resume section but it’s worth noting here for your cover letter too.
It’s a good idea to give an employer a small taste of your resume in your cover letter. There are all sorts of ways of doing this you can bullet point some highlights of your skills or experiences, or talk about them the whole way through your letter. One of the easiest ways to give an employer an idea of how you ‘fit’ into their organization is to use some numbers to describe:
Some of your past achievements or results
The size of your company, department or work-load
The following example is for someone who had simply completed an internship and was now looking for full-time employment but lacked real experience. Here is her original paragraph showing an outline of her skills:
XXXXX
Internship Summer, 2001
PR/Marketing Intern…PressRelease writing…Research…Event Planning…Media Relations….Office Support.
Here’s how we turned that boring list of skills into something more powerful simply by adding some numbers and describing the pervious employer a bit more:
XXXXX
Internship Summer, 2001
With over 1 million members and revenues in excess of $500 million with an ad budget of $2.5 million, XXXXX ironically generates most of it’s marketing through Public Relations. As an intern there, I worked on:
PR/Marketing: wrote press releases and analysed marketing data to better target the media that gave us the best conversion rates of enquiries into sales.
Event Management: Organised large seminars and trade show displays as part of our customer acquisition process.
Media Relations: Worked with Print, Radio and TV to get Free publicity in the key market segments identified by our data analysis.
So with some simple numbers to describe the size of the company and more of a description of what she did in her internship, the applicant was able to paint a better picture of herself and landed a full time job after about 8 months of searching with no success.
In summary, use words, phrases and numbers that paint a better picture of who and what you are. This will make you stand out from the crowd and help get your application to the top of the list.
by Acland Brierty
SHAMELESS PLUG: Job Secrets Revealed will teach you how to read between the lines of any ’situations vacant’ ad to work out how to best pitch your application, regardless of whether you meet their up-front skills or experience requirements.
![[Valid RSS]](http://www.itcareersuccess.com/wp-content/themes/andyblue-ver-1/images/valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
One Response to “Think in Pictures”
July 1st, 2009 at 8:28 pm
A great site I just found for career. Cheers.