It’s obvious, when you think about it, that your resume and your job search is an exercise in selling. But there are many different kinds of selling. In “Simple Daily Habits of the Delightfully Successful”, HubSpot’s Dharmesh Shah presents a working definition of sales that doesn’t sacrifice your self-respect:
…Not used car-style sales. Selling doesn’t involve pressure or manipulation. Selling is the ability to explain the reasoning, logic, and benefits of a decision or a perspective in order to get buy-in. Selling is the ability to overcome skepticism or doubt. Selling is the ability to convince other people to go where you want to go.
The practical lesson here: your resume should be this kind of sales proposal. Make the reasons to hire you, and the benefits of hiring you, obvious. Lay out the evidence. Make your case.
If you want the job, do the work of showing why hiring you is in their best interest. It’s not about manipulation or trickery. It’s about delivering value.
Done well, you get the job, they think it was their own great idea. Everybody wins.