Job Search and You, Inc.

Your job search needs to be much more than just a fruitless exercise in submitting your resume for hundreds, if not thousands, of job postings you find online. That generates desperation and the tendency to apply to anything and everything. With the slow-torture, wait-to-get-a-response results of mass email applications online, you will begin to doubt yourself and what you have to offer.

Instead, take personal accountability for the course and speed of your job search. Understand that you are marketing yourself and your value to a potential employer as the branded entity “You, Inc.”

Marylene Delbourg-Delphis states in her article “Look at Your Company as a ‘Small Business’” at OpenForum.com, “So see yourself as who you really are: a small business ‘owner’”. While she is addressing budding entrepreneurs, her mention of the need for a “continuous sense of personal accountability” and quotes about what that means are easily transferable to job seekers:

• “Never create excuses for yourself”. For job seekers, the buck does stop with you. If you are using outmoded techniques and self-marketing documents, no one is forcing you to do that except yourself. If you have no time to network for job leads, who is in charge of your daily calendar?

• “Don’t feel entitled to anything”. If you lack a strong network, do you expect a well-connected network to just appear automatically? It takes work to make meaningful connections. Smart job holders start building relationships before they need their next gig.

So, what are you waiting for? Shake the dust off the start-up known as “You, Inc.” This is a new year with a new beginning. Take responsibility to conduct a savvy, up-to-date job search with the same degree of personal accountability that a small business owner would have. Here are some tips to try:

1. Get clear about your personal brand, unique value proposition, goals, and the target employers and industries to pursue.
2. Establish and maintain relationships with industry insiders and company employees where you want to work to build credibility and obtain employee referrals, sage advice, and up-to-the minute information.
3. Get creative about uncovering job leads before they are posted online as job ads for the world to see.
4. Craft customized self-marketing documents (branded resumes, bios, cover letters, thank you letters, and online profiles for a start) that clearly and convincingly connect your value to the employer’s needs, and company culture, mission, goals, and brand.
5. Improve your written and verbal communication skills. It will serve you well in all stages of your job search, but particularly in the interview and seal-the-deal stages. Persuasive communications is an art form. Is there a good reason why YOU do not need to learn it?
6. Eliminate negative thoughts and stay away from negative people. They will only drag you down. Your positive energy is too precious to waste!
7. Be on the lookout for your next paying customer (the employer), even after you become employed. You never know when your current job may end. Shift to the new paradigm of continuous career management.

Your personal brand, along with your proven skills, strengths, aptitudes, passions and interests, values, work ethic, personal behavioral style, education and training, credentials, work experience (including volunteer work and military service), and drive are all unique to “You, Inc.”

Utilize those career and personal assets to propel your job search and differentiate you from the mass of job seekers out there. With nothing to lose and a lot to gain, why not start today?

by Susan Guarneri

Comments

[Andrew Racknick]

Great Post!

I like how you had encouraged the thought of building a personal brand with an embedded quality factor.

Many candidates dont bother to place a quality score above them as they keep sending out their resumes at an alarming un manageable rate. It is always best to look in places where your competition doesnt.

http://www.aspire2work.com/job-search-tips

The above site is also one I follow as they have some great tips on ones job search.

Keep more posts like this coming!

[Susan Guarneri]

Yes, quality does matter in a job search...now more than ever because of the extreme competition. Your personal brand needs to be authentic to you AND compelling to your target audience (potential employer). This means you must convey the quality (value) the employer will derive from you and your personal brand. Flesh out relevant accomplishments that showcase your brand attributes and use those to get the employer's attention. Thanks for your comments Andrew!