Candidate Persona Template for Job Seekers
The candidate persona template is one of the tools that job seekers can use to attract the company’s attention.
The Perfect Way to Apply for a Job
The job market has always been full of surprises. The candidates seek to prove the way they work and the way they interact with other people.
Besides the classical resume and cover letter, the candidates looking for a job can create a variety of tools that could help them in gaining the job they want.
In today’s article, we will talk about the candidate persona template, the interaction between the job seekers and employers as well as about the ability to stand out from the crowd.
Some of the most important ideas are retrieved from the Candidate Persona Template Guide by Mcquaig and from the book Active interviewing by Eric P. Kramer.
Looking for Another Job?
Getting a new job in the age of AI and IoT is a matter of wide vision. The multitasking of yesterday is combined with the multivision of tomorrow. It is not enough to accomplish several tasks.
You must see the vision behind those tasks. You have integrated the results into the multidimensional strategy of the company.
Unlike AIs, people tend to see things from their own perspective. Employees forget about the perspectives of the other stakeholders involved in the business.
When you look for another job you have to analyze a lot of perspectives. You also have to fit into the organizational culture of that company.
Employers like to get people that feel like they belong there. Employers want people that understand quickly the nature of their tasks.
Employees want people who bring a lot of benefits to the company. Do you think it’s hard? You are right. This doesn’t mean that you cannot try.
Even the experience of integrating more perspectives will become valuable one day.
Jobs Are a Marketplace, Don’t Forget That
Selling is the number one priority of a company. You probably heard it a million times.
Employees also sell their work and results. Good work and results make the employee valuable.
If you are valuable you will very quickly earn the respect of the company. If you don’t deliver good work and results, someone else will. It might sound a little bit harsh but the reality can get even harder.
Millions of people are afraid of losing their jobs. This is because of the current technological developments.
Millions of people struggle to learn new things in order to keep up with the trends on the market. The fear of losing a job reduces productivity and the internal motivation.
Without these two factors, the results of the work are fading. In the long term, the individuals lose their best assets. And what is left cannot be competitive.
Luckily, knowing the reasons of the fall can help you prepare for the rise. It’s not just individuals that sell work and results, companies do the same in their own way.
What does an individual sell?
When the job hunt takes place, an individual promotes and sells many elements such as:
- Previous successful results. A company is interested in a person that gives better results than others. The future employee has to assure the company that he can provide good results with minimal costs.
- Skills. The abilities of a future employee are the foundation of the daily activities. Without these established skills, no results can be achieved.
- Work. All the work of the individuals is valuable. The efforts and the passion for that particular job translate into successful activities for the company.
- Resume (CV) and a cover letter. They are classical tools that present in a brief manner a person’s best assets.
- Accomplishments. The future employee should create a list of their accomplishments. This is to suggest top professionalism and recognition from the previous organization.
- Experience. An individual promotes their experience as a sign of maturity. Maturity sells trust in the individual abilities.
- Possible impact on the company. Every job seeker tells the company that they will make a good impact on the company itself. We cannot predict all the outcomes. But the motivation and the ability to learn can contribute to the creation of a positive impact.
What does a Company sell?
When looking for new candidates that could join the team, a company promotes and sells aspects such as:
- Salaries. Money is not the only element that matters in the business equation, but it sure steals the spotlight.
- Activities. The company highlights the most important activities related to its products. Those activities also shape the organizational culture.
- Projects. Projects are very common these days. Projects are at the heart of many businesses. A company will try to allure the future employees with exciting and valuable projects.
- Positions. A company promotes and sells its positions/job titles. The company makes sure that these positions are well integrated with the economic trends.
- Learning and innovating. A company can captivate the candidates with a culture of learning and innovating . This culture is necessary to grow on the market. It is also necessary to develop the skills of the workers.
- Careers. Nevertheless, a company sells the prospect of a successful career. It also integrates the long term strategies for profit with the skills of the people.
What is a Candidate Persona Template?
The candidate persona template is one of the tools made for representing the ideal assets of an individual in a certain job. Companies create this kind of template to illustrate what they expect from all the candidates.
However, the candidate persona template can also be a useful tool for the job seeker himself. With a candidate persona template you can emphasize your best assets while keeping an eye on what the company wants.
When creating a candidate persona template, you make a great exercise. You evaluate your own capabilities. You will understand better what a company thinks about that particular open position.
By completing the candidate persona template with your details, you will stand out from the crowd. You will be able to assess your own skills needed for that position.
It is important to highlight what you did in your previous work experience. You also have to promote yourself as a valuable employee in order to get the job you want.
By filling in the candidate persona template you emphasize your best skills.
What a Candidate Persona Template Looks Like?
