Full-Time Job Hunting: An Outdated Concept?

Anybody who has worked with a career coach or gone through an outplacement (i.e. “employer-paid career assistance”) program in recent years has inevitably been hit with one of the “gospel truths”  that folks in my field have been reciting since the dawn of time: “If you’re unemployed, guess what?  Looking for a job is your new full-time job!”

There’s an increasing amount of chatter out there, however, suggesting that this cardinal rule of job hunting might have outlived its usefulness — and that running a true full-time job hunt, encompassing 40 or more hours of focused effort per week, is no longer than the best path to getting hired.  The argument that a few of my colleagues in the field are making has several different elements to it.  For starters, some claim that putting in so much time each week into finding work can easily become demoralizing, stressful, and ultimately counterproductive, especially if an individual isn’t seeing direct results that correlate with the extra time being invested.  Others emphasize that people should devote less of their available time into finding leads, and more time into making themselves more marketable for various opportunities by working to enhance and upgrade their skills through classes, certification courses, and self-study.

Another camp, still, is trumpeting a very unique and somewhat newfangled perspective.  Several highly-regarded experts in the field are pointing out that if most of the hiring in our society comes from networking, and quality networking is built around finding shared interests and common ground with other people, then a job hunter will often get farther, faster by spending the majority of their time attending to their personal hobbies — as opposed to trying to connect with people strictly on a professional level, in an attempt to find work.  One great article on this very notion can be found here, published by Peter Bergman in Harvard Business Review.  Additionally, the career-change book “Working Identity” by Herminia Ibarra (which I recently reviewed in this blog) follows a similar theme, suggesting that people will have more success finding their proper calling in the world if they just get out and bump into lots of different people, doing different things, versus taking the career exploration challenge too seriously — or approaching it too formally.

Again, this is an interesting notion to ponder, and I’m tempted to agree, in part, that the shortest path to a new job may not necessarily and always be a straight line.  Now that job hunting has become a much more commonplace activity in today’s world of work, it appears that a number of tried-and-true traditional search strategies — such as attending professional association meetings and contacting people through sites like LinkedIn — have lost a certain amount of their effectiveness, due to saturation by folks anxiously seeking new employment.  I’m not saying these approaches have lost ALL of their effectiveness, mind you, but as I’m sure a lot of people have realized, it’s hard to find many public networking events these days where one doesn’t sense that the ratio of decision-makers to professionals-in-transition is dwindling rapidly.  So it might very well make sense for out-of-work professionals to tone down some of their traditional job-finding activities and retool their job hunting strategy to include a stronger mix of “authentic” engagement in things such as sports and recreation, hobby groups, volunteerism, and the like.

Additionally, as I’ve always maintained to my clients, the old “looking for a job is a full-time job” guideline doesn’t take into account the qualitative difference of the hours spent searching.  In other words, I’d rather have a properly-trained job hunter engaging in 4 hours of the “right stuff” each week than blindly plowing through 40 hours of the “wrong stuff” such as surfing hundreds of Internet job sites, endlessly tweaking their resume, etc.

Long story short, I can’t help but agree with the mounting evidence that the job market is going through a peculiar state of flux right now, and that much of the traditional wisdom about finding work is slowly losing its luster.  With the increasing breakdown of personal and professional boundaries (remember the days before 24×7 e-mail communication?  or when people took formal coffee and cigarette breaks?  or when one got to work at 9:00 and left at 5:00?) it might very well be that attending vigorously to one’s personal interests is the best path for achieving professional success, as well.

Your comments, as always, are welcomed…

Question of the Month: March 2009

“I’m finding that many employers these days are expecting me to settle for less money than my previous position, given the current economy.  Should I just suck it up and accept a lower salary — or hold out for the compensation package I feel I’m really worth?

Whether discussing the compensation needs of job hunters or the world of consumer products and services, in general, pricing is always a tricky issue — and arriving at the right number at which to sell your “goods” (especially in an economy like this one) is definitely more of an art than a science!

As far as how I’d suggest an individual job seeker approach this issue, a lot depends on the person’s unique situation and the amount of leverage they feel they have relative to any particular job opportunity.  If somebody has been out of work for a number of months and is really feeling pressure to get an income stream back in place again, soon, then obviously it might make sense to not rock the boat and to settle for a lower salary offer, if offered.  There’s certainly no shame in doing so — and the days when people could expect their salary to climb continuously upward throughout their career are LONG behind us, if nobody’s alerted you to this fact.  In today’s hurky-jerky world of work, the truth is that almost everybody will end up taking a step or two back in pay at some point.

