When everyone has the same tools

Such is the title of  one of Seth Godin's blogs this week. The rest of the blog follows:

...then having a tool isn't much of an advantage.

The industrial age, the age of scarcity, depended in part on the advantages that came with owning tools others didn't own.

Time for a new advantage. It might be your network, the connections that trust you. And it might be your expertise. But most of all, I'm betting it's your attitude.

When you apply to a job you are competing with many who apply citing the same skills, similar experience and even equal credentials - the same tools. How then can you communicate your difference, your advantage?

Attitude, in this case, may refer to your attitude to each step of the job search. What's your attitude to the resume and cover letter, to interviewing, to the job search? Do you believe that there are better ways to do things, or do you figure it's all the "same old"?

Do you believe that a strategic resume can outperform the "standard" resume? Do you trust a writer's ability to out-write most others? Do you think that each incremental improvement you put in place will boost your standing, bit by bit, until you are at or close to the top of the heap of applicants?

And, once in an interview, do you project an attitude of being an equal partner in the interview process ... or do you give your power away to the team of interviewers, fearing their judgment, expecting to be cut from the list, secretly waiting for the inevitable?

Attitude - self-defeating or empowering - may be the one last advantage in this world of ever-quickening evening out of "tools."

I love helping my clients tap into their splendid "advantages" by communicating each person's "wow" factors in their resume, cover letter, interview and job search. I absolutely believe in the power of the written word, the spoken word, the unspoken attitude ... In service, Stephanie