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In today’s competitive employment market it’s crucial to stand out from the pack. As marketers we apply brand principles to our products and services so why not to ourselves?
So let’s use the four P’s of the marketing mix to “brand yourself”. It may just help you land your next marketing role.
Product
This is an opportunity to build your own brand – imagine that you are the product. All people, at all stages of their professional development, need to plan for their career. Planning is an ongoing process. Our skills, interests and motivations change over time as does the economy, the employment market and technology. What are your objectives? If you aren’t clear about what’s next it’s hard to determine the steps that need to be taken to develop your brand.
If you’re a graduate your challenge with this exercise is slightly different. You’ll have to sell your personality, as most likely you haven’t had any marketing experience to demonstrate your abilities. But this doesn’t mean that you can’t build your brand based on other things like extra-circular activates or voluntary positions. If you’ve already been in the workforce for several years then you need to sell your skill set and find an environment where your talents can be used to the best advantage.
Take some time to identify your skills, aptitudes and interests by asking such questions as:
- Why did you undertake studies in a particular field?
- What do you like doing and why?
- What are you good at why?
- What aspects of your current work do you dislike and why?
- What motivates you? (e.g. money, security, status)
- What work environment appeals to you? (e.g. large corporate, home office, small business)
Then set long-term objectives.
- Where do you want to be in five years or ten years?
- How are you going to get there?
- What are your financial goals and are you willing to salary sacrifice for your dream job?
- What do you need to do now in order to reach these goals in the future? (e.g. do I need to do additional studies, do I need more experience or responsibilities, do I need a mentor)
In order to achieve your objectives, uncover your positive attributes and areas that need development you could do a realistic SWOT analysis on yourself. What are your strengths and weakness especially verses others who may have more experience then you. If you are lacking specialised skills then what strategies can you put in place to help minimize this gap. A thorough understanding of yourself and career plan will enable you to apply the other “Ps” to the greatest advantage.
Positioning
When going for a role you are competing against other people who may have similar experience and qualifications. What sets you apart from the rest? What’s your unique selling proposition?
The first port of call is your resume. This is your selling document and positioning statement. If it’s not up to scratch then you won’t even get your foot in the door, regardless of how impressive you are in person. The good news is that it’s easy to be a professional job seeker. All it requires is attention to detail and a common sense approach. A good way to think of it is to treat it like a business plan. It should be based on facts, be clear and easy to read and written in logical order.
Keep your resume under four pages, five at the absolute maximum. With up to a hundred people applying for roles you’re not doing yourself justice by burying your best experience on page ten. The most detail should be in your current role and the last five years of experience. A small role fifteen years ago doesn’t need as much weight as recent roles.
Make sure you tell potential employees or recruiters all they need to know in a concise way including education and complete work history with dates of employment. If you work for a company that might not be well known include a brief company description. Also list under each job title who you reported to, if you had any direct reports and the size of your portfolio.
It’s also good to list two-three achievements with tangible measurable results that you’ve had in each role.
Finally make sure that the achievements are good for the company rather than for you personally. For example it’s better to mention that you increased market share or brand presence rather than say you were promotion or attended an overseas conference. Just like in marketing where we must convince the consumer to buy our brand not the competitors. One tried and true way is to highlight what’s in it for the consumer (not what’s in it for you!).
The next stage where positioning is important is the interview (or several interviews as is often the case now). Unfortunately it’s still true that interviews count for much of the decision process. It’s important to do well in an interview because regardless of your great resume and excellent experience people will still base much of their decision on what they conclude during an interview.
Employees are looking for two major things in the first interview – proven skills and attitude. This is also a perfect opportunity for you to assess the company and the opportunity. And if you are interested in the role, how to position yourself to fulfill their needs. When you launch a new product into the market place you research how the product will fit into the life of the consumer. You need to research how you will fit into the employer’s environment.
Preparation is essential to do well. When you launch a new product into the market place you research how the product will fit into the life of the consumer. You can research how you will fit into the employer’s environment. It’s always good to do a background search of the company. Check their website, annual reports or if a consumer good then you can go into retail and see them in the real world.
In today’s climate employers don’t want to make a recruiting mistake so take away as many barriers as possible. Take the time to prepare your responses in advance. Work out how to overcome objections especially if there is a perceived skill gap. Make it easy for the employer to make a decision by giving relevant and specific examples of your proven skills and experience and how it could be applied to this role. It’s now common to use competency/behavioral based interviewing techniques where you’re given a situation then asked how you would respond. When answering make sure you not only say how you would take action but also why and how you’ve achieved this in the past.
The other important thing to organization are looking for is passion and confidence. When you sell a new product internally to other departments’ people look to marketing to be the enthusiastic brand ambassadors. So in the job market you have to be the brand ambassador for yourself. Your chance of being successful increases when the employer sees your confidence and believes that your appointment will be mutually beneficial.
Place
Defining your objectives and determining a positioning will help narrow your job search. As you would in any marketing plan it’s essential to know who you are targeting with your message. If you can identify target companies that suit the product then you can maximize your chances for success.
To unearth the “place” you might ask yourself some of these questions:
- Do I want to work for a small, medium or large company?
- What management style do I prefer?
- Are there opportunities for advancement?
- What corporate culture fits with me?
Once you’ve determined the answers to these questions you can go on the hunt for companies that fulfill these requirements. Do your research. Find out how other people got into those companies and if you can replicate their progress. This is a targeted approach rather than the scattergun effect. This will also help narrow down advertised role so you are only applying to those that are relevant to you.
Price
What are the most important things to you in a job? Surprisingly for most people money is not always the top of the list. There is a trend for people to want life balance and they are prepared to sacrifice salary to get it. It’s also important to realise that while you might not be ready to forgo the big dollars there may be other people applying for the same role who will take a pay cut if it’s the right company or position. If you can define what’s important to you, and what is negotiable, then it’s going to make your job search much easier.
Some of the things to think about include:
- Salary expectations
- Job flexibility
- Job satisfaction
- Job profile/status
- Opportunities for advancement
- Career path
- Professional development
- Life balance
When you work in marketing you spend your life surrounded by brands so it makes sense to apply some of those theories to yourself. All of this preparation will give you the best chance to “brand yourself” as a hot commodity in the employment marketplace.
For more information about a career in marketing please feel free to call Christine Khor at Market Partners – Sales and Marketing Recruitment Specialists. 03 9698 8788
by Christine Khor
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