If you haven’t already, make sure that you check out Part I and familiarise yourself with the fundamentals of job applications. These are the absolute non negotiables that you need to secure an interview. It is only once you have these in place that you’ve earned the right to do the sexy stuff, that helps your application jump off the page, and really separates you from the crowd. This is truly the sizzle that sells the steak, and we’ll be covering that sizzle in today’s post.

General points to optimise your application

Overall Formatting

If you followed the steps outlined in part 1, you’ll have achieved the basic goals of a well formatted resume and cover letter, namely that you check the professional accreditations and qualifications they are looking for, conveyed your experience and personal skills that make you a viable candidate, and you laid it out in a coherent way that didn’t vacuum up the limited time and attention of the person doing the reading.



This is all well and good, but unfortunately your resume is still going to look like everyone else’s and risk getting lost in the pile. It needs to jump out and grab the eye of whoever is sorting through the application, and that is what we’re going to focus on next. They can’t hire you if they don’t know you exist first. Attention must precede persuasion. Here are some easy wins to achieve that…

Branding– As you’ll often hear Keir say on this platform, you are in the business of you- you are selling yourself and your products to prospective customers aka employers. So put together materials that portray yourself as such. Think about the imagery, font and colour scheme that you want to represent you and your brand. There are websites or apps like Canva that will put together aesthetically appealing font combinations and layouts for you. Use these in your documents and you’ll not only add a professional feel to your application, a degree of consistency between your cover letter and resume will make them easier to pick out from a pile, and striking imagery is impossible to ignore against a backdrop of 100 black and white Times New Roman 1.5 spaced resumes.

Headshot– Another element that adds to your brand and helps easily put a face to the name of your application. I also find it helpful to use the same headshot across all of your social media, because on the chance you have previously engaged with the coach on social media, there is a prior association already created that makes you more memorable and thus stand out further from the crowd, assuming the interaction was a positive one. Make sure it is a professional headshot and not your latest IG selfie from a night out. Note: it isn’t technically legal to use any identifying criteria in your application that might influence an employer’s opinion of you positively or negatively e.g. age, gender, weight etc. Submit a resume with a headshot anyway. If they send it back and tell you to take the photo off, say “my mistake” and resubmit. If they don’t you’ve just taken advantage of a free opportunity to convey congruence to the employer that you look the part of a coach i.e. you look professional, you look like you lift weights, you’re not 300lbs of slop.

Now, let’s dive into each the resume and cover letter respectively and talk about further ways to enhance them.

Resume

Formatting– The newer age of resume formatting gives you some versatility in where you place the key sections of information. If you look at the example of mine that I provided above, you can very quickly know that I am accredited, what my education background is, and then read through my experiences more qualitatively. Don’t get so cute with the format that your resume is difficult to navigate; you are going for aesthetically-pleasing, not indecipherable.

Logos– I think this is an optional addition, if it’s well done. Take care when doing this to not let it offset your text formatting in any way, or make text hard to read. Smaller logos and/or transparency settings will be your friend here, and make sure they are well-edited without colored backgrounds. Word has a “remove background” feature that you can utilize to make it so only the logo itself is featured. Also make sure the logo is a large enough size that it isn’t pixelated when you insert it into your resume. Again, not a necessary addition, but something to consider if you can make it look good and allows you to 1) stand out from the pile 2) borrow brand recognition and credibility from the institutions you may have worked with.

Social Media– The reality is that social media is becoming a front door for you and your brand. For example an Instagram story was the catalyst for my current job, so if you are going to list your social media channels (I don’t on mine, personally), you’re going to want to make sure they carry an aura of professionalism to them. You don’t need a “professional” page and a personal page- I happen to think there’s value in showing that you’re a whole person and that you don’t separate the identities, but however you feel is best to build your brand, do you.

*As an aside, given the ease with which people can discover old posts, I think it is wise to have an app that shows you old posts and allows you to go straight to the post to edit/remove it. Timehop is a great app for doing so, so you aren’t kicking yourself when a dumb tweet from when you were 16 is found in some way. It’s also a great way to reminisce on how dumb you were as a coach in years past.

Cover Letter

Formatting– To preserve brand consistency use the same format for your cover letter as you do your resume. Keep the colors/fonts consistent to the way you used them in the resume and it creates a very consistent and branded look to your materials and ties all of your application materials together. Make sure any background stylings/colors aren’t going to have a huge contrast that would warrant using multiple font colors in the body of your cover letter, so your best bet is to use a more neutral styling or blocked format (similar to mine).

Signature– It looks nice to have your actual signature included, and with current apps and technology is it very easy to take a picture of your actual signature and convert it into a digital image that can be adapted for use in any document of your choosing no matter the format.

How the same documents can jump off the page and demand attention with some thought, time and effort



References

Formatting– Yep, same format as everything else. Stay on brand! The names of your referees should pop out as a “section heading” for each reference. If you have prominent referees, this is another sneaky way to borrow credibility via association from them and their employer.

