Resume Branding - Made Easy By Company Mission Statements

Resume branding can be difficult for non-marketing types. Make it easy on yourself by focusing on a single corporate mission statement. Here's how.

© David Alan Carter
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Resume branding is a technique for differentiating yourself in the job market, specifically by capturing and presenting the tangible and intangible characteristics that make you professionally unique and of potential benefit to a prospective employer. It's most often embodied in a branding statement at the top of the resume. But your personal brand should also subtly influence the wording on the resume, top to bottom.

Formulating your resume brand is a tough job, but a critical job in trying to elevate your resume to the top of the two-foot stack of resumes on the hiring official's desk. If you're staring at a blank page and wondering where to start, consider company mission statements.

Resume Branding - Find Fodder in Corporate Mission Statements

Every company worth its salt has a mission statement; a sentence or two, or a paragraph, or a page delineating their reason for existence. For-profit firms, as you might guess, are pretty focused on the bottom line. Still, a great deal of information can be gleaned from these company mission statements, information that can, with a little tweaking, start sounding an awful lot like a personal branding statement you might find on a resume. Your resume.

Where To Find Company Mission Statements

Most larger companies with a presence on the web will have a page dedicated to their mission statement. Look for web pages marked "About Us" or "Our Company" or something such. If nothing pops up, contact their public relations department or investor relations department for details.

Mission Statement Examples

Dow Chemical has a vision statement and a mission statement on their "Our Company" web page. They reads as follows:

Vision:
"To be the most profitable and respected science-driven chemical company in the world."

Mission:
"To passionately innovate what is essential to human progress by providing sustainable solutions to our customers."

Also on Dow's page is a list of the following "strategic themes:"

Strategic Themes:
 - Financial Discipline
 - Sustainability
 - Performance Culture
 - Profitable Growth

Taken together, Dow's vision and mission statements and strategic themes constitute their corporate branding – the tangible and intangible characteristics that attempt to set them apart in the marketplace and offer the promise of value to shareholders. For candidates aspiring to a job with Dow Chemical, one an innovative approach in constructing one's resume is to incorporate elements of the company's mission into the resume. If Dow is focused on profitability, performance, growth and financial discipline, it seems reasonable that their hiring managers will be looking from those same values and characteristics in applicants.

Your Resume Brand - Give Them What They Want

Given our fresh insight into the company's mission, the opening statement on a resume for a sales representative or account manager targeting Dow Chemical might look like the following:

Throughout the balance of the resume, and especially in the area of professional achievements, allow the company's mission statement to help steer, stressing (when appropriate) your own accomplishments relating to profitability, performance, growth and financial discipline.

Using a company's mission statement as a guide in developing your own resume branding is an effective technique when targeting a specific company, helping to ensure that your qualifications for a position opening are both evident and communicated effectively.

Editor's Note:  Should You Consider A Professional Writer?

In today's tough job market, every resume is fighting for attention - keywords, design, layout, branding. If the challenge seems daunting, or you haven't the time to get up to speed on resume techniques, or you're your existing resume isn't generating the results you'd like, know that you're only two or three clicks away from a professionally-prepared resume.

"A professional writer can often make the difference," says former recruiter David Alan Carter. "Just make sure your writer is certified and talented." Carter has identified the Best Resume Services on the Web, reviewing quality of workmanship, spelling out their pricing, and giving each a star ranking.

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