Viewing You as Buyers [Potential Employers] Do

Let's pretend for a moment that you are in the position of selling a piece of real estate and that this 'real estate' is really you.

In order to get a better understanding of how much you are worth on the open market, you would be likely to search the web for other pieces of 'real estate' that are similar to yourself. As you would be most interested in comparing 'apples to apples' you would refine your search and try to limit the number of 'hits' by considering the selling price of the real estate [salary being paid], looking at the surrounding neighbourhood [location of the job], the different features [credentials] of the other properties being sold.

Once you are satisfied that you have a good understanding of the other available properties [your competition], you would then take 'selling yourself' to the next level and perhaps post several photographs of the property yourself [i.e. post personal profiles and/or résumés on a variety of social networking sites]. Alternatively, you could find an agent [recruiter] who will take care of those kinds of details for you.

Good real estate agents [recruiters] will offer up a multitude of suggestions to help increase the likelihood of selling 'you' at a fair or better than fair price. They will share with you that some property-owners will list more information than others and suggest that the rationale for all of the additional information would be so that potential 'buyers' [employers] could have a better understanding of the major elements offered by any particular piece of real estate [you].

Most 'buyers'[employers] will base their decision on whether or not to investigate further the value of the property on the initial 'view' of the property. With that in mind, the more effectively you can 'showcase' your skills and talents, the more effectively you will be able to 'sell' yourself to your future buyer [employer].

To press this analogy even further, let's adopt some the lessons learned from selling real property and applying these lessons and tips to 'selling yourself as a candidate'.

Seasoned real estate agents [recruiters] will tell you that the first step toward any successful sale requires that the property be clean and clutter-free. A 'clean' résumé equates to showing a lot of while space on the page and steering away from fancy fonts.

Real estate agents will also tell you that your 'real estate' needs to be ready to show at a time that is convenient for the 'buyer'. This 'convenience' means that you should not give any potential buyer a reason to skip that which you have to show.

Hint: Always store your résumé in a variety of formats i.e. MSWord, PDF and plain text so that you are ready to supply the information requested by potential employers at a moment's notice.

Another tip offered by realtors [recruiters] includes the fact that 'buyers' prefer simplicity over complexity when viewing any property.

Hint: It is best to remove all personal mementos. In résumé terms, removing personal mementos means that you should avoid and headings that include your interests and hobbies.

Realtors [recruiters] will also tell you to brighten up your home with as many lights as possible. On your résumé, these 'lights' are your 'career highlights' and should be showcased at the top of your résumé.

As 'pest control' can be of some concern to property owners, you, as a 'seller', should take the time to remove all of the unflattering elements that can show up on both professional and personal social networking sites.

Although no real estate agent will ever tell you to list your 'property' [via a well-written résumé] with more than one 'realtor' [recruiter] and with more than one job board, it would be in your best interest to do so.