Hey, want to see how marketable you are? Here’s an exercise for you: create a PowerPoint presentation that is designed to market…YOU! Yes, that’s right – create a marketing presentation for yourself. No, I’m not suggesting that you use it in a job interview, but consider this exercise as a way to think carefully about what you bring to the table for an employer.

A couple of words of caution before we discuss some ideas for your presentation: First, if you don’t know how to use PowerPoint, here is a good time to figure it out. Get a PowerPoint for Morons book, or some such thing, and start learning. However, do your homework on the Internet and learn some basics about good presentations (check out this blog post, for example). Second, many job positions require some aptitude with PowerPoint, so this may actually be good practice because most people don’t have a clue about how to create an effective slide presentation (haven’t you seen some really awful presentations in the workplace?). Do some research and learn how to avoid disastrous presentations (here is another great blog post to read). Google “bad PowerPoint presentations” and you will get a bazillion hits; go ahead and read one or two.

OK, let’s get started.

1). Write down your personal workplace strengths. Get out of “interview” mode and be real for a second. What skills and talents do you have? Are you dependable? A good listener? Are you Rain Man on Microsoft Word or Excel? Can you write coherent business correspondence? (If so, there are about 40 of you left in the universe.)

Think it through…why should an employer hire you? What makes you special? Now, put together a half dozen slides – one for each strength. Find a graphic for each slide. Prioritize the slides and build a case for yourself.

2). Next, write down your personal weaknesses. Same process as before – get real and be specific. Are you horrible with details? Do your follow-up skills leave something to be desired? Do you have the people skills of a pit bull?

The more you know about yourself, the smaller your blind spot in an interview. Interviews are not about clever answers to tricky questions; they are about positioning yourself effectively to minimize your weaknesses and maximize your strengths. If you can be honest with yourself and identify a key weakness that is keeping you out of the best jobs, you can create a plan to improve that weakness or manage it effectively. Do that now – create two or three slides that identify your weaknesses, one per slide. Find a graphic that fits. Then, create a solution for each weakness and use a slide to communicate it.

3) Finally, answer these questions: What do you want to do most? What is your vision for your career? What is it that you do in the workplace that gives you great energy and satisfaction? Now, create two to four slides that communicate your passion.

The point here is that, until you know what you want to do, you won’t look for the ideal job for you – and you won’t remove every possible barrier in order to get that position.

When you are all finished, show it to two or three people who care about you and are willing to offer some constructive feedback – about the presentation itself, your thoughts about your personal strengths and weaknesses, and how you are positioning  yourself in the workplace.

Take notes, make changes. Get serious about your personal marketing.

My brother is an executive at a large corporation. He called me a few days ago to share his recent experiences in helping others get their careers back on track. He has volunteered to speak at a local university on a couple of different occasions to provide insight to displaced workers on getting hired. His primary message is that getting hired is about positioning; at its very core, job search is about personal marketing.

Big news, right? Like you didn’t already understand that little pearl of wisdom? Sure you did, but here is the deal: on both occasions, he said the appearance of many in the audience was nothing short of embarrassing. People in sweats, unshaven, or in other ways completely inappropriate. Doesn’t that get covered somewhere during the first day of Job Search 101?

Hey, this isn’t about limiting your personal expression. If you want to look like Mr. T, your favorite biker, or a cast member from Cats, knock yourself out. But when you are in job search mode – no matter where you are going – every point of contact is a potential network opportunity. Doesn’t it make sense to be prepared? Shouldn’t you appear professional? Shouldn’t you have an ‘elevator speech’ prepared to describe your capabilities? Shouldn’t you have a resume on hand at all times? Let me recheck – you are trying to get hired, right?

Here is what I know about companies that are hiring – they want employees that are dependable, show initiative, and pay attention to details. They want to hire maturity and good judgment. They don’t want to hire someone who talks about those things in an interview, they want to see evidence that you are that kind of individual. This is where personal marketing becomes important – not only do you need to improve the scope of your job skills at every opportunity (see my last post), but you need to think in terms of positioning yourself effectively.

