Resumes, Networking, Headhunters ? Useless Without Marketing Sweet Spot
A career transition is no longer about getting your hands on a list of contacts, networking with headhunters, or going online to look for work. It's better than that. Want to neutralize most of your rivalry? Hot-swap the traditional means of securing a job with these new tactics and you'll warp-speed your search: ? Stop looking for a job ? Increase your visibility ? Decrease your competition ? Create buzz and you'll multiply your exposure to decision makers ? Create need and you'll generate quality interviews, simultaneously ? Create solutions and you'll gain an opportunity to design your own position Stir up the buzz and you'll stand out in a saturated market. Develop a reputation for being a subject-matter expert. This time you'll want to be the topic of the next water cooler gathering. Make sure that you use your full name when identifying yourself on any of these venues, not a pseudonym. You can't stir up the buzz about you, if you're hidden behind some funky moniker. Don't forget to create an email address that sounds professional wherever your name publicly appears. There are eight over-the-top ports to gain higher visibility: ? Chamber of Commerce (networking events and / or committee participation) ? Local trade associations (meetings and / or committee participation) ? Blogs (industry trade associations, online publications, job boards) ? Teleseminars (trade association-sponsored, industry-oriented) ? High-profile volunteerism (civic, community, business projects) ? Broadcasting (radio and television guest appearances) ? Ask-an-Expert content venues (online and print) ? Newsletters, white papers (online and print) Get employers drooling for your talents by demonstrating a consistency in your marketing message. Recruiters and decision makers routinely perform a Google? or Yahoo? key word search to learn more about you. Put your name (and its variations) into these mega-search engines to find out what pops up. If you've made disparaging comments about anyone or anything, either on or off record, these will harm your marketing message. For the sake of your professional branding, publicly, shut up. If what you want to say or do communicate oddity, inappropriateness, or lack of civility and good taste then you become a liability to your industry's culture and you'll be blacklisted. Branding is a yardstick that measures not just what you do, but who you are and the perception others have of you. Make sure that whatever you say or do (professionally and personally) sends a consistent positive message about your leadership, industry competency, ethics, maturity, and interpersonal relations. This constancy is your branding; an awareness of you which captures an employer's attention and interest in you. Mastermind solutions and you'll improve the odds of a securing a customized job role. Borderless thinking solves problems, particularly those deemed by others as too troublesome or impossible. You'll release yourself from dependency on open or publicly-known positions when you pitch personalized remedies for an employer's toughest business challenges. Annihilate your competition by doing the thing that they wouldn't dare to do?stop looking for a job. Concentrate on subterranean research to uncover 'spot opportunities' - patterns that would signal upcoming hiring activity. Yeah, it's labor-intensive, but the pay-off is huge in terms of edging past Human Resource department screeners. Classic market research involves S.W.O.T. Analysis. Successful marketing thrusts are achieved using a thorough analysis of Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats for Growth. Can you count the times on one hand, your buddies took the time to do this kind of extreme exploration when they were on a job hunting expedition? The more you know about a targeted company, its industry, and the associated threats to its success, the stronger your posture. Instead of seeking a job, pursue opportunity to use your talents to better an organization's own branding before its employees, customers, and business relationships. Pitch directly to first-string decision makers. Slamming a baseball out of the park isn't rocket science; it's about reading and reacting to the pitch - knowing what you have to do, and when to do it. It's also capitalizing on the bat's sweet spot to connect the raw capability of the bat to the sheer force of the batter's swing. A professionally-run job search does the same things; you pitch your solutions to the right target, at the right time, using the right resource and strategy. The career marketing sweet spot is that critical moment where targeting and timing intersect. Goal sighted, energy harnessed, successful outcome achieved. Marta Driesslein, CECC (http://interviewing.com/) is a management consultant for R.L. Stevens & Associates Inc. For over 24 years R.L. Stevens & Associates has been the Nation's most successful privately-held firm specializing in executive career searches generating quality interviews through both advertised and unadvertised channels.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How You Can Find Opportunities For Foreign Language Proof Reading Work
For those who are fluent in another language, foreign language (ie non-English) proof reading can be a great source of income. It is a difficult area for those who are not fluent to get into though. That is because, in order to be a proofreader, you must be able to do several things. It is not just spelling errors that the proofreader needs to fix. There are many other things that they need to do. It is important, then, that those who are seeking proof reading opportunities have the skills necessary to get the job done correctly.
Sample Resume Objectives: Read, Dont Copy
The resume objective statement is typically something that trips people up.
