The new school of career-ing is all about emotional intelligence. Smart and humane employers — the kind you employers you really want to work for — know that a recruit can be educated and arrive at work with a sweet set of skills, but if they don’t have the ability to read between the lines, they won’t perform well in a job.
Want to score your dream job with a dream employer? Switch up your resume to present your character assets and emotional intelligence in a big way, in an even bigger way than your technical skill-set. Here’s how to present your emotional intelligence on a resume:
Describe How You’re Different As a Person
How would you describe your personality at work, and how can you back up that description with a story of how that behaviour has played out at work in the past? Describing how you’re different will translate into a story about value to an employer and, even more importantly, how you would be invaluable on a team. Do you want to be easily replaceable? No. Skills are easily replaced but the best people — the best recruits — are irreplaceable.
Good words to use when you’re describing how you’re different as a person
- Collaborative
- Dynamic
- Clever
- Creative
- Curious
- Eloquent
- Perceptive
- Energetic
- Talkative
- Punctual
Write your summary as a note to your future boss
Do some research about the person who would be your future boss in your dream job — find their LinkedIn profile, search for articles or stories about work that they’ve done, see if you can uncover published work of their somewhere online — to understand their work habits, their working style and their personality. Then, write your summary accordingly. Did your research uncover that your future boss is open-minded and flexible with workday structure? Mention in your summary that you perform best under relaxed management and that you’re self-motivated to succeed.
Ask for the work you want to do
It’s so typical for a resume to describe what you can do, and what you have done in the past, but it says so much about your drive and ambitions to describe what you want to do. Love brainstorming and idea generation? Offer to lead a weekly meeting to share creative ideas and team suggestions to solve problems. You will gain the perception of someone who brings together people and great ideas.
Moreover, you can describe all the job skills you’ve already gained and can perform easily, without much thought, and are ready to build upon with new skills that are a step-up in complexity.
Follow these 3 smart ways to update your resume with emotional intelligence and it won’t be long before you’re scoring your dream job.
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