Ah, ’tis the season of graduation, celebration, and job hunting!
Yes, the resumes are being updated, redesigned and distributed by hundreds of thousands of college students across the country. Recent grads are entering a battle field that takes no prisoners. Everyone person is looking to stand out, and more and more, the content on the resume alone is not sufficient enough. So how can an individual stand out?
Use your social media platforms!
Let me put a pin in this comment for a second while I provide a disclaimer: DO NOT promote your platforms if they are not cleaned, organized and ready for professional consumption. Suggestion: clear your platforms of those photos from the undergrad kegger parties and delete those insensitive and unprofessional comments, rants and raves you posted (you know what I mean). Employers are checking your platforms anyway, so you might as well clean them up and use them for good.
OK, removing pin and continuing on 🙂
If you are not a social media or marketing professional but utilize your platforms professionally and have great content on them, consider sharing your platforms on your resume. With employers already checking your platforms why not use your profiles as a leg up on the competition when looking for a job? It also allows you to example that you are current in networking mediums, that are becoming the primary communication conduits.
Here’s a few tips on how to share your social media platforms on your resume:
Tip 1: Twitter Handle
If you utilize Twitter often and share and create solid content, consider placing your Twitter handle with your contact information within the header of your resume. This way you let them know that you are on social media platforms and that you are comfortable with your content to share it openly with them. If you post and share professional content they will be able to see that you stay current and engage with colleagues and other professionals in your field. They will also be able to see your personality and the way you communicate with others in the global technological world.
Tip 2: About.me
If you maintain multiple platforms and share and create great content on all of them, consider creating an about.me page and placing this in your resume header rather than individual handles and URLs. The about.me website allows you to create a brief yet detailed biography about yourself as well as being able to share the links to most major social media platforms in a professional, clean and efficient way. Check out mine if you’d like to see what I can look like: about.me/briandavidmichaelproffer
Tip 3: Technology Skills
If you are not only a social media guru, but possess other technological skills and are not in the marketing profession, consider creating a Technology Skills portion on your resume. For me, I wanted to show the vast array of my knowledge of systems, software and social media platforms I engage with. it also helped to showcase specific software programs that my field, student affairs, utilizes. I would only suggest doing this if you have at least 4 or more areas of technological skills. I’ve posted an old version of my Technology Skills category from an old resume below for you to check out:
Technology Skills
· Multi-Media Presentations Prezi 4.1.1, PowerPoint 2011
· E-Mail Management Microsoft Outlook 2011, Gmail
· Word Processing/Spreadsheets Word 2011, Google Docs, WordPerfect/Excel 2011
· Educational Management Banner 10
· Video Production/Hosting Windows Movie Maker 2012, iMovie 9.0.8, FinalCutPro 10.1.1/ YouTube
· Social Media Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, About.me, TweetDeck, Pinterest, Blogs
These are just a few ways to integrate your social media platforms into your resume to help you get the extra little edge towards that first job if you are not in the marketing or social media content fields. Hope you find them useful and good luck on your job hunting!
Until next time
Peace, Love and Pandas!
Hello World, Its Me, Brian 