Your University Name    the Competitive Edge




Differentiate Yourself with Strengths-Based Resume, LinkedIn Profile and Cover Letter  
Printer Friendly
Print Summary
with Jennifer Doyle Vancil

  • You can use your top five strengths that you have identified from the Clifton strengths assessment in your documents that you use in your job interviews or internal promotion application.
    • Talk about your strengths in the top profile of your resume
    • Accomplishment highlights in your resume
    • Bullet points in your cover letter
    • Demonstrate your strengths in your follow-up email after a job interview or networking meeting.
    • Highlight your strengths in your LinkedIn profile through videos, awards etc
  • Jennifer presented an example using the strengths: Analytical, Responsibility, Strategic, Communication, Woo (Winning Others Over): Training Management role.
  • Use of keywords that coincide with your strengths and at the same time related to the role you are applying for and your current and previous experiences. See illustration below:
    • Analytical: Credit Analyst, analysis, analyst
    • Responsible: Quality control, Regulatory compliance, responsible, compliance
    • Strategic: Innovator
    • Communication: Training and development, communicator, training and communication
    • WOO: Advocate, influential

If you are able to identify and embrace your top five (5) strengths and communicate it through your resume and LinkedIn profile. You can use it not only to showcase your experiences but as proof that you can excel in the job that you are applying for. If you are able to do this then you are able to showcase who you are and what you can bring to the table. This talks a lot about your brand.

Expert BIO
with Jennifer Doyle Vancil

Jennifer Doyle Vancil is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach and career coach whose mission in life is to help people create strengths-based careers. She works with clients in career transition through her consulting firm Communicating Strengths LLC, she serves as a career coach to MBA students at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, and she is a career counselor and MBA Career Management faculty at Colorado State University. She trains and mentors other career coaches and higher education advisors on integrating CliftonStrengths into academic advising and career counseling and actively shares advice in LinkedIn.