At the same time, there’s a fine line that must be walked, even if you are willing to “mark down” your price tag a bit.  As has been demonstrated through dozens of economic studies over the years, there is an extremely powerful correlation between the price of an item and the perception of value in the buyer’s mind.  In one famous story, for example, a gift store owner was having trouble selling certain trinkets to the tourist crowd and accidentally marked a basket of $10.00 items up to $100.00 — instead of the $1.00 discounted rate she had been intending.  To her shock and amazement, the items started flying off the shelves.  Apparently, the high price tag instinctively led people to assume that these trinkets (low-quality jewelry, if I recall) had to be something really special and worth owning if they were selling for a hundred bucks a pop!  So job hunters, in kind, must be careful not to slash their price tag so deeply that they come across to employers as desperate and out of options; otherwise, price-based psychology will kick in, and there’s a good chance the hiring manager will start questioning whether the candidate actually has the skills, confidence, and qualifications to do the job.

If we really pay attention to the lessons of the above anecdote, in fact, one could argue that a candidate gutsy enough to raise his or her salary targets in a recession might successfully attach a “premium” aura to themselves that could turn out to have certain advantages.  This is a risky strategy, to be sure, but I’ve seen it work — and I’ve seen  employers willing to pay top-dollar for a candidate simply because the candidate themselves looked, acted, and behaved at all times as if they were well worth the extra investment!

Want to know what this sounds like?

– “While I realize that times are tough and that your company is looking to keep costs to a minimum, I’m sure you’d agree that this role we’re discussing is a critical one to your ongoing success, and that skimping on it to hire a less-qualified candidate could easily come back to haunt you in the long run.”

– “I certainly don’t disagree that there are other folks out there willing to settle for less than what I’m asking for, given this economy.  To be perfectly frank, however, I think you picked me as the finalist for a reason and have noted that my skills and expertise are a cut above the other people I’m competing against.  So at this stage, I’m afraid I’m going to have to stick to my guns and only seriously consider offers that are a lateral move or better from my last position.”

– “Given my proven track record of helping solve the kinds of problems you’re facing here at XYZ Company, and the rapid time frame in which I’ve shown I can do it, I actually think my skill sets are at a premium right now in these recessionary times — and more valuable to companies than ever.  Consequently, I’m really not looking to take a pay cut and must stick to the salary goals that I outlined earlier.”

– “Trust me, I totally get that you want to hire the best person you can at the least expensive price.  Who wouldn’t?  But you’ve talked with a number of my references now, and as I suspect they’ve all told you, I’m worth every penny you’d pay me — and then some!”

Granted, such aggressive negotiating tactics may seem over-the-top to many of my readers out there, especially those of more modest persuasion, but there are definitely job hunters out there who utilize this type of approach — and who seem to be successful, at least a healthy chunk of the time.  Again, though, it all starts with your own confidence in your capabilities and how quickly you feel you can contribute to a company’s bottom line.  If you’re struggling to quantify the exact ROI you can bring to a company, or you’re emotionally bruised from a long stretch of unemployment, these techniques might not be the right ones to employ for you, at least right now.  If your ego is in the peak of health, on the other hand, carrying yourself like a “premium product” just might pay off!

Health Insurance: Time to Kick COBRA to the Curb?

In 1986, the federal government passed an important new law related to health insurance benefits, although even diehard Human Resource professionals might not be able to cite this law by its full name: the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.  Instead, virtually everyone now refers to this law by its acronym, COBRA, and recognizes it as the legislation that allows a laid-off worker to continue participating in their former employer’s group health insurance plan for up to 18 months (in most cases) after leaving the company.

While the initial intent of the bill was to ensure that unemployed workers could maintain their insurance at cheaper rates than they’d pay individually, however, the innovations of the insurance market in the last 25 years seem to have changed the game a bit.  Over the last few years, I’ve heard numerous reports from folks who have done some shopping around and have found better insurance deals for themselves, and their families, than what they were receiving from COBRA.  Here’s one such recent testimonial that was sent in:

“Matt, I just wanted to mention something I discovered yesterday while shopping for health insurance.  My COBRA runs out at the end of February and I needed a replacement.  I got directed to ehealthinsurance.com from my current insurer, United Health Care. The result is that I found a new policy that is costing me $200 less per month, with equal-better coverage, plus Rx benefit, so I’m actually saving about $300 each month in total, as opposed to what I was paying for COBRA.  I wish I’d known this much sooner!”