Here are some of the most important elements of a candidate persona template and this is how you can fill the template for getting to the heart and the mind of the recruiter. A lot of people think of adding their name and some important life details. These elements are already on the CV so there is no need to put them again in the Candidate Persona Template. Start with skills.
Skills
List about 3 to 5 hard skills that are crucial for the job you want to get. Also list 3 to 5 soft skills that are vital for innovating in that company. Add the place and the context of gaining those skills.
Accomplishments
List some of the most important accomplishments. This way you will show that you have had good results across time.
Career goals
List some of your career goals. You tell the company that you want to continue on the path you have chosen. You tell the company it can rely on you. You show that you will take your role seriously.
Personality traits
No one likes to have “a Grinch that stole Christmas” in a team. A company wants a positive person that has professionalism, willingness to learn, motivation to succeed, curiosity and stamina.
Hobbies
List some of your hobbies that relate to the job that you want to get. Hobbies tell the company how you enrich your everyday life. They also show that you put effort into improving yourself.
Internet and social media links
List the most important links where you can be found. Tell them that you are active on the Internet. Tell them that you have the skills for digital collaboration. This shows awareness of the digital environment that surrounds you.
Benefits
What possible benefits a company gets if it hires you. Here are some examples: learning a concept in one week, solving 4 major tasks each week, delivering 3 reports in one month, understanding the customer satisfaction by analysing a big amount of data etc.
Pro-Tip for Job Seekers when Working on a Candidate Persona Template
Try to create a few samples with the Candidate Persona Template. Work on them as if you were standing in front of the recruiter. Be honest with yourself. Promote all the important results and achievements you had in your previous jobs.
If you apply for an entry-level position, list the same elements by looking at the life experience gathered so far:
- university courses and projects
- workshops
- volunteering
- adaptation to difficult situations and new patterns
- cultural and sport accomplishments
- personal portfolio etc.
Turn Your Features from the Candidate Persona Template Into Possible Benefits for the Company
Now comes the tricky part. All these elements can be found on hundreds of resumes and cover letters. Hence, your file won’t stand out from the crowd.
The features from the Candidate Persona Template relate to the key skills, experiences and adaptations.
Experts say that it is better to list the features alongside with some quantitative results. Use facts and stats about your work.
Luckily, there is one strategy that could help you. Turn these features into possible benefits for the company. Apply your unique way of thinking on the Candidate Persona Template.
Sparkle the interest of the company. Apply your unique way of thinking on the Candidate Persona Template.
Example 1. A person that wants to get the job of frontend developer for a project management consulting company. The skills required for the job are listed on the website and pretty much all of the applicants will highlight these skills. But you can integrate these skills into the system of possible benefits for the company. Emphasize a few elements that will be gained by the company if it hires you.
Example 2. You want to get a job as a PR and Social Media officer for a start-up in ecological technologies. By listing only some hard and soft skills, an individual will be just like the others. List the possible benefits that the ecology start-up can have by hiring you. You will show to the company that you have a wider vision. You understand the nature of its tasks and the commercial environment. You learn how to integrate inside the start-up. You have the professionalism and stamina necessary for doing that job for the company.
Think Like a Company
When looking for new people that could join the current teams, a company wants to solve a problem. For example, a certain company needs new content on its website in order to gain more visibility on the Internet. Hence, it looks for a solution.
The solution might be hiring a content specialist that can post different articles on the company website. They can add various templates for the users. They can write short news about the company. They can promote the entire company with interactive content.
Turn your features from the Candidate Persona Template into possible benefits for the company. Thus, you show what kind of solution you bring to the company. This means a lot.
Sell Your Assets
At the beginning of the article, we mentioned that companies want candidates that look like they belong there. The costs of onboarding new employees are high.
Many companies prefer to give additional tasks to the current employees. By reducing the costs of onboarding and learning quicker, a candidate can surely steal the spotlight.
Sell your assets and think like a company when trying to get a job. You must integrate into the Candidate Persona Template 3 major aspects:
- the features you have
- the services you can offer
- the possible benefits that you could bring to the company.
The features are your best assets. The services are the activities that you can run inside the company. The possible benefits are the results that you achieve in your work. These results can be useful for that company.
All these 3 elements are the whole product that you try to sell to a company that is looking for a solution. If your product meets the criteria, it will end on the short list.
Most likely, it will end up being part of the company. Create the candidate persona template and own the content of this template.
How Can Lumeer Help?
Lumeer is a project management and time tracking software which can help you design the Candidate Persona Template. Being a small team makes us very careful about what we want from our employees and at the same time we commit to help the team members to achieve greater results and to enjoy working for Lumeer. We hope this article has given you some useful tips to get the job you want, thus increasing your confidence.
