5 Ways to Impress Hiring Managers

If you really want to stand out from the crowd during a job hunt, demonstrate that you're not just an adequate candidate, but an exceptional one. This means putting in the work beyond simply writing up a resume, showing hiring managers you mean business. Here are five unexpected tweaks to help you impress potential employers and boost your job prospects.

1. Amp Up Your Portfolio

A positive attitude and a winning personality can impress potential employers, but without a portfolio to back up your claims, your words carry less weight. Posting evidence to back up the skills and achievements stated in your resume online is one way to make important information easily accessible to hiring managers who may still be on the fence about interviewing you. This could mean posting videos of presentations you've given on YouTube, posting a slide show portfolio on Google Slides or adding samples to your personal blog or website.

2. Gather Your Numbers

Another way to back up the claims in your resume is to quantify them. If you've saved your previous employer marketing dollars, increased website traffic or implemented a promotion that boosted sales, share that data in terms of percentages, dollar amounts and other concrete figures.

3. Refine Your Social Media Presence

When it comes to your job search, the social media sites you choose are not nearly as important as how you use them. Each profile should explain how you can provide value to potential employer. To do this, imagine how your hard and soft skills can contribute to an organization, and condense those benefits into a few engaging sentences that you can paste in your bio. Remember to also include a professional profile photo on all your social media accounts.

4. Know Your Plans

While your past achievements can impress hiring managers, sharing your future plans for personal and professional development can be just as powerful. Wherever you are on your career path, think about ways you can further develop your skills, such as taking classes or attending workshops, and share those with your interviewer when it feels natural. You can also brainstorm ways that you can contribute toward the future of the company to help meet the employer's goals.

5. Tell a Story

Explaining how you arrived to this current point in your career should involve more than just a list of degrees and past employers. Hiring managers want to hear a riveting story about your journey. Think about your biggest setbacks, challenges, triumphs and eureka moments. Shaping your career journey into a story gives context to your experience while helping the hiring manager get to know you as a person.

Implement these five key tips to catch and keep the attention of potential employers. Do you have any other ideas that can impress a hiring manager? Share them in the comments.

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