So for  those of you out there who have been through a recent layoff and who might currently be paying COBRA premiums, as the path of least resistance, it sounds like it would be a wise idea to do some poking around to see if you can shave some dollars off your rates.  And while I don’t have any particular insurance companies that I’d recommend you investigate, beyond the ehealthinsurance.com firm mentioned above, I’m sure a Google search on “health insurance in washington state” or something similar would give you a sense of your options, pretty quickly!

Website Review: UpMo.com

Remember that old Monty Python line, “…and now for something completely different”?

When it comes to the world of career-related websites, the new UpMo website fits this description like a glove, as it heads well off the beaten path to chart some dimensions of career management that I personally have never seen a company or on-line service attempt to tackle before.  The underlying concept (UpMo is short for “upward mobility”) is based on the study of hundreds of successful real-life executives and a mapping of the specific habits, steps, and techniques that these individuals have followed over the years to get where they are today.  Aspiring professionals can then visit the UpMo site and study these action plans — as well as set up an account (subscription required) that will help them follow along in these peoples’ footsteps, in the years to come, and have a better chance of making “all the right moves” in their own career progression.

It’s quite an ambitious concept and the site is still in beta form, so not every feature is fully fleshed out yet, but if nothing else, I’d encourage all of my clients and readers to invest 5-10 minutes and go through the “Network Readiness Evaluator” test you’ll find on UpMo’s main page.  This assessment asks a series of questions about your networking habits and interpersonal connection style to find out whether you’re managing your social capital in the most effective, optimized way.  It then provides you with a detailed report that identifies the specific type of networker you are (compared to the profiling research they’ve conducted) out of what appear to be four main possibilities — followed by some excellent suggestions on how you might be able to improve your networking success, going forward.

As for me, personally, my Evaluation indicates that I am a “Plan Strategically” networker (which makes sense) and reveals that I have a 65.1 “Networking Readiness” score out of 100 possible points.  Now as somebody who thinks he does a pretty good job at staying connected with folks, on average, I suppose I could quibble a bit with the methodology they use to compute this score — but honestly, I’m so highly impressed by the depth of what UpMo is attempting to accomplish, and the usefulness and practicality of the information they’ve pulled together, that I’m not about to argue!

So if you’ve got a few moments to spare on your next coffee break, give UpMo a look, and take their networking assessment to see what it reveals about your own relationship management style.  I think you’ll get a kick out of it.  And while there are thousands of career websites out there that flame out or don’t ever amount to anything, I have a hunch that UpMo is going to be around a while, and I look forward to bringing you further updates on them as their site evolves in the months to come.

Last but not least, I salute their management team (are you guys reading this?) for allowing individuals to visit the site and use some of their tools without forcing the visitor to jump through a bunch of hoops, provide their e-mail address, or sign up for some gimmicky free account that is guaranteed to make them a spam magnet for the company’s advertisements down the road.  Too many sites practice this kind of entrapment — and I’m glad that UpMo, unlike other services, chose to take the high road…

Age Discrimination: To Overcome It, Understand It

No question about it.  If you’re over a certain age (40+ is one common benchmark and the “protected class” recognized by federal law) it’s almost impossible to venture out into the job market without wondering if maybe, just maybe, you will lose out on certain job opportunities due to age discrimination.  There’s no question, after all, that our society has a long and unhealthy habit of celebrating the virtues of youth over those of experience, and the situation is compounded further due to the demographic fact there are a lot more folks over 40 (aka Baby Boomers) out seeking work at the moment than there have been in previous times.

So how prevalent is the phenomenon of age discrimination?  And what can an older worker do, if anything, to diminish the effects of it?

