The 12 Days of Christmas Job Hunting
Day 1
On the 1st
day of Xmas --- Guerrilla
Marketing for Job Hunters revealed to me:
A plan with a very clear goal.
Your plan
must be clear and detailed in every way. It must also be:
- Clever,
- Results driven,
- Marketing oriented,
- Inexpensive to execute,
- Realistic, and
- Achievable.
Results
driven. - You must measure your progress. You need to do this so that you’ll understand how close you are to
achieving your goal and stay motivated and committed to your plan.
Measuring
requires tracking the metrics which drive you to your finish line. Here are a few of the dozens of proven
tactics Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters shows you how to measure:
- How many out
of the box activities have you deployed?
- How many
targeted resumes you’re sending out,
- How many guerrilla
networking activities you’re engaged in.
Marketing
oriented - Because the market is geared toward those who effectively brand and
market themselves as the ultimate commodity across multiple distribution
channels. Winning the War
for Talent requires you to become great at guerrilla marketing
yourself. Looking for a job is a sales
and marketing activity where you’re the product.
Inexpensive
- In 1997, Tom Peters introduced the concept of “Brand U” in his book Re-Imagine!
At the time, self-branding was an assertive marketing concept best reserved
for high-flying techies and senior executives who wanted to maximize the
financial returns of their biggest asset—their career. Today personal branding is a matter of
survival. Here’s how to brand yourself for free.
Realistic -
Knowing what you want to do is great. Combining that with what you’re ‘qualified” to do is the secret. You may be pleasantly surprised at how your
current skill-set maps to other industries. For a clear picture of what’s possible to do with your skill-set I
suggest you visit America’s Career InfoNet.
If you’re
not qualified for what you want to do get moving and determine how you can become
qualified. In my 20+ years of executive
recruiting the biggest problem I’ve run into is that people aren’t realistic –
especially the unemployed. You’re
setting for disappointment if you apply for jobs you’re not qualified to
do. Sometimes you may have to take a
temporary step backwards to move forward in a new career BUT the sooner you
start the sooner you’ll hit your goal. If this even remotely applies to you then you need to make one New Years
Resolution – and it’s to yourself – I will check out America's Career InfoNet
Achievable.
Knowing the exact title and function of the future role you want gives you a
realistic goal with no excuses. Get
specific. The more detailed the
better.
For example,
I’ll bet you Vicky Vlachakis
new exactly what she wanted to do and who she wanted to work for before
she started her job search. When the
opportunity came along to design the new two-seater convertibles for Saturn and
Chrysler she recognized her chance to knock not one but two home runs out of
the park.
Nothing is
more important to your success than a clear “picture” of your goal. If you can envision your dream job AND you’re
qualified to do it then you can find it. With a specific goal in mind you can organize your job search and
networking efforts with a laser like focus. Yes some people are lucky and fall into great jobs but luck [as Tom Peters
says] is so unpredictable. The dramatic changes we’re witnessing in the
marketplace mean that the tried-and-true methods of finding a job will no
longer suffice. Those old ways should remain a part of your plan, however by
themselves they don’t provide the horsepower to get the heightened attention of
employers.
Clarity of
purpose is both energizing and enabling. Before you spend even one more minute job hunting make sure your goal is clear.
Now go to top of this post click on "MAIN" and go rad the rest of the series as they come out up until December 22nd.
