Implementing Your Personal Market Plan: Part I
by Bob Maher Thursday, December 04, 2008
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Robert J. Maher, CMF, has been in the career services field since 1980, and mostly as an independent since 1983. Bob has provided services or spoken to audiences in most major metropolitan areas of the US, and several in Canada and the UK. He has served a very broad-based and diverse clientele over the years with a solid reputation for effective group facilitation, one-on-one coaching, marketing support and consultation at all levels, including executive.
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Getting Started in Career Transition
If your goal is to identify and secure a new position, then you should prepare your search as a "business model", manage it accordingly, be flexible, and be ready for the unexpected. Here are some time tested tips to get you started:
1. Have a "business-as-usual" attitude...Manage your search as you would your business or job and you will earn success faster. While rejection may be part of the process, it can be avoided. The skill of being recruited can be learned.
2. Have reasonable expectations...Analyze what you have to offer, listing your abilities, marketability, compensation, work environment and relocation, then validate these expectations with peers, other job hunters, and/or recruiters.
3. Determine your career objective...This will help focus your actual search. Have a Personal Market Plan, including identification of key Professional Resources Online. Look for specific titles, target industries and companies. This focus will expand your possibilities, not limit them.
4. "WORDCRAFT" your resume...Create “The Book on YOU,” a forward looking "story" of what YOU CAN DO. Target your accomplishments, such as increased sales and profits, reductions in costs, etc. Focus on achievements that support your qualifications for your job goal.
5. Develop confidence in your ability to answer anticipated questions throughout the process...Prepare as you would for a business presentation; don't try to wing it. High impact, polished “verbal collaterals” that support your resume and other “written collaterals,” are critical to your success! Be prepared for basic questions and tough issues in advance and study them.
6. Modify and improve your Personal Market Plan’s implementation model as needed...As you move through your search, make adjustments as you would a business model. Ask for input from people you respect. Account for BOTH the traditional and “the other” job market in your planning and implementation tactics.
Embrace The Other Job Market!
You see, in every marketplace, there are buyers and sellers. In the traditional job market, the one that our Department of Labor measures for us, job seekers are the sellers and their potential employers are the buyers. The commodity is productive work and the competition is fierce.
In the OTHER Job Market, buyers and sellers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process. When employers have a need for someone to fulfill a specific role, often the most desired candidates are employed individuals with the credentials they seek. Thus the employer must sell their Company to potential employees in the marketplace in order to attract the best of the lot. Once identified, they simply select their choice and buy their services.
On the other hand, if an individual is under-employed, seeking a change, or actually unemployed, they must be visible to potential employers who are seeking their services. Creating this visibility is strategic, personal market planning and execution—in can be marketability without rejection!
Personal Marketing is a contact sport.
The very nature of traditional job search takes the job seeker right into the teeth of the Corporate screening process, and subjects them to maximum competition.
WHY DO THAT?
Rather, come to understand the “hidden reality” that there are two job markets out there, tied together like the double helix of the DNA molecule. Combined, the two marketplaces form a 24/7, 365 days a year opportunity of employment. Enjoy the “shopping” ahead.
>> MORE on "Embracing the OTHER Job Market."
Considering the use of a skilled and experienced pilot to assist you through the “challenging waters?” Consider the Careerpilot. >> MORE
Robert J. Maher, CMF, has been in the career services field since 1980, and mostly as an independent since 1983. Bob has provided services or spoken to audiences in most major metropolitan areas of the US, and several in Canada and the UK. He has served a very broad-based and diverse clientele over the years with a solid reputation for effective group facilitation, one-on-one coaching, marketing support and consultation at all levels, including executive.
Bob served as Vice President of Consulting Operations for OPTIMANCE during the implementation of a large scale, three year project - the largest ever undertaken by a non-national firm. He is on the Founder's Council of The Association of Career Professionals International, currently serving on its US Country Board. Current President of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Chapter, Bob was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the ACP International in 2006.
With the advent of the Internet age, Bob served as President of the E Chapter, first of its kind, virtual Chapter, receiving the Association’s Leadership Award in 1995. He is focused on technology applications as a resource in both career transition and electronic recruitment services, often assisting his clientele with their personal development of technical skills.
