Category Stand Out Resume

“What do you want for dinner?” "I don’t know, what do you want?” We all know how annoying it is when someone answers our questions with a question. Yet most of us do the same thing on the job hunt.

If you’ve been on the job hunt for a while, chances are you feel like you’re lacking something. Something that’s preventing you from getting hired. It’s not true. Lesser people than you have gotten hired at better jobs than the one you’re shooting for. If there is one thing you lack, it’s nothing tangible. It’s something you choose not to have.

One of the biggest problems in the world today is that so many people feel dead inside. They feel like life is happening to them, they're stuck in a job they hate, trying to please people they don’t like, and there's not much they can do about it. Sound familiar? Well, it’s not true.

Grocery stores let you try samples of new foods. Big games release demos you can play for free. Online courses let you watch the first lectures for free. See a pattern here?

Would you rather have a hundred flip phones or one smart phone? Not a hard question, is it? Clearly you'd rather have one great phone than a whole bunch of meh ones. You only need one, after all.

Some people say that a pitch is like a resume, but in a slightly nicer (video) format. But that's like saying that a phone is just glass and metal in a slightly nicer format. It misses the whole point.

I was on a call with a young lady this week to see if I could help her out on her job hunt. For each application she sent, she had written a great, personalized cover letter. Yet she never heard back. What gives?

Letting your imagination run freely to envision the future of your dreams, it's easy to get scared off by all the things that could go wrong. But what if I told you there is a way to let fear work for you, instead of against you?

"I have a bachelor's degree in computer science and 3 years of work experience. Hire me." This is what your average job application with a resume sounds like. And it might even seem decent. What could possibly be wrong with this?

Have you ever played an online game, and you were about to make an epic move, but then the game lagged, and so you missed and got beat? That's frustrating stuff. Job hunting can often feel very similar.

“If all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.” There is almost no area in life where this expression applies more than job hunting.

Ljupco Stojanovski Jr. is an account executive at Xplenty, co-host of The Deliberate Dropout Podcast, and a college dropout.