For starters, while others may disagree, I personally don’t see all that much “overt” age discrimation out there in the form of companies steadfastly refusing to hire older workers, carte blanche, as a matter of principle.  Along the same lines, I don’t see too many cases where “pure” gender or racial discrimination seems to be in play, either, although I certainly don’t mean to suggest such cases don’t exist — or that there aren’t some employers out there practicing unabashed, inexcusable bigotry.  What I think the average 40+ job seeker needs to focus on more, however, is the soft form of age discrimination that is practiced commonly in today’s world of work.  These are the companies who aren’t intentionally discriminating against older, more experienced workers, but who are still basing their hiring decisions in part on various unconscious stereotypes they hold with regard to employees in the 40-50+ age range.  I think this form of discrimination is the major culprit behind the age discrimination challenge and the one that most people need to concentrate on overcoming, if they’re seeking to improve their interviewing success rate.

Along these lines, since I doubt any of us believes for a second that anti-discrimination laws will fully protect older workers against these softer forms of discrimination, job hunters concerned about this issue should take distinct, proactive steps to address the matter.  This prevention starts (I’m going to say something here that won’t make me very popular) with the acceptance that certain elements of the “older worker” stereotype actually have a grain of truth to them — and that acknowledging and understanding these specific perceptions is the single best recipe for defeating them.

Hear me out here.  For example, I would propose that the reason many older workers end up losing out on positions to younger candidates is due to underlying employer fears that workers over a certain age might:

•  Have outdated skill sets and not be totally up-to-speed in their professional field or area of expertise
•  Not be familiar with modern technology and the standard computer applications used in most modern jobs today
•  Want too much money and other benefits, based on a 20+ year track record of pay increases and vacation accrual
•  Be overqualified for certain positions and will quickly become bored by “settling” for a lower-level job
•  Be coasting toward retirement and not be willing to work as hard as a younger, eager-to-please candidate
•  Not be able to (or want to) take direction from a younger boss or younger colleagues who have less experience
•  Be set in their ways and unwilling to learn new things or adapt to new methods of doing business
•  Have health issues that will lead to high insurance costs or high rates of absenteeism
•  Not be able to keep up with a fast-growing company or a job that requires a rigorous, 50-60 hour schedule

While I’m sure every one of my readers out there over 40 is bristling at the above suggestions, would anybody actually disagree that the above items are, at heart, the perceptions that likely lead to most instances of age discrimination?  They certainly are the root of the problem from what I’ve observed, and since there unfortunately isn’t a magic wand that will make such prejudices instantly go away, I counsel many of my older clients to take matters into their own hands — and assess whether their interviewing approach or resume might play into any of these stereotypes.  If so, there definitely are specific steps one can take to combat these damaging perceptions and convince employers that one’s age, or experience level, isn’t going to be a liability.  The key, however, is for older candidates to first accept responsibility for this “burden of proof” themselves.  It may not be fair, and in a perfect world our legal system would offer complete protection in these matters, but if we set idealism aside — and focus on the immediate steps that help older workers get hired — then I’m afraid I don’t see much of an alternative.

So if this issue concerns you, take some time to make an honest assessment of whether any of the items on the above list might apply in your own particular situation.  If so, then you should start thinking about how to demonstrate to employers — proactively, in both your written materials and during the interview process — that any potential stereotypes they might try to connect to your age and experience level are groundless.  For example, if you’re a marketing executive who is willing to admit that you haven’t kept up with modern Internet marketing concepts, you need to quickly take a class or engage in rigorous self-study to address this vulnerability.  If instead you’re getting a lot of pushback on your previous salary level being too high, then you might need to conduct some salary research and reset your expectations, if they’re truly out of touch with the times.  For each and every element listed above, there are some specific mitigating tactics that can be used, once one accepts the quasi-legitimacy these stereotypes are grounded upon, in the first place.

Above all, if you’re in the older worker category and concerned about age discrimination, I’d encourage you to think long and hard about how you’d answer one specific question if given the chance: “Why should I (the employer) hire you, with your 20-30 years of experience, over a younger worker with 5-10 years of relevant experience?”  Until you can convincingly answer this question in your own mind, and outline the value of your experience in a structured, positive way, you’ve probably got more work to do before you’re ready for prime time — and able to consistently convince hiring managers that your age and experience level will be a tremendous asset, not an obstacle, to the success of their organization!

