Getting A Job In A Down Market

How To Create Competitive Advantage In Your Search
by Steve Brown

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I believe one of the important principles of marketing and branding is: being different is always better. As unemployment swells to 5 million citizens, an increasing number of my friends and acquaintances are refreshing their connections and asking for help finding new jobs. The internet era is motivating everyone to get online, and use social networking sites such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, and Monster. That is the problem - everyone is doing it. While I believe one must get involved in that new way of finding work leads, I'm increasingly advising job seekers to return to the basics and create face time with potential employers.

Distinguishing Yourself From The Crowd

There are really only two ways to improve your chances of getting a job. First, is finding the lead and closing on the interview ahead of the crowd. Second is to create the job opportunity by getting in front of potential hiring managers and showing them what you can do.

Internet based job search does not give anyone an advantage except the hiring company. It reduces their costs to find more qualified candidates. There is an illusion that you're able to find more open positions than if you use traditional search techniques. But the numbers don't play out in your favor.

Shifting Job Market and Acquiring New Skills

Another challenge people are facing is the shrinkage of available jobs in their area of expertise. More people are needing to make career transitions, some small, some significant. It isn't easy to convince a hiring manager to take a chance on you when there are so many qualified candidates available.

A Fresh Idea - A Return To The Past

I am increasingly advising people to enhance their internet-age job search with an approach of old. You could call it apprenticeship, or simple smart hustle. Either way, more and more people are recognizing that they are against some giant odds in finding a job quickly. My guidance to is to offer their services free to managers and executives at companies where they'd like to work. The strategy is to get in front of potential hiring managers, show them what you can do, and learn about the companies needs, long before a job is posted to the internet for hiring.

We used to do this in college - they were called internships. There are several options for marketing these experiences into resume' builders. You can create a consulting company that provides specific services, or simply offer yourself. As you network with executives you can explain that you're building your experience base and are willing to offer yourself free for a period of time in exchange for the experience, the resume' entry, and their reference. Limit the time you are committed each day so you can continue your job searching. And put yourself to work. This gives you inside access to lots of people.

Marketing yourself this way provides you access to potential hiring managers that you can't reach if you're just looking for a job. It's catching on, and I hope it helps. We need to get creative in this economic turmoil in order to move past it and return to more positive prosperity.

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Strategy, Brand, and Go-to-Market

Why treating a job search like a product launch makes sense.
by Steven Brown

You probably opened this blog entry thinking you'd find some discussion about business planning processes for launching a product. Well, I'm not here to trick you, but there is a growing need to approach job search like a product launch. In this tough economy more and more people in my professional and social network are searching. As a product launch person I see lessons in strategy, brand, and go-to-market planning that could help them be more efficient and successful.

There are lots of job search sites on the web with materials, guides, etc. Just a few are Monster, About, and Jobstar. There are so many websites, so many books, so much data, so much advice. It's overload, and I can easily see how people spend time on less-productive activities.

I've invested time helping many people look for work. Here is an overview of the approach I use, which you can see comes from my approach to launching products.

Strategy

The most important thing to do when formulating a job search plan is to identify your goals, the strategy you're using, and the measures of success. I always begin every project with a single slide (I use PowerPoint for everything!) containing these dimensions of a plan. Without alignment on the goals, strategy, and measures, I can't hope to develop a successful project. The same applies for a job search. The candidate needs to have a clear understanding of what they're trying to accomplish, how they're going about it, and how to measure to see if they got there. This sounds so trite. But without this structure several problems arise. First, the candidate can't judge between options of how to spend their time. If you don't know what you're doing, how can you know how to go about doing it? Second, the candidate can't communicate clearly with others they meet when they ask for help. There is nothing more frustrating than a job search candidate who asks for help, but doesn't know what they want help accomplishing. This alone eliminates well over 90% of the job search candidates that approach me.

Brand

The next dimension of a successful search is the brand of the person. Given their goals and background, it is relatively simple to create a brand description of the person. This is important for those chance encounters, networking conversations, and application emails and resume's. The brand captures the essense of the person, and the right selection of words are critical. One rule to remember: hiring managers look at candidates with an eye towards eliminating them. Poor branding gives them a reason in the first 5 seconds.

Go-to-Market

I use this category title a bit tongue in cheek. Really this might be best titled Networking. More than 90% of the high paying jobs are found through people. Not applying online. A business Go-to-Market plan identifies the target customer, the value proposition, the media/communication mechanisms, etc. These same dimensions must be purposefully addressed when searching for a job. Most people that approach me for help are using the spray-and-pray technique. Yes, networking and even Go-to-Market is somewhat unpredictable because you must create and pursue opportunities that unexpectantly arise. However, you are still dealing with your scarce time and a limited number of people to network with. If you aren't thoughtful about that you will at best miss opportunities, and in the worst case create a negative impression that will inhibit success.

Conclusion

The Effetti website provides tools for you to self-evaluate your goals, strategy, and go-to-market. There are also tools for branding, developing messaging, and more. Job search, even in a tough economy, can be made easier with thoughtful planning. Hopefully this blog has provided some useful suggestions.