The One Thing Your Résumé Is Missing

When I started seeing myself as a marketer instead of a job applicant, the calls came pouring in

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A while ago, I was going through a process that many will find familiar: Sending job applications out into the void, then waiting for responses that, for the most part, never came.

Eventually, I realized where I was going wrong. While my background is in marketing, I wasn’t doing everything I could to market myself. So I shifted my thinking: Instead of approaching the process as a potential employee, I decided to see myself as a seller, and the hiring managers as potential buyers. I then went on a mission to find low-effort, high-reward ways to increase conversions on my sales collateral — in this case, my job application. What could I do to make it stand out?

While brainstorming, I came across an interesting statistic that said nine out of 10 people trust what a customer says about a business more than what that business says about itself. In marketing, this is called social proof — humans naturally tend to imitate the actions of others, especially those they respect. I decided that the way I could boost my own social proof was to tap into a resource that many of us overlook: the vast pool of people I’d worked with before. My previous managers and colleagues were, essentially, happy “customers” who could talk about how I performed in my previous roles.

So I asked some of them to write testimonials that I could add to my résumé, LinkedIn profile, portfolio, and website. The result: I received a spike in positive feedback whenever I applied to jobs. One hiring manager even said my résumé was the best they’d ever seen in their life.

Here’s how to add social proof to your application to get more interviews and, hopefully, get hired.

• Make a list. Write down all of the previous managers, professors, or teammates that you’ve had positive experiences with. Ideally, you’ll want to list managers or clients, as well as people who are well known in your industry.
• Reach out. If the people on your list are on LinkedIn, send them a message asking for a short recommendation. Make it short and sweet, with something like: “Hey, Rehan! I’m looking for a new job and was…