Buyer Beware! Career & Job Search Scams Abound…

As some of you out there may know, I’ve been authoring the “Conscious Careering” column in the Puget Sound Business Journal for over a year now in an attempt to share some valuable career and job hunting tips with the Seattle/Bellevue business community at large.  What you may not know, however, is that I have all of these columns available on my website for folks interested in reviewing them.  Unfortunately, they’re pretty darn hard to find, because I’ve tucked them away in a remote area of my site under the “About” tab where they can easily be missed.  So for what it’s worth, here’s a simple link for anybody who might want to look them over.

In fact, while we’re on the subject, I’ve just submitted my latest column to the PSBJ for publication, sharing some important tips on how to avoid getting “scammed” by the large number of dubious career services, sites, and tools that are starting to pervade the Internet.  In one sense, it’s not surprising that more and more of these tools are popping up, when you combine the current economic conditions (aka “lots of anxious job hunters”) with the totally unregulated nature of the Internet and the career services field, in general.  So in an attempt to alert as many folks as possible about these questionable sites, I’ve written an article discussing the most common offenders (by category, not by specific name) and why they usually are a poor investment, despite the tantalizing claims and marketing hype they churn out.  This article is available via the archive link, above, but if you want to go directly to it you can click here, as well.

Admittedly, I’m not brave enough to go public and take on any specific services or sites individually, by name.  I’d invite any of my blog readers to contact me, however, if they ever want a second opinion about a particular career tool or resource that they might be thinking of investing in.  I’m also happy to arm people with some great due diligence questions that will help them ensure a particular service is legitimate and offers real value for the money.  I’m a big advocate of “consumer awareness” in this regard and am simply tired of seeing so many unscrupulous companies bilk job seekers by preying upon their fears and desperation — as well as by counting on the fact that the average professional doesn’t know the right questions to ask or how to evaluate these kinds of services properly, in the first place.

So please don’t hesitate to drop me a line if I can ever be of assistance in this regard, and the new article I’ve penned should provide some good food for thought, as well.  Granted, I may still be a far cry from Ralph Nader, but I’m definitely willing to do my own small part, at least in the employment services arena!

Blog Reading: Critical to Career Success!

Despite the fact that blogging has emerged as a major form of information exchange in the world over the past few years, I know for a fact that a large percentage of my clients still don’t regularly read blogs — and may not even know how to find useful blog postings and access them, short of sites like my own where there’s a simple “e-mail subscription” form installed.

If you fall into this category, therefore, I’d strongly recommend you engage in a little self-study or get some help in learning how to access the “blogosphere” in all of its glory.  Not only can you find some incredibly interesting content on blogs, but they’ve now become a critical tool in maintaining your career marketability, since they are arguably the single best method out there for staying up-to-date in your industry and occupational field.   They’re free, after all, and you’ll find many top experts sharing their thoughts on the latest, greatest topics in all corners of the business world — unlike books, where the content begins to get stale the moment it hits the presses.

I’m such a believer in the importance of blog reading to the success of the modern professional, in fact, that I plan to host a free webinar next month for anybody who might be a novice in this area — and who would like to learn more about how to take advantage of this vital and vibrant information source.  I’ll be announcing the date of this class in my next newsletter, once I get it scheduled, but if you’re reading this post in the meantime and want to express your advance interest in participating, feel free to drop me a line here and I’ll be sure to send you the details when they come out!

In the meantime, just to prove that not all blogs out there involve the self-centered ramblings of people obsessed with talking about what they eat for breakfast each morning, for example, here are a few recent blog postings I’ve come across that I think add a great deal of value — at least to folks in career transition!

•  Rebecca Warriner, HireWire Blog: Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes
•  Lance Haun, YourHRGuy Blog: Welcome to the Excuse Economy
•  Indeed.com Blog: Industry Trends (depressing, but valuable data)

Whether you agree or disagree with what any individual author may have to say, posts like the above really put your brain in gear and expose you to ideas and conversations that can only expand your horizons, at the end of the day, as well as enhance your effectiveness as a professional.

Interested in some other quality blogs about career-related issues?  If so, check out the personal “blogroll” I’ve built on the right side of my own blog page, where you’ll find some of my all-time favorites…

P.S. And for you rookies, a blogroll is simply a list of the other blogs that a particular blogger, like myself, tends to read regularly.  Most blog pages now include such a list somewhere prominently on their main page, so that readers can easily jump to other information sources that might be useful…

Interviewing? Don’t Be Passive — Have a Point of View!

