On the first day of Christmas - Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0 revealed to me - "A Plan with Clarity..."
Click HERE for FREE DVD that gets you hired - “New Job Search Secrets"
The best advice you'll ever receive is start your job hunt with absolute clarity. All of the best job search advice in the world can be boiled down to three steps:
- decide what job you want;
- tell the right hiring authority about it;
- prove to them you’re the one to hire.
Pretty simple summation of the facts. Create a plan that is clear and detailed in every way --- then give it some panache!
If you want to get hired you have to get noticed. You have to raise your voice above the crowd to be heard. So when everyone else is doing more of the same - things that aren't working - you have to be more focused. Your job search needs to be focused and very clear.
It must also be:
- Clever,
- Results driven,
- Marketing oriented,
- Inexpensive to execute,
- Realistic, and
- Achievable.
Clever - That’s because the most qualified job hunter is rarely the one who gets hired. The positions[s] invariably go to the person who does the best job at positioning themselves as the solution to an employer’s problem. Often the employer doesn’t realize they have a problem and it’s your job to bring that to their attention.
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 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 Tom McAlister turned himself into a comic book hero and landed a job.
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 job hunters who are unemployed. If this describes you - STOP! 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! You can be that focused too.
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
Compliments of David E Perry and Kevin Donlin. For more creative job search tactics, go to the Guerrilla Marketing for job hunters blog and download the free audio CD.