Bob served on the Professional Development Committee that conceived of and developed what has become our Profession's credentialing body, the ICC International, now the only international and independent credentialing body for the career services profession. He was one of the first in Texas to be awarded his CMF certification.
For more information, visit www.careerpilot.com.
If your goal is to identify and secure a new position, then you should prepare your search as a "business model", manage it accordingly, be flexible, and be ready for the unexpected. Here are some time tested tips to get you started:
1. Have a "business-as-usual" attitude...Manage your search as you would your business or job and you will earn success faster. While rejection may be part of the process, it can be avoided. The skill of being recruited can be learned.
2. Have reasonable expectations...Analyze what you have to offer, listing your abilities, marketability, compensation, work environment and relocation, then validate these expectations with peers, other job hunters, and/or recruiters.
3. Determine your career objective...This will help focus your actual search. Have a Personal Market Plan, including identification of key Professional Resources Online. Look for specific titles, target industries and companies. This focus will expand your possibilities, not limit them.
4. "WORDCRAFT" your resume...Create “The Book on YOU,” a forward looking "story" of what YOU CAN DO. Target your accomplishments, such as increased sales and profits, reductions in costs, etc. Focus on achievements that support your qualifications for your job goal.
5. Develop confidence in your ability to answer anticipated questions throughout the process...Prepare as you would for a business presentation; don't try to wing it. High impact, polished “verbal collaterals” that support your resume and other “written collaterals,” are critical to your success! Be prepared for basic questions and tough issues in advance and study them.
6. Modify and improve your Personal Market Plan’s implementation model as needed...As you move through your search, make adjustments as you would a business model. Ask for input from people you respect. Account for BOTH the traditional and “the other” job market in your planning and implementation tactics.
Embrace The Other Job Market!
You see, in every marketplace, there are buyers and sellers. In the traditional job market, the one that our Department of Labor measures for us, job seekers are the sellers and their potential employers are the buyers. The commodity is productive work and the competition is fierce.
In the OTHER Job Market, buyers and sellers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process. When employers have a need for someone to fulfill a specific role, often the most desired candidates are employed individuals with the credentials they seek. Thus the employer must sell their Company to potential employees in the marketplace in order to attract the best of the lot. Once identified, they simply select their choice and buy their services.
On the other hand, if an individual is under-employed, seeking a change, or actually unemployed, they must be visible to potential employers who are seeking their services. Creating this visibility is strategic, personal market planning and execution—in can be marketability without rejection!
Personal Marketing is a contact sport.
The very nature of traditional job search takes the job seeker right into the teeth of the Corporate screening process, and subjects them to maximum competition.
WHY DO THAT?
Rather, come to understand the “hidden reality” that there are two job markets out there, tied together like the double helix of the DNA molecule. Combined, the two marketplaces form a 24/7, 365 days a year opportunity of employment. Enjoy the “shopping” ahead.
>> MORE on "Embracing the OTHER Job Market."
Considering the use of a skilled and experienced pilot to assist you through the “challenging waters?” Consider the Careerpilot. >> MORE
Robert J. Maher, CMF, has been in the career services field since 1980, and mostly as an independent since 1983. Bob has provided services or spoken to audiences in most major metropolitan areas of the US, and several in Canada and the UK. He has served a very broad-based and diverse clientele over the years with a solid reputation for effective group facilitation, one-on-one coaching, marketing support and consultation at all levels, including executive.
Bob served as Vice President of Consulting Operations for OPTIMANCE during the implementation of a large scale, three year project - the largest ever undertaken by a non-national firm. He is on the Founder's Council of The Association of Career Professionals International, currently serving on its US Country Board. Current President of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Chapter, Bob was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the ACP International in 2006.
With the advent of the Internet age, Bob served as President of the E Chapter, first of its kind, virtual Chapter, receiving the Association’s Leadership Award in 1995. He is focused on technology applications as a resource in both career transition and electronic recruitment services, often assisting his clientele with their personal development of technical skills.
Bob served on the Professional Development Committee that conceived of and developed what has become our Profession's credentialing body, the ICC International, now the only international and independent credentialing body for the career services profession. He was one of the first in Texas to be awarded his CMF certification.
For more information, visit www.careerpilot.com.