Positioning, or personal marketing, begins with the “physical” you. What do you look like? What do you sound like? How do you present yourself? Are you professional in appearance? Are you approachable? Welcoming? The answers to these questions create perceptions of your dependability, maturity, and attention to detail. Whether we like it or not, people form opinions of others based on appearance and personal interaction. Which means you could have mad skills, but still lose a great opportunity because you didn’t market yourself well.

Think about it. A hiring manager will usually make a decision on giving you a second interview based on a piece of paper (your resume) and an impression of you formed during a 30-minute conversation. It’s your choice – pursue a career as a feline impersonator, or get serious about your professional image.

I’m sure by now that many of you heard about the concept of branding. You are told that you have to do it and where to do it. No one really tells you what it is and how to create your brand both on-line and off-line. I will introduce you to some concepts of personal branding that you can use on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as well as by having your own blog.

What is Branding?

Let us start off by examining what branding is. Branding is simply how you are perceived by others. Companies spend millions of dollars each year in advertising to try to create a certain image for their product. We know the constant barrage of commercials trying to create a favorable image emphasizing the quality of the product and associating the product with popular causes and famous people. On the personal level famous people have public relations professionals who find ways to get them publicity through personal appearances and being mentioned in the media to build their brand.

Branding and the Job Hunt

When looking for a job, branding comes into play in several areas. First, you have to create a favorable image on your resume. The resume should highlight your key competencies and examples that demonstrate that you have those skills. Second, you have to develop a pitch which creates an image to others that you have these skills and abilities. Finally you have to convey these competencies in compelling way on a personal interview. How do you begin to become aware of your personal brand? I have some exercises that will help you get started.

1. Write down three personal attributes that you want to others to be aware of about you.
2. Ask people who know you best to write down what they perceive as your top three attributes or key skills. How close do people perceive you to the way you want to be perceived?
3. If there is a mismatch, what do you need to do to change their perception of you?

Branding and Perception

Changing how people perceive you is a tricky proposition. You may be perceived with one group in a very positive way, but not with another. For example, your peers may perceive you as a great friend, fun loving and easy to get along with. But, these same dominant attributed may not be seen as positive by others who are evaluating you for a leadership position. So, if you are presenting yourself, for a higher management position, presenting yourself as strong and decisive may be important, thus the brand you try to project needs to developed to be in sync with your goals and aspirations. The help of a skilled image coach could help you. This is where 360 comes in, with a pool of experts in almost every professional field, ready to help you with its one on one Career Action Planning.

What Makes a Brand?

Let’s look at what makes up a brand. I will borrow heavily from a book “Be Your Own Brand” by David McNally and Karl Speak. A personal brand is what we are committed and what we stand for. It has to do with how we present that to the outside world and how we communicate our beliefs and abilities to people through what we say and our actions. When we are looking for a job we try to build our brand through our resume and our self presentation. Self presentation on a job search is what we say to people we meet during an event, friends and a one on one informational and contact development interview. It is also involved in what we write in cover letters and what we write about ourselves on on-line social media.

There are three characteristics of a strong brand:

1. Distinction

   First they are distinctive. That is there is something unique about that brand that differentiates it from other brands. Too many resumes read like job descriptions. They are boilerplate. When I read these resumes that people bring into me I apply the “so what” litmus test. When I say”wow!” then i know that it meets the distinctiveness criteria.

2. Relevancy

   The second criteria is that it is relevant. Other people have to consider it important. What you say about yourself must be in line with what is needed in the job market right now. So if you waited on tables or were on the events committee of your sorority, does that make a case that you will be a great financial analyst? Get rid of things that are irrelevant on your resume. Fill the resume with items that demonstrate your competencies as it relates to the job you seek. You can find out what is relevant through talking to people in your field, either through one on one or events networking. Find out what are the hot buttons in your profession or industry an address them in your self-presentation.