*Possible* Screening Questions

It’s possible some programs will have you answer some written questions to dig deeper into you and your experience as a coach. This might be a more common piece of your application for non entry positions (paid internships, GAs and up) but it’s something to definitely be prepared for regardless. Think of it as your chance to go the extra mile, truly separate yourself from other candidates and get across what the resume and cover letter cannot. The types of questions you can be asked on secondary tasks will vary wildly, but when myself and Keir were doing the asking, we tried to ask tough questions that required critical thinking, problem solving, and a lot of introspection. We hated people who tried to give us a canned answer or what is was they thought we wanted to hear. Wherever possible demonstrate that you can think for yourself and that you can figure it out as you go along. These are some of the most valuable qualities for an intern or assistant to possess because we inevitably enter the job as the unfinished article, and quickly encounter problems that we’ve never faced before.

*Possible* Video Demonstrations

Another potential application material that is typically reserved for those middle-tier positions may require you to provide video of yourself 1) doing a movement yourself while talking through coaching cues for it, 2) coaching an athlete or group of athletes through a movement, or 3) a combination of the two. It’s also possible they may ask for you to film an actual session of yourself coaching, assuming you are currently employed as a coach. The last is obviously the easiest to navigate because it will be the most natural. If that is the case, don’t be over the top or contrived because you’ll look weird and make your athletes feel weird. Just make sure you have good angles to show yourself, the athletes and how you move around in the session, manage the group as a whole and coach individual athletes on the particulars of certain movements. It is normal to feel self conscious when starting out, but speaking and presenting to camera is a great skill to have in general, and the more effectively you can utilise it for the application the better. Get in the habit now so that when the time comes, it is just another day at the office.

When using video recording as a evaluation criteria, employers will probably ask you to shoot some sort of ground-based, explosive movement, like a plyometric or olympic lift, and/or something more strength-oriented like a back squat. If you are coaching someone else through the movement, view it as a two-way conversation you are engaging in rather than you delivering a series of instructions or simply narrating what the other person is doing. When you are speaking to the camera, you are speaking to other coaches, so you can go into a little more depth and use a little more technical language. When you speak to the athlete though, remember they don’t care about or understand most of what you’re talking about, so just concern yourself with achieving a sound technical outcome. Correct as they go. If they do it perfectly, you can take a little time to list a few of the common faults and how you’d correct those, or you can ask you athlete to mess up on purpose so you have something to correct. If you are filming yourself doing the movement, talk through the movement first, complete a rep or two, address and show any common faults seen in the movement and how you would correct it. Be cognizant of time limits if any have been imposed, and be as concise and informative as you can- brevity is the soul of wit. You won’t have unlimited time when you coach athletes in the real world, so don’t coach or talk like it here.

Regardless, film landscape (avoid the black bars of death) in a well-lit environment, with low ambient noise so you can be heard. If you can use a wireless mic, that is ideal but non essential. If you’re on the move, get someone to film you rather than prop up your camera and constantly be moving in and out of frame. If you are working with minors, make sure you have obtained the necessary permissions from their parent/guardian to film them, and that you’ve explained the purpose and distribution of the recording. If you want to fluff this piece up, add transitions, titles, imagery etc with editing software like iMovie. Once again… stay on brand! The same rules apply here that we covered in part 1: file name, format type, and where/how to send it.

Following Up

The best way to stand out from the pile is for them to be looking for you in the pile. Your follow up will be key to make sure they know who you are and where to look for you. The two primary ways to do this:

Have someone influential call for you- not only will you be on their radar, a phone call or email from someone in your network in a position of influence will help you to to borrow credibility from this person and their potential relationship with those doing the hiring.

Follow up yourself- obviously it is unlikely that you have a 1st, 2nd or even 3rd degree connection to the person doing the hiring through someone in your extended professional network for every job that comes up. Nonetheless, you can still contact the employer yourself to follow up and separate yourself from the crowd. A phone call is a great way to go the extra mile and stand out, add congruence or detail that might not be covered by your application documents, and prompt the right people be looking for you in the pile, or go back and look a second time if they’ve already started reviewing.

Conclusion

In part 1 we assembled the big rocks. In today’s installment we covered everything you need to do to stand out from the crowd, demand attention, and subconsciously persuade employers that you are a potentially valuable asset to their institution. Combining these principles with luck and persistence, you’ll eventually start to land interviews, which we’ll cover in the next piece.

Note for feedback on your resume and cover letter, I highly recommend you post them in the Career Development section of Strength Coach Network. At the time of writing this thread has thousands of views, with dozens of examples of coaches who have been able to refine their job applications, secure interviews, and win employment thanks to feedback from our members. Many hands make light work, and with resources like this, you can take advantage of the experience and wisdom of hundreds of coaches who have gone before you.