Motivated the CDMA Project Team to exceed projected installation and deployment goals, beating test and verification expectations a month early. Achieved both time and cost savings to the customer.
By meeting and beating both professional and personal goals during career transition you will be propelling future successes and the resultant rewards. Having a productive and efficient action plan, your Personal Market Plan during career transition, will reap the rewards of patience and persistence in your implementation.
Assessment of
your career-to-date, coupled with a realistic look at next steps, provides a
manageable path in seeking your career objectives.
Success in the management of any career transition confers rewards not unlike those
in the workplace:
- A sense of accomplishment;
- Pushing oneself beyond expectation, often acquiring new skills or knowledge;
- Identifying developmental goals to assure continued career success;
- Gaining the respect of those around you, colleagues and customers;
- Being requested for future challenging opportunities!
"The key to success is for you to make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear."
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Dutch painter
first career: art salesman
This is the first of a series that will explore how to efficiently employ all five methods of seeking your next right work. In the marketing metaphor, these five methods would be your "distribution channels." The alternative of using a "shotgun approach," or papering the world with your resume will simply scatter your time and energy. Rather, learn to focus your networking efforts to increase your productivity... take the randomness out of the equation by:
-
Networking through personal contacts
-
Conducting face-to-face informational meetings
-
Creatively contacting companies directly
-
The Internet, representing published openings
-
Third-party recruitment firms and individuals
THE PRINCIPLE OF REACH
This first principle, Reach, directs a company or sales/marketing department to reach, through numerous means, as many buyers (or those who influence buying) as possible. One of your important marketing goals is to reach as many potential buyers (employers) of your product as you can. So, the first challenge we present to you is to make 8 to 14 brand new contacts every single day. Sound like a lot? Many successful job seekers, upon looking back on their campaigns, have pointed to a direct relationship between the number of contacts they made and the number of interviews that were extended to them.
THE PRINCIPLE OF MESSAGE
Companies spend millions of dollars creating and communicating just the right message to ensure that customers will recall, respond favorably to, and buy their products. Your message, continuously delivered to contacts and hiring managers, can be broken down into two parts:
First, a statement of your functional identity (I am a corporate trainer…), followed by several marketable core competencies that you are "selling" (…with substantial experience in leadership development, performance management and team building.) This is referred to as POSITIONING. It comes directly from…
1. Assessment and Research…
A Candidate who is truly managing their own career is constantly aware of their own best "next steps." They research the marketplace, target appropriate opportunity, network effectively to both create personal "visibility" and create avenues to those opportunities that are right for them. Take the time necessary to determine your next right work.
2. Setting Your Career Objectives… Knowledge of the process and self-awareness allow you to effectively set your career transition objectives. In order to implement an effective Personal Market Plan, your objectives are defined by positioning (functional and personal strengths) and targeting (informed industry and geographic goals) your candidacy. Of course the best "FIT" occurs when your objectives are aligned with the needs of the marketplace.
Pre-determination of offer criteria and career objectives are essential cornerstones to the development of a high quality resume, part of the written collaterals of your Personal Market Plan. As your highly personalized, marketing collateral, your resume positions you in the marketplace… qualifies you with your experience, knowledge, skills and credentials… and can target your efforts with appropriate word selection relative to your industries of choice. Take the time necessary to determine your career objectives.
By extension, your message should include a clear statement that allows a contact to understand what you are requesting: "I’m seeking names of individuals who work in the corporate training field" or "I’m hoping to meet with you briefly to get your ideas on the key financial services companies in the Dallas area…." Or, "I’m looking for names of recruiters who specialize in manufacturing engineering…"
Your messages will be delivered in three different ways:
- Verbal communication (by telephone or in person)
In marketing, these delivery vehicles are referred to as collaterals.
"Three great
essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work;
second, stick-to-itiveness;
third, common sense."
Thomas Edison (1847-1931)
inventor, salesman
frequently worked more than 40 hours straight
T
HE PRINCIPLE OF FREQUENCYThis concept says that people need to be told something multiple times if they are expected to remember it. The best sales representatives stay in continuous contact with customers and potential customers. In fact, it has been estimated that only 20% of sales reps make six sales calls on the same customer, yet 80% of the sales are made on or after the sixth sales call. In essence, sales reps who are the most successful are persistent. They know that people remember things they are told multiple times.
TOP OF MIND AWARENESS
Your goal is to have people remember you and your message. You want to establish top of mind awareness. This marketing phrase is used to describe the goal of having consumers of a particular product think of the company brand name first when confronted with a buying decision. For instance, when you think of toy batteries, what brand name comes to mind? Eveready? Duracell? How about tires? Michelin? Goodyear?
The bottom line is that you want and need to be remembered both now and in the future and you need to establish top of mind awareness that relates your name to your career focus. For instance, job seeker, Peter Dexter wants his network to remember three things:
Peter Dexter---------Product Manager---------Medical Devices
If you are effective in creating top of mind awareness, then your contacts will remember you and will refer opportunities to you during your job search and possibly for years after.
TOP OF MIND AWARENESS
1) Your Personal Market Plan | 2) Communication Strategy | 3) Getting Started
Bob Maher, CMF... The Careerpilot
Bob created his online presence, www.careerpilot.com, in 1994. He has over twenty years of successful experience in Corporate Recruitment, performance management and Career Management Services. He is an entrepreneur and innovator in the use of information technology in the recruitment and employment process. On the Founder's Council of the Association of Career Professionals - International and quite active in their Professional Development, Technology and Chapter Growth initiatives--a frequent speaker at industry conferences and seminars. Awarded the prestigious "LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD" from The ACP International in 2006.