Upgrading your resume to land your dream job

While the job market remains tough, there are ways for job seekers to stand out in the application process. MyPerfectResume career expert Jasmine Escalera joins Wealth! to break down the top tips for landing your dream job.

"The first step to really take is to understand your unique skills, the value that you bring to an organization, and really to then ask yourself, 'Who in my network can I be talking to or discussing my unique value, what I'm looking for next, to help me facilitate making connections towards potential jobs?'" Escalera explains. She emphasizes the importance of LinkedIn for networking, which job seekers in competitive industries should especially be utilizing.

When making a resume, Escalera encourages focusing not only on keywords, but results. She explains that quantifiable achievements are key, but if you don't have them available, you can opt for something more anecdotal that shows you can do the job and get results. She also encourages writing a cover letter when possible, as it adds a personal touch to your application.

r"When you think about your resume, there could be gaps on your resume. There could be a story there that you're missing in telling. And that's when a cover letter is so important to tell a story," she explains to Alexandra Canal on Wealth!

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Melanie Riehl

Video Transcript

The job market is tough, but there are some ways that you can make your profile stand out from the crowd here to discuss what you need to know if you're in the market.

Is Jasmine, Ee Correa, my perfect resume career expert, Jasmine, thank you so much for being here.

Like you were just saying, we're in this very wonky jobs market.

So let's say you do want to leave your company or your position, but you feel trapped right now.

What should be some of the first steps that you take?

Yeah.

So the first step to really take is to understand your unique skills, the value that you bring to an organization.

And really to then ask yourself who in my network can I be talking to or discussing my unique value?

What I'm looking for next to help me facilitate making connections towards potential jobs.

You know, one of the great things that job seekers have right now is the unique asset of linkedin.

Where if you know your value, your contribution, your stories, you can share that very openly with the professional field and you can really be making connections that we couldn't be making in the past.

So job seekers who especially find themselves in a competitive market or in a competitive industry can be utilizing their network.

But also these digital tools and these digital assets to showcase their brand in a very unique way and stand out amongst the crowd.

And what is the problem areas that you often see with resumes and applications that folks should keep in mind and hopefully avoid in the future.

Yeah, I love that.

Uh We have created very tech savvy job seekers who know everything and anything about the A TS.

So we all know that it's so important that you showcase your, your keywords, your skills, your experience and that really comes from the job position, the job posting.

But what you also want to be able to do is to show not just your experience but that you can get results.

So when you're thinking about your application materials, especially when it comes to your resume, you want to make sure that it's very results driven as well.

So you want to have quantifiable achievements if possible.

But if you don't, you can use something that's more anecdotal, but paint a good picture that I can't just not do the job, but I can get the results for the job as well.

An artificial intelligence.

That's been a big topic of conversation, especially for workers.

What's your advice when it comes to using A I to help craft a resume or craft A cover letter.

Such a great question, you know what I say is this is a very competitive market.

So use things to your advantage.

But when it comes to A I use it wisely, it's wonderful to help you provide a foundation or a base.

But what you want to understand is that people are still hiring humans.

And so you have to put that human element into all of your branding materials.

You also want to understand that you are the one who can uniquely position yourself for the role.

You know, what your skill set and experiences are.

So A I doesn't know that.

So you want to use it as a foundation or a base and then you layer on to it and for things like your cover letter, which is a supplement to your resume, you want to be more personality driven, you want to talk about your why your story, why this company aligns with your mission, your core values.

You want to explain things like career gaps or career transitions and A I just isn't going to be able to grasp that in the same way as you can.

Now, if your cover letter is optional, is that something you should still do?

And, and how do you know if people are actually reading these things?

Because cover letters, they take a lot of time to really craft.

Yeah.

You know, everybody always ask you that question.

I think cover letters are those things that everyone is hoping goes away soon.

But I love them.

I really do.

You know when you think about a resume, a resume is really a laundry list of all your greatness, of course.

But your cover letter is that personal touch.

And when you think about your resume, there could be gaps, your resume, there could be a story there that you're missing in telling.

And that's when a cover letter is so important to tell a story.

So that when a hiring manager is looking at your resume, if they're wondering hm why this shift, why this transition, why this gap, why this company you're addressing that in that supplemental material in that, in that cover letter, Jasmine Escalera, my perfect resume career expert.

Thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.