3. Consistency

   The third characteristic of a strong brand is consistency. The same message should be on all your resume, on line social media and in person. Successful politicians were able to deliver a consistent message throughout their campaigns so that voters got feeling as to what to expect from the candidate. You need to build a consistent message of competency in your field. When you put together your profiles on Linked In, Facebook and Twitter be sure you are delivering the same message. The personal pitch you develop for your networking and job interviews should be the same that is on your resume and social media portals.

Please consider buying this book: “Career Distinction” by William Arruda and Kristen Dixson. The book has a number of guided exercises which help you get in touch with who you are, what you have to offer the world and how to get that across to other people. And don’t forget, when it comes to truly distinguishing yourself from the crowd, 360 is there to get you noticed, and get you hired.

Hey job seekers, where were you last night? If you didn’t say “out at a business networking event,” you may be missing out on opportunity. The site I use to find good networking events is Meetup.com.

Meetup is a great online place to both host reoccurring networking events and find good ones to join. You can search by location or by topic. You can even see how many people are planning to attend – I like to attend ones with at least 100 people or more.

Last week I attended the Santa Cruz New Tech Meetup (more about the meet-up). As an active job seeker, this networking event was perfect for several reasons.

1. New Professional Contacts

   The event was an excellent opportunity for me to meet several new local business contacts that I would previously not had an opportunity to mingle with.

2. New Company Leads

   A couple of the tech companies who presented I had not heard of before this event. All three are growing and there may be an opportunity for me at some point.

3. Add Value to Your Network

   Only a few people in my network made it that night, which allows me the opportunity to add value to my network by sharing this new technology, new contacts and new information. I heard of at least two job openings as a result of the events, none suited for me but it allows me a great way to reach out to my network of professionals.

4. Professional Branding Opportunity

   Getting out there to brand yourself isn’t an easy task. A great setting like this networking event is a great way to meet people, share what you do and create opportunity for yourself. Several of the attendees that I met, want to talk “blogging” and recruiting in near future.

   

   Remember to have your professional business card ready to hand out. Even if you aren’t employed at the moment, gets cards made. Do not hand write your information, but have them professionally done. Vistaprint has fairly inexpensive business cards. I personally like Moo Print because they print on eco-friendly paper. I was able to upload my own image and create a custom look.

5. Gain Control of Your Job Search

   Meeting and networking with other professionals helps me to expand my network. This could lead me to other opportunities in the future or when I am gainfully employed, help the company I’m working for. I never want to be “stuck” in a professional role but feel empowered to be successful. Simply applying to jobs online isn’t as effective as networking into them. I’m comfortable with networking, but for someone more introverted a career coach might be an excellent idea.

This article is number five of a series of five that explain how you can use free Internet tools to help your job search or career advancement.

From celebrities  to soccer moms to a techie, everyone has a blog these days. Likelihood is, you do, too. The question is: are you using it effectively? What may have started out over 10 years ago as a mere online diary has become a useful tool in branding, both for the company and the individual. As goes with everything online, this is also viewable to the public and typically indexed by search engines, so it’s important that you project the right image.

If you do not have a personal blog already, it’s time to create one. Free blogging platforms include Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress. A custom domain name is not necessary for a personal blog, but if you choose to go with a vanity url, Blogger and Tumblr allow you to use it via their hosting service for free. WordPress will cost you $10  a year to do this. Customize your blog by creating a catchy byline and choosing an appropriate blog theme (you can use customized or non-official themes for free on Blogger and Tumblr).

Once your basic blog is setup, you’ll need to start writing posts regularly. While it is called a ‘personal’ blog, you’ll use this as a platform to write about your sector. Try posts that include industry news, a case example and your take on a solution, or offer tips from your experience. Always post only your own content… never plagiarize or use someone else’s content without permission! You may choose to post relevant stories by writing a brief intro/summary to the article, then providing the link.

Go get started! Once your blog is created and you have at least a few posts, interact with other people in your industry and leave thoughtful comments for them, too. Consider adding a link to your blog on your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. Good luck with your search!

Other Articles in this Series:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Meetup
• RSS