Imagine if employers saw you as not just another job applicant, but as an expert in your field.
![](\"http://www.blueskyresumes.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/different-flowe.jpg\"){kind=link}
Think how it would feel to point recruiters to the speech you gave at a prestigious conference or your Masters thesis on your industry.
If you’re not a well-known entrepreneur or senior executive, you might think that’s just a pipe dream. But it’s not! No matter what you do for a living, the Internet makes it possible for you to establish yourself as an expert.
There are lots of ways you can do this, and many of them take time. For example, you could start a blog and build up an audience. You could tweet about your profession and attract attention that way. You could build up a strong online presence by writing articles for trade publications. All of these are excellent strategies for building awareness.
But what if you don’t have the time or inclination to write regularly?
That’s where my solution comes in.
Meet Squidoo.
Squidoo is a free web publishing site that allows anyone to sign up and create web pages (called ‘lenses’).
Here are a couple of lenses so you can see what I’m talking about:
The Best and Most Effective Way to Promote Your Business
50 Ways to use Twitter
These pages are quick and easy to create – the interface is very intuitive and they offer lots of help. Best of all, the service is completely free. in fact, if you attract a lot of traffic to your page, you can actually earn money, but that’s another story. For now, I want to focus on how Squidoo can help you further your career goals.
How Can You Use Squidoo to Stand Out?
Here’s all you need to do.
Create a Squidoo page that demonstrates your professional knowledge
We all carry around enormous stores of knowledge about what we do for a living – knowledge that can’t be communicated in a two-page resume or short cover letter. Squidoo allows you to share that knowledge with other people while also positioning yourself as an authority.
A sales person could create a page called “How to Grow Revenues Through Solution Selling”
An internet marketer could create a page called “The Top 10 Web Analytics Tools and How to Use Them.”
An executive assistant could write “An Executive Assistant\’s Guide to Organization.”
A benefits administrator could write “Understanding Your Health care Plan: A Quick Guide.”
A plumber could write several pages on simple household problems such as ‘How to Unblock a Sink.’
Include your page (or pages) in all job search correspondence
Add a link to your page into your resume. Either at the end of your resume profile, or at the end of the actual resume, say something like “Learn more about my approach to sales in my article ‘How to Grow Revenues Through Solution Selling'” and include a link to your page.
Include the same statement in cover letters or emails to potential employers/recruiters.
Add a link in your email signature.
Link to the page on your LinkedIn page or Google profile.
Now You’re an Expert!
Just like that, you have positioned yourself as a knowledgeable candidate. Marketers know that establishing a sense of authority is one of the keys to selling a product or service. The same applies to marketing yourself to potential employers. Show them that you know your stuff and they will instantly think more highly of you.
You have also shown that you are serious about your work. Employers are looking for dedicated, hard-working employees who care about what they do. It’s hard to tell that from a resume. But someone who took the time to write an article about his profession? That’s someone I want to meet.
[Photo by suvodeb]