Seeking A Job Requires A
Marketing Mindset
When you respond to a job opportunity, don't try
to sell yourself.
Now you're probably thinking: "What? Are you
nuts? Of course I have to sell myself!"
But think about it. Your goal as a job seeker
is not to present yourself in the best light as
you see it but, rather, to show the potential
employer how you can meet his or her needs. That's
marketing, not sales.
When a company creates a new job or someone leaves
and an opening occurs, the hiring supervisor (consciously
or unconsciously) creates an image or template
of the ideal candidate in her or his mind. Your
need is to try and figure out what that idea is
and help the employer recognize that you fit the
image more closely than anyone else did.
How can you do this? Carefully read the job posting
or classified ad. Most people drafting a job description
tend to think of desirable history or skills in
an unconscious order of priority. If you hear
about the opening in some other way, ask for a
job description before you send in your resume.
Do some research (again, a marketing function)
on the organization with an emphasis on the areas
of its core businesses. And take a look how the
organization historically has positioned itself
in the industry. Check out their Web site. Ask
for a copy of their sales brochure, an annual
report, and/or copies of their customer and employee
publications. Ask your friends. Ask friends of
friends who are working there. Work your network.
This researching phase not only helps you to build
your "positioning," but equally important,
it enables you to discover if this is a company
with a culture you'd want to work in.
Once you have the information, craft your cover
letter to demonstrate how your experience and
talents can help the organization meet its goals,
achieve its mission. The letter should point out
and expand upon specifically relevant points on
your resume. It is also where you can refer to
other information that does not appear in a standard
resume but that may be significant because of
its particular relevance to the specific job.
Given the convenience of word processing with
today's PCs, shape the resume itself around the
needs of the job.
Almost everyone has an opinion on how a resume
should be structured. And almost all those opinions
disagree with one another. Here are some more
common tips:
- Make sure your resume reflects how you can
help the organization thrive. Focus on your achievements
and on accomplishments that are related to needs
of the potential employer. Quantify them to the
highest extent possible. You get to take credit
for anything for which you or staff reporting
to you achieved. If you could have been blamed
for the failure, you get credit for the success.
- Don't try to hide any gaps in chronology. Explain
them. Having been out of work for a while is much
more common these days. It's just part of life.
(Some appreciate a more functional resume with
a short chronology more than one that is pure
chronology).
Since you are most likely to get a job where
the fit is good, be careful if you have to adjust
your presentation of yourself too much. If the
fit isn't really good, but you get the job because
you stretched and pulled yourself all out of shape
to fit the needs of the job, you may not be happy
in the work. That's no good for you or the employer.
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