How to Stand Out Beyond Your CV: Career Advice from Gallagher’s Jennifer Brousse
When recruiters assess a candidate, they are rarely looking at experience in isolation.
Your CV may explain where you have worked and what you have done, but employers are also trying to understand how you work, how you communicate, what you value and the impact you have had beyond the basic requirements of your role.
According to Jennifer Brousse, Talent Acquisition Partner at Gallagher, this is where both your online presence and your soft skills can make a real difference.
In an industry built around relationships, trust and collaboration, candidates who can clearly communicate their experience while demonstrating qualities such as adaptability, resilience and a willingness to learn can create a much stronger impression.
Your Online Presence Can Show More Than Your CV
A strong LinkedIn profile gives recruiters and hiring managers another way to understand what you could bring to an organisation.
Jennifer points out that the insurance industry is full of professionals who contribute far beyond their formal job descriptions. They may volunteer, lead internal initiatives, speak at events, support colleagues or consistently go above and beyond for clients and stakeholders.
Those experiences can say a lot about someone’s values, interests and potential.
But if your online profile only contains your job title and employment history, recruiters may never see that wider picture.
The aim is not to post constantly or build an artificial online persona. It is to make sure your profile reflects the work, contributions and experiences that matter to you.
Think About What You Want Recruiters to Remember
Your personal brand is ultimately the impression people build of you over time.
That might come from the type of work you share, the subjects you engage with, the projects you highlight or the way you contribute to conversations within your industry.
Jennifer encourages candidates to think beyond simply listing responsibilities and consider what makes their professional experience distinctive.
What have you contributed outside your day-to-day role? What are you particularly passionate about? What kind of work do colleagues rely on you for? What values consistently show up in the way you work?
Showing these things clearly can help recruiters understand not just what you have done, but the kind of professional you are.
Soft Skills Help Employers Understand How You Work
Technical skills may help demonstrate whether you can perform the core requirements of a role, but soft skills often indicate how effectively you will work with other people and respond to challenges.
For Jennifer, several qualities stand out particularly strongly.
Communication
Insurance is fundamentally a people business. Whether you are working with clients, brokers, colleagues or other stakeholders, being able to communicate clearly and authentically is essential.
Adaptability
The industry continues to evolve, from changing customer expectations to new technology and emerging risks. Employers value people who can respond positively to change and remain effective when priorities shift.
Collaboration
Strong results are rarely achieved alone. Being able to work constructively with others and contribute to a positive, inclusive team environment is an important part of long-term success.
Resilience
Careers do not always progress in a straight line. Setbacks, difficult conversations and unexpected challenges are inevitable. The ability to recover, remain solutions-focused and respond positively to feedback can make a significant difference.
Growth mindset
The willingness to keep learning matters at every stage of a career. Candidates who are curious, open to development and willing to build new skills demonstrate that they can continue growing alongside the organisation.
Show These Qualities Through Examples
It is easy to write that you are collaborative, resilient or adaptable.
It is much more effective to demonstrate it.
Think about examples from your work where you adapted to a major change, brought people together to solve a problem, responded constructively to a setback or took the initiative to learn something new.
These experiences can be reflected across your CV, LinkedIn profile and interviews.
The strongest examples do not need to be dramatic. They simply need to show how you approached a situation and the difference your actions made.
Standing Out Is About Showing the Full Picture
A strong application is not just a list of qualifications and responsibilities.
It should give an employer a clear sense of your experience, the way you work and the value you could bring to their organisation.
By making your online presence more representative of your wider contributions and developing the soft skills that underpin strong relationships, candidates can give recruiters a much fuller picture of their potential.
In a competitive market, that can be what makes you memorable.
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