Marketing applied to Job Market (5): Position

Position is another key factor in a successful marketing strategy.
I means: "be on the right place".

In the employment market, it mean that you need to position yourself correctly on the overall landscape.
That would require you to first identify what sort of job you want first. The main issue is that too often, most of people are so desperate that they would either take any job, as long it's a job or search for job for which they are over skilled, just to ensure they'll get it. None of those strategies are winning on the log term.

Standing out of the crowd could be only a question of how you position yourself.

First of all, get to know your best skills, your real strengths and market yourself around those. Don't forget transferable skills. Looking for an accountant position doesn't mean you have to hide this long period of being employed as a bartender. The latter may reveal some strong transferable skills that would help you in any other job, like being able to work under high pressure and still meet customer's satisfaction or the ability of remaining organized even on extremely busy periods. Those are skills that would be highly sought after from an accountant.

Secondly, occupy the place. Don't just post your Résumé or CV in only one job board. Be registered on all of them.
You've got several set of skills you want to promote? Just don't put all of them on all profile, it may scare some recruiters. Instead, split them into relevant groups and promote them separately on each job board. Recruitment agency always look at more than one to scout for talent. If they are looking for multiple skills, if you don't reach the top of the search result onto one job board, you may rank high on another one for a different skill you have specifically put forward on another board.
Don't be vague by doing this, focusing on very specific skills will make you ranking high if searched on this specific skill.

Do the same to recruitment agencies. Take the yellow pages and start calling recruitment agencies, temp agencies and head hunter. Send them your CV with a nicely written cover letter. Don't wait for them to look after you but be there on their listings when they would need to look for someone of your profile.

On the same idea, apply on jobs advertised by one agency you haven't heard of before, even if the job is not a perfect match for your profile. If you haven't heard of them, there are great chances they haven't heard of you either. Get them to know you. This could be done only if you come in their vision field.

Position yourself as a professional for the skills you master the most: that's your best selling points. The weaknesses are things you can always improve later but you will never be hired for them if they are not fit for purpose. You have won awards or additional qualification, put them forward.

The search for a job is a game of seduction: several applicants are always showing up for one open vacancy, so stand out of the crowd if you want to be chosen. Position yourself on a way you will be noticed and preferred over the crowd.

Position is also something you can look after in social medias. Romuald was an expert in Gold mining. His dream was to work in that area but without an engineering degree nor experience in that field, the prospect of him being hired by a mining company were close to none. Instead of keep sending applications that were consistently rejected, he decided to engage with the professionals of the industry, Social Medias offers various resources, like LinkedIn groups and blogs. He opened a blog where he gave his opinion over the last news of gold miners and shared his posts into a gold mining group. Soon, he attracted comments from other participants of the groups. Some of them even shared what he posted with their colleagues. Afterwards, he become reputable enough to be invited into private groups of Gold miners and get in touch with professionals.
When he posted a comment under a post saying that he was actually looking for a position into that industry, he received a private message from a mining company HR representative.

Romuald has positioned himself under the radar of those who are in the field where he wanted to be invited. He began speaking their language and sharing their thoughts. Afterwards it was just a question of time before he starter a job with them.

Some believe that finding the right job is a question of chance only. One day they'll be on the right time at the right place, it's just a question of patience. Those people are set for failure.
A job opportunity, you can go and create it. It won't happen while lying on your sofa watching television. You have ot go and get there, position yourself and be noticed.

Reality is that, if you don't make you noticeable, nobody will notice you.
As simple as that.

And you, how will you improve your positioning on the job market in order to create the perfect job opportunity, What are the strategies you've tried and that were total failures. What are the winning strategies that helped you to land the dream job?
Let's share by leaving a comment below.

Good luck with your job search.

Marketing applied to Job Market (4): Packaging

What you see outside is what you'll find inside.

Make sense for a condiment jar, but what about yourself ?

How attractive do you make yourself on the market?
Presentation is another key item that you need to consider while seeking for a job. 

I noticed several times in the past that although I was one of the best in my branch, I always have been rejected even before being given the opportunity to demonstrate that, a "better candidate" having been chosen they said. What did he had more than me??? 

