Career Reinvention &
Personal Brand Strategist

You can't blame the economy for everything! Power-up your job search with new strategies.

October 30, 2009
By: Randi Bussin-Career Coach, Personal Branding Specialist

You can’t blame the economy for everything!!

 

After another busy week of helping clients differentiate themselves, extract their brand and find work in our “jobless recovery”, I thought I would share some trends I am seeing.

 

Many of my clients are frustrated at not being able to find work. However, when we did deeper in our sessions, we discover that there are many things going on that are not working to their advantage and are slowing down their ability to land.

 

I share my thoughts below on what I am seeing with clients and how you can take small steps to beef up your job search:

 

§  The job search needs air.  This means that things are not going to happen (interviews, networking meetings), if you do not dedicate time to this process. And I mean significant time-not a few hours a week but 20-40 hours a week. If you are getting distracted by taking care of your children or aging parents, rethink your strategy and prioritize your job search.

§  Social Media is here to stay and is quickly becoming the medium of choice for hiring firms to recruit and research talent. If you are not familiar with these tools, or are resistant to using them, get help. Pick one tool (LinkedIn, for instance) and learn everything you can about how to maximize it for your job search, researching people and companies etc. Find a mentor (maybe a Gen Y candidate would be good) and have them teach you everything they know.

§  Don’t fall into the black hole trap. When contacting people for informational meetings, or firms that are hiring, don’t assume you’ll hear back. Everyone is overworked so if you want to get someone’s attention, pick up the telephone and leave a message. Be crystal clear on how they can help, what you are looking for and please leave all your contact information for follow-up.

§  You must define a targeted list of industries and companies you wish to pursue.  Without this, you have a very unclear and undefined job search target. Think of your job search campaign as sales. If you don’t know who you are targeting and where you can find them, how can you reach them and get their attention. If you need help compiling this list, engage the help of a reference librarian at your library, use the Book of Lists (from the Boston Business Journal), or ask your networking contacts. LinkedIn can also be helpful with this research.

§  Please know what differentiates you from other candidates (yes, this is your Personal Brand). Commonplace and banal expressions such as “I relate well to others”, or “senior managers have confidence in me” are NOT compelling or differentiated. Dig deeper, get feedback from others and define what is it that motivated those around you to collaborate with you. Get crystal clear on these attributes and understand how you can make an emotional connection with your target audience.

 

©2010, Randi Bussin, Aspire!

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