How to Pick the Best Career for You: Part 3

Marketing-with-Intent precisely drives you to your target and with greater speed because you are using the right mode of transportation, an accurate compass and a clear vision of where you're headed. You'll differentiate yourself from your competition by using the right vehicle to uncover the best career for you. Finding a job is easy. Locating a meaningful career is much harder but well worth the sweat.

The traditional method of career transitioning moves you out of the driver's seat and into the back seat. Whenever your career marketing campaign is driven by your needs rather than the employer's, you lose control of steering your job search in the right direction. Today's customer-centric marketplace requires companies to selectively position each product properly, target it toward the right market and package it into an effective, memorable branding. You'll need this same laser-beamed approach to pinpoint the right career. It is not a one-shot, random deal. You must market with intent.

Marketing is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view. We distinguish ourselves through our marketing. Sell solutions, not product. Create demand. Effective marketing both in business and career campaigning also demands continued:

?Diligence in tracking outcomes

?Courage to ditch non- or underperforming efforts

?Hands-on creativity to exploit hidden opportunity

There is no such thing as "soft sell" or "hard sell." There is only "smart sell" and "stupid sell." If you try to appeal to everybody, someone else is going to sneak behind you and pick off significant chunks of your market. Translation: Your competition wins. You lose. Smart selling understands the critical difference between mass marketing and marketing segmentation:

?In mass marketing, candidates seek to appeal to a broad range of employers by passively utilizing a single untargeted and generalized marketing strategy. Dumb choice.

?In market segmentation, or Marketing-with-Intent, the job seeker proactively seeks to appeal to well-defined employer targets. This is accomplished through a strategically-designed marketing action plan that employs multiple strategies simultaneously. Smart choice.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter achieved a successful career marketing campaign because the voters' needs were understood, emphasized, reinforced and fulfilled. Jimmy Carter overcame a voter-perceived liability of being a Southerner and Farmer by getting on a tractor, wearing blue jeans, and making sure the people saw his boots were mud-filled from walking the fields. His Marketing-with-Intent effort dramatically and effectively linked the need for voters for a leader that understood their issues to the credibility of being "one of the people."

Hot career tip: Want to transfer your skills into a better career and perhaps even a different industry and do so more quickly? Stop viewing and marketing yourself exclusively by what you've done. Tunnel vision severely underestimates your career options and income potential.

Here are seven tips to ensure you're marketing with intent and the expedition won't be futile:

?Know the job market

?Know your functional and industry options, or employer's needs in these areas

?Recognize your marketing skills, where you are most marketable, and all you have to offer

?Develop a marketing plan of action to generate multiple, simultaneous interviews

?Shore up your writing skills to create the kind of highly effective resumes and letter that make the system work

?Allow time to run a complete job search coherently, independently, and productively

?Gain sufficient exposure (access) to ample numbers of decision-makers

Marketing-with-Intent is a breakthrough market segmentation strategy that more definitively steers your career campaign by giving you back control of the wheel. However, this groundbreaking tactic consistently requires you to use the right tools to be effective:

?Positioning (posture yourself as a problem solver)

?Exposure (detect indications of hiring patterns and necessity for solutions)

?Marketing (create demand for your talents by communicating your benefit)

When you identify employer needs through subterranean market research and then develop a personalized solution and communication initiative that aligns with those needs, you'll flawlessly yield a positive outcome.

Never drive your job search blindfolded and certainly don't let hindsight be your tour guide. Zoom, Zoom.

Marta L. Driesslein, CECC(http://www.interviewing.com) is a senior consultant for R.L. Stevens & Associates Inc., a career marketing firm and organization celebrating over 24 years of providing strategic marketing solutions for its clients' career transitioning needs.

---

Cross Cultural Interviews

At this moment in time, the increase in cross border... Read More

One Cover Letter Secret You Cant Afford To Miss

Suppose you were the hiring manager, your desk piled high... Read More

From The WorkWise Collection: Job Hunting in the New Economy

To succeed in today's global marketplace, companies must hire the... Read More

Tips for Building a Successful Career

1. Develop excellent work habits ? for example, meet deadlines... Read More

How to Answer The Most Difficult Interview Questions

The following 'difficult' questions are common to most tricky or... Read More

Stacking The Deck In Your Favor

Many people do not bother to look at their own... Read More

The Myths of Career Change

Chances are you already have many ideas about what it... Read More

Air Liquide: Driving Liquid Air

Have you ever heard of liquid air? The process of... Read More

Top 5 Tips for College Grads Entering the Working World

1) Build a Relationship With Your Boss:Like it or not,... Read More

Integrity At Work - How Do You Show Up?

As the business sections of today's papers and magazines read... Read More

Put Some Mystery in Your Life

Mystery shoppers. For some it conjures up images of private... Read More

Does Your Resume Have What It Takes To Survive The First Cut?

Qualifications" or "Personal Profile") uses bullets and succinct wording to... Read More

Business Careers: Keys to Moving on from Retrenchment

You may be astonished to realize that retrenchment may occur... Read More

Tips for Getting Your Movie Career Launched

Hollywood helps those who help themselves! In you want to... Read More

Reading the Want Ads--Not for Jobs--For Information

What? Want ads are where job announcements are, not information!Wait!... Read More

Resurgence of the Time Sheet: Why You Should Write Down Your Workday Activities

One day I walked into my boss's office and said,... Read More

Diplomats and Spies

"The Baratarian pirates also offered their services. Even though an... Read More

Managing Change -- Endings Are Just Doorways to New Beginnings

Every May we celebrate Mother's Day-a time to tell mothers... Read More

Why Choose A Professionally Written Resume?

Good question, considering that nowadays you can find many useful... Read More

Mastering The Lunch Interview

Interviews can be nerve-racking, brain-draining, headache-inducing experiences. These days, recruiters... Read More

Job Interviews: Plan Your Appearance to Make a Great First Impression

Your personal appearance is a critical component of that all-important... Read More

Resume Writing - Things to Consider

You are looking for a job and you are out... Read More

Is a Career Change on Your Horizon?

Making a career change is nothing new in today's job... Read More

Job Search: Time Management

There is an old adage that "Looking for a job... Read More

Those Little Things

Moving to another state meant finding a new dentist. I... Read More

Kick-In-The-Pants Job Search

Believe it: three obstacles will hold you back from your... Read More

The Ripple Effect of Fear

Unemployment carries a lot of emotional baggage for most of... Read More

Three Ways to Transition to a New Career

As a Certified Personnel Consultant working for Find Great People... Read More

7 Steps To A Job-Winning Resume

A new resume can jump-start your career. Your network contacts... Read More

Get a Raise: How To Ask Your Boss For More Money

How many people do you know who think they deserve... Read More

The Secrets to Interview Success

Many well qualified and extremely able candidates fail at job... Read More

What Can I Do To Improve My Job-Interviewing Skills?

Whether you're a student job seeker or a polished and... Read More

During Midlife Change: Are You a Jumper or a Clinger?

Over the years, I have identified two kinds of midlife... Read More