The bad side effect is that you'd be then tempted to accumulate even more skills, trainings, get a PhD, learn another language, and so forth. However, with experience I discovered that's just pointless.

How does it comes that people with sometimes poor skills get chosen instead of a highly skilled candidate so that the hiring manager is convinced having done the best choice?

Because with experience I found out that the so called best candidate was always a poor performer. His best skill however was that he managed to persuade the recruiters he was the best.

Yep, it's All about making believe.
It's all about your self propaganda, your personal marketing. What's the point to have the best product if it's not to market it as the best available ?

There are my advice for high skilled candidates that never managed to get a position at par with their skills. 

When submitting your application:

1. Wrap it with self confidence. The recruiters don't want someone who is doubting all the way long. Having accumulated trainings, diplomas, degrees, languages with no clear goal is a bright sign that beam over you head saying: "Warning: unconfident candidate - Don't know what he want or where he goes"
Instead, states clearly form the beginning that you've accumulated all those skils because your only target is to become the best in class/in your branch and that you'd be glad to put all those skills at your prospective employer full disposal. Present this as an opportunity for them too. Don't beg for this job but let them know that for them it's a one in a lifetime opportunity.
If self confidence is the only skill you're poor at, then consider getting a self confidence class, get a coach or at least read a good book like Building Self Confidence For Dummies or its audiobook version.

2. Show off. Don't be afraid to do so. Don't remove a skill or a qualification from your résumé just because it would look like you're boasting. If you have folloved adice #1, it shouldn't cause an issue. Just think that those poorly skilled people will do the same, ending up lying about their true set of skills and past achievements. Lying by not showing something that is true on your Résumé is even worse that lying by showing a degree you never get. If you can prove it, tell it. You'll never been penalized for telling the truth.

3. Make Irrelevant Things Relevant. Sometimes people strip off entire range of qualifications out of their CV because they believe it's irrelevant for the job they're applying for. Why? How on earth would you miss an opportunity to show you're a well rounded personality with versatile skills that can suit more situations than the average? Show it at your advantage: you can think out of the box. Having taking the time to learn something extra that has nothing to do with this field mean that you are not a narrow thinker just focussed on one point in life and that actually you'll always know what to do with your life, because you've got one. 

4. Get two arguments for each point of your Résumé that will demonstrates how it would serve you in the next position. If they are not obvious, just be creative. I say 2 arguments because one will be the obvious one and the other will be the unexpected one, the one that is the most creative. Think twice and ask advice to your friends. All human activities can be related to each other in one way or another. I love knitting, how does it help in a sales position: I've got patience to knit a web, getting the ability to figure out the final figure and work little steps at a time to get in there. How being a former bar tender will help you being a good manager of the technical department. Well if your PhD in electrical engineering is an obvious reason, being a bar attendant was a way to improve your humble skills, listening to other and make great cocktail combinations to always reach the customer expectations. Name 2 unrelated jobs/hobbies/human activities and you can nearly always find reasons why being good at one can help being good at the other.

There is still a great risk that the recruiter don't decide to hire you just because you're too brilliant, more than he is. In that case, rejoice of not working for him. If the interviewer says you're over qualified, that's his problem, not yours. 

One I had an interview where one of the interviewer asked me if I wouldn't feel a little bit overqualified for the position. I answered asking how he could see it as a problem. If I would have seen it as a problem, I wouldn't have come at the interview and wasted my time and theirs at first instance. If he got a problem of working with someone more qualified than him he'd rather to let me know now because that's not the kind f person I'd like to work with. At the end of the meeting he insisted that he was not interested in going any further with me but we both know that I did gently declined to work for them.

So next time you're rejected of an application because you are overqualified, just be thankful because otherwise your life would have been an nightmare of working for people who cannot recognise the great opportunity to get someone with such amazing skills working for them.

Packaging your skills is just showing people how amazing you are and convincing how better their life would be if they pick you.


To end this note, let me tell you this recruitment joke - you probably know it but I find it appropriate in here:

At a job interview:
- Tell me your greatest weakness.
- That's Honesty.
- I don't think that honesty is a weakness.
- You can't imagine how I don't care of what you think...