The Right Way To Send Your Resume
Having a great resume is the first critical step in a successful job search. Unfortunately, most people don't know the best ways to get that resume noticed. In today's job market, where you are competing with hundreds of other resumes, knowing the right way to distribute your resume can make all the difference.
Alert! An Over-50 Jobseeker Has Just Entered the Building
Interviewing Tips for the Older Job-seeking Population
Creating a Winning Resume
Preparing your resume can often seem like a daunting task. You've done your research, but there is so much information, and how do you pick from the countless formats?!
Get Off Your Butt and Out of the Rut
It's amazing to see so many people who are prepared to sacrifice their lives for the sake of their careers.
Dynamic Pre-Hiring Practices
The pre-hiring process can be a challenge. Much time and energy can
be invested and in the end, wasted, if your approach is not focused,
deliberate, and specific. The following approaches have resulted in
meeting candidates that not only meet our specifications, but also
regularly exceed our expectations!
The Big Mo : Momentum and the Hiring Process
Momentum as defined by Webster's is: strength or force gained by motion or through the development of events. For our purposes, the interview process is a "development of events". Creating and maintaining momentum throughout the interview process is critical to attracting and securing top candidates in today's competitive market. Momentum or "The Big Mo'" as I frequently call it is a term widely used by sportscasters to describe the modification of energy between two parties to in a sporting event or game. As a recruiter, we see both sides of the hiring process. Rather than have momentum shift from one participant to the other, we seek to have momentum or positive energy shared and exchanged by the participants, moving in unison with each other towards a common goal.
Aptitude Tests Reveal the Difference Between Your Aptitude & Ability
Aptitude tests measure your skills, abilities, values, interests and personality in order to help you determine which careers you might be best suited for and eliminate those that you are not.
Update Your Resume Today
A friend was just promoted to a position of vice-president of a company. I am happy for him and the first thing I told him after congratulations was "update your resume". He is now in a new league and if and when a headhunter should call or an opportunity to advance presents itself, he must be ready with his paperwork. Ready now, not tomorrow. A prospective employer's first impression of you should be one of preparedness.
Finding the Right Travel Nursing Placement Agency
Travel nursing is becoming one of our nation's fastest growing professions, and it's no surprise. If you love seeing new places and enjoy exciting new experiences that evoke the feeling of taking an extended vacation, then the career of a traveling nurse might be just what the doctor ordered! Travel nursing enables many people to stay on vacation for two to six months in free luxury accommodations while earning high hourly wages at the same time.
3 Secrets to Landing a Home-Based Position
Landing a telecommute position isn't easy. Finding them in the first place is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Then, when you finally do find one that looks promising, it's filled before you can even click on "apply for this job".
Smokin? Up a Storm: Clothing, Smokers, and the Job Interview
You're nervous. You're so nervous that you crave a smoke. So you light up, and as you puff away, it feels so relaxing, right? Well, what's good for your nerves is not so good to when you're job hunting.
Surviving in Corporate Amercia: Part 1 - Email
There is a saying that goes, "The best offense is a great defense". Nowhere is that applied better in the corporate world than in the intelligent use of email. In this age of technology, E-mail is a multi-purpose tool that can be adapted into each user's organizational patterns. Firstly, we will get the basic do's and don'ts out of the way.
Tips for Handling On the Job Setbacks
If you've chosen a business career, you will inevitably experience some type of setback. And whether your pet project is canceled, your performance review is a bust, you get turned down for a promotion, or you're asked to leave the company, setbacks hurt big time. Nevertheless, if you start thinking of yourself as a victim or allow yourself to lapse into prolonged negativity, you won't be hurting anyone except yourself. Worrying until you get sick, abusing drugs or denying that you've reached an impasse won't help either. The best strategy for making a comeback is to recognize the reality of the situation, acknowledge your feelings and find a way to cope productively. Here are some other tips you might find helpful:
10 Warning Signs That You?re Ready for a Career Transition
1. You dread getting out of bed and going to work.
The Night Worker
In the process of musing about our perennially awake world for my Social Psych blog, I started to think about our present work world and how its operations have changed the lives of millions of workers.
Telephone Phobia: Make the Phone Your Job Search Friend
You're pretty comfortable using the phone. It's something you do every day in your working routine; so why is it that as soon as you need to use it for career change or job-search it becomes too difficult?
Ten Resume Writing Tips You Can?t Live Without
For some job opening, employers receive
hundreds and even thousands of resumes.
When you are looking for a job, how
can you best promote yourself? How
can you convince a prospective employer
to pick-up the phone and call you for
an interview?
Five Qualities Employers Want
More than ever, employers want employees who can produce results! Here are five qualities employers seek in such employees.
|
