You’ve read the "resume speak..."Motivated the CDMA Project Team to exceed projected installation and deployment goals, beating test and verification expectations a month early. Achieved both time and cost savings to the customer."
By meeting and beating both professional and personal goals during career transition you will be propelling future successes and the resultant rewards. Having a productive and efficient action plan, your Personal Marketing Plan during career transition, will reap the rewards of patience and persistence in your implementation. Assessment of your career-to-date, coupled with a realistic look at next steps, provides a manageable path in seeking your career objectives. Success in the management of any career transition confers rewards not unlike those in the workplace:
- A sense of accomplishment;
- Pushing oneself beyond expectation, often acquiring new skills or knowledge;
- Identifying developmental goals to assure continued career success;
- Gaining the respect of those around you, colleagues and customers;
- Being requested for future challenging opportunities!
Dutch painter
First career: art salesman
This is the first article of a series that will explore how to efficiently employ all five methods of seeking your next right work.. In the marketing metaphor, these five methods would be your "distribution channels." The alternative of using a "shotgun approach," or papering the world with your resume will simply scatter your time and energy. Rather, learn to embrace the OTHER job market... focus your networking efforts to increase your productivity... take the randomness out of the equation by:
- Networking through personal contacts
- Contacting companies directly
- Conducting face-to-face informational meetings
- The Internet, representing published openings
- Third-party recruitment firms and individuals
The most experienced sea captains would never leave port without the appropriate charts/maps to help them navigate their intended journey. Your PMP is the most basic of such M.A.P.s (MAHER Associates Process). The Captain, or his navigator, then plots his intended course by 'connecting the dots' between his 'waypoints.' The Careerpilot suggests that your basic waypoints, allowing you to effectively connect the dots at any stage of your career transition, are...
- Be prepared to think and operate 'outside the box' of traditional job search thinking...
- Always communicate yourself in a positive, future oriented manner, and...
- Always have a next contact to make...ALWAYS.
>> MORE on waypoints
Companies spend millions
of dollars creating and communicating just the right message to ensure
that customers will recall, respond favorably to, and buy their
products. Effective job search is a marketing challenge. Just what sort of branding do they want to achieve in the marketplace... what is that right message?
THE PRINCIPLE OF MESSAGE
So exactly what is your message, continuously delivered to contacts and hiring managers? It can be broken down into two parts:
First, a statement of your functional identity (I am a corporate trainer…), followed by several marketable core competencies ('keywords' in today's digital world. Keywords that provide definition to what you are "selling" (…with substantial experience in leadership development, performance management and team building.) This is referred to as POSITIONING. It comes directly from…
1. Assessment and Research…
A Candidate who is truly managing their own career is constantly aware of their own best "next steps." They research the marketplace, target appropriate opportunity, network effectively to both create personal "visibility" and create avenues to those opportunities that are right for them. Take the time necessary to determine the appropriate next steps in your career path.
2. Setting Your Career Objectives…
Knowledge of the process and self-awareness allow you to effectively set your career transition objectives. In order to implement an effective Personal Market Plan, your objectives are defined by positioning (functional and personal strengths) and targeting (informed industry and geographic goals) your candidacy. Of course the best "FIT" occurs when your objectives are aligned with the needs of the marketplace.
3. Development of your PMP COLLATERALS...
Pre-determination of offer criteria and career objectives are essential cornerstones to the development of a high quality resume, part of the written collaterals of your Personal Marketing Plan. As your highly personalized, marketing collateral, your resume positions you in the marketplace… qualifies you with your experience, knowledge, skills and credentials… and can target your efforts with appropriate word selection relative to your industries of choice. Take the time necessary to determine your career objectives.
By extension, your message should include a clear statement that allows a contact to understand what you are requesting: "I’m seeking names of individuals who work in the corporate training field" or "I’m hoping to meet with you briefly to get your ideas on the key financial services companies in the Dallas area…." Or, "I’m looking for names of recruiters who specialize in manufacturing engineering…"
Your messages will be delivered in three different ways:
- Verbal communication (by telephone or in person)
- Written communication (networking referral letters, cover notes, resumes, e-mail, your social networking profile, etc.)
- Image (Both perceived and in person, interactively)
In marketing, these delivery vehicles are referred to as collaterals.
"Three essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense."
inventor, salesman... frequently worked more than 40 hours straight
***
THE PRINCIPLE OF REACH
This second principle, REACH, directs a company or sales/marketing department to reach, through numerous means, as many buyers (or those who influence buying) as possible. One of your important marketing goals is to reach as many potential buyers (employers) of your product as you can. So, the first challenge we present to you is to initiate 25-30 brand new contacts every single day.
Sound like a lot? Many successful job seekers, upon looking back on their campaigns, have pointed to a direct relationship between the number of contacts they made and the number of interviews that were extended to them. In fact, this tends to be a predictable ratio!
***
THE PRINCIPLE OF FREQUENCY
This concept says that people need to be told something multiple times if they are expected to remember it. The best sales representatives stay in continuous contact with customers and potential customers. In fact, it has been estimated that only 20% of sales reps make six sales calls on the same customer, yet 80% of the sales are made on or after the sixth sales call. In essence, sales reps who are the most successful are persistent. They know that people remember things they are told multiple times. Thus frequency and consistency (to eliminate confusion) combine to create...
TOP OF MIND AWARENESS
Your goal is to have people remember you and your message. You want to establish top of mind awareness. This marketing phrase is used to describe the goal of having consumers of a particular product think of the company brand name first when confronted with a buying decision. For instance, when you think of toy batteries, what brand name comes to mind? Eveready? Duracell? How about tires? Michelin? Goodyear?
The bottom line is that you want and need to be remembered both now and in the future and you need to establish top of mind awareness that relates your name to your career focus. For instance, job seeker, Peter Dexter wants his network to remember three things: Peter Dexter---------Product Manager---------Medical Devices
If you are effective in creating top of mind awareness, then your contacts will remember you and will refer opportunities to you during your job search and possibly for years after.
REACH + MESSAGE + FREQUENCY = TOP OF MIND AWARENESS
Personal Marketing is a contact sport!
 Bob Maher, CMF... The Careerpilot | Bob
created his online presence, www.careerpilot.com, in 1994. He has over
thirty years of successful experience in Corporate Recruitment,
performance management and Career Management Services. He is an
entrepreneur and innovator in the use of information technology in the
recruitment and employment process. On the Founder's Council of the
Association of Career Professionals - International and quite active in
their Professional Development, Technology and Chapter Growth
initiatives--a frequent speaker at industry conferences and seminars.
Awarded the Association's prestigious "LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD" in 2006. A Career Management FELLOW, as certified by the Institute for Career Certification-International, the only independent and international certifying body for career professionals. |