1) MARKETING YOURSELF:
Whether you know it or not you're marketing yourself every day. And to lots of people! You're marketing yourself in a quest to make a sale, warm up a relationship, get a job, get connected, get something you deserve. You're always sending messages about yourself.
To market yourself properly, answer these three questions:
1. Who are you now? If friends described you, what would they say? Be honest rather than complimentary.
2. What do you want out of life? Be specific.
3. How will you know when you've reached your goals?
How do you send messages and market yourself?
With your appearance, to be sure. You also market with your eye contact and body language, your habits, your speech patterns. You market yourself in print with your letters, email, website, notes, faxes, brochures and other printed material. You also market yourself with your attitude. You market yourself with your ethics.
You may not be aware of it, but people are constantly judging and assessing you by noticing many things about you. You must be sure the messages of your marketing don't fight your dreams. What are people using to base their opinions, to make their decisions about you?
You're fully aware of your intentional marketing and possibly even invest time, energy and imagination into it, not to mention money. But you may be undermining that investment if you're not paying attention to things that matter to others even more than what you say: keeping promises, punctuality, honesty, demeanor, respect, gratitude, sincerity, feedback, initiative, reliability. They also notice passion . . . or the absence of it. They notice how well you listen to them.
2) WRITING AN EFFECTIVE RESUME:
The good news is that, with a little extra effort, you can create an effective resume that makes you really stand out as a superior candidate for a job you are seeking. Not one resume in a hundred follows the principles that stir the interest of prospective employers. So, even if you face fierce competition, with a well written resume you should be invited to interview more often than many people more qualified than you.
A resume is a tool with one specific purpose: to win an interview. If it does that, it works. If it doesn't, it isn't an effective resume. A resume is an advertisement, nothing more, nothing less.
A great resume doesn't just tell employers what you have done but makes the same assertion that all good ads do: If you buy this product, you will get these specific, direct benefits. It presents you in the best light. It convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be successful in this new position or career. |
