I spent part of my day today helping a client craft a compelling award nomination for a competition that a regional news journal is hosting to recognize outstanding women. As I was working with her I thought about the fact that many people don't think of self nominating for awards which, I think, means they are missing some opportunities. Don't be shy, apply for any local or national awards, leadership classes (like Leadership Austin or Leadership Greater Chicago), or other sorts of recognition. If you don't apply just remember that you will not win. And if you do apply the worst that can happen is that you won't win which isn't so bad.

I am not sure that many people realize that very often PR firms nominate their clients for awards and/or create buzz to help them win awards. People who win "40 Under 40" or "30 Under 30" awards are very often campaigned for by professionals - in other words they didn't passively sit by and hope they the were considered one of the best and brightest. They took action to give themselves an advantage. I mention this because I think that sometimes people are under the impression that just because they don't win awards means that maybe they aren't achievers when the truth is that sometimes you have to pursue awards in order to even be considered.

Many of my clients are superstars who have an entire section of their resumes devoted to awards and recognition. Many of these people self nominated for the awards they won. I have known a lot of people who feel shy about either self nominating or about asking someone else to nominate them and I always tell them to just get over it and send in that application. Or, you can hire someone like myself to write the application for you. The important thing is to take advantage of opportunities to apply for any and every award you can...every time you win one it will give you something good to put on your resume.

Article by Liz Handlin and courtesy of Ultimate Resumes