I’m not sure where or when it happened, but at some point along the highway of history, society seems to have decided that the best way to select somebody for a job was to bring them in, ask them a bunch of canned questions, and listen to a bunch of canned (or at least shopworn) answers.  In fact, you can turn on CNN at almost any given moment and observe top-level cabinet appointees and judges acting this way, attempting to land coveted positions by playing it safe, avoiding straight answers, and coming across as “non-offensively” as possible.  This behavior inevitably triggers my gag reflex.  You?

While this technique may arguably work in the halls of government, however, it almost never works in the private sector.  Passivity doesn’t sell.  Every company I encounter seems to be looking for people who are confident, engaging, smart, and willing to put themselves out there — visibly and vocally — in order to demonstrate the quality of their ideas and expertise.  So if your interviewing experience to date has mainly involved sitting in front of a desk, politely answering questions, there’s a good chance you’re not registering strongly enough to be a serious contender.

Expressing your professional “point of view” in a hiring discussion becomes even more critical, of course, with each rung you attempt to take up the corporate ladder.  If you’re being considered for a top leadership position, for example, it will be imperative to capture the employer’s imagination with specific ideas, thoughts, and wisdom about how you can address the company’s problems and successfully achieve their goals.  What incredible secrets have you learned about managing companies through periods of intense change?  How do you make sure you hire the right people?  How do you get the best out of your direct reports — or get multiple teams and departments to work in tandem, despite turf battles and competing priorities?  These are the things that your next employer is dying to hear.  They desperately need them, after all, or they likely wouldn’t be talking with you!

This same dynamic also applies to anybody who is targeting an SME (Subject Matter Expert) position within an organization, such as the top marketing job, financial post, or operations role.  Remember, they’re hiring you (ostensibly) because they don’t currently have the answers and expertise they need in house — and are eagerly hoping you can supply them!  So while you should use a respectful tone at all times, don’t let modesty or propriety prevent you from expressing your own strong opinions about how you’d approach the company’s problems or where you think they might be going wrong with their current efforts.  If you’re interviewing for a Director of Marketing role, for instance, don’t be afraid to tell the company what you really think of their current website, collateral, and other materials, even if this feedback might not be highly favorable.  Sure, they might disagree with you, but they’ll at least respect you for having a point of view, and you’ll be exponentially more MEMORABLE than all of the other people they’ve met with who are trying to skate by with lazy, contrived, politically-correct answers.

Ultimately, there’s a huge difference between playing to win and playing not to lose in the interviewing process — and if you’re following the latter strategy, and always trying to tell the interviewer what they want to hear, your chances of success won’t be very promising!

Entrepreneurial Decision-Making: One Great Tool!

Quick item to blog about today, relevant to those of you out there who might be considering “taking the plunge” and starting/buying a business venture of some kind.  One of my local business allies, John Martinka of Partner On Call Network, shared a handout with me that cross-references 26 business factors against three typical entrepreneurial avenues: 1) Starting a New Business; 2) Buying a New Franchise Site; and 3) Buying an Existing Business or Franchise.

As an example of the types of factors discussed in the handout, the chart ranks the availability of bank financing for each of the three types (low, medium, and high, respectively) as well as the possibility of strong growth potential (medium, low, low-medium) and the ultimate chances of ongoing success (low, medium, high) for each venture type.  Granted, these rankings might be somewhat subjective and based on just this one firm’s experience, but the information seemed pretty accurate from my outside perspective — and this concise little sheet is helpful in spelling out the risk/reward profile of each of these common self-employment options.

Interested in seeing the other 23 factors outlined on the sheet?  If so, John gave me permission to share it with my client base, so feel free to click here if you’d like to obtain a copy.  And should you be interested in taking your entrepreneurial pursuits to the next level, of course, check out what John has to offer at the website address above — or drop him a line here to learn more about his services!

Personal Branding: Living Examples!

Yesterday, I published a posting that discussed some high-level aspects of the “personal branding” technique as it applies to job hunters.  Today, let’s get more specific and explore a few real-life examples of this principle in action…

For starters, since I have the privilege of working with at least 300-400 professionals in transition each year, I believe I’m able to view the “hiring game” in a similar way as do HR professionals, recruiting folks, and other folks who get exposed to LOTS of candidates looking for employment.  These are the situations where branding makes the most difference, since they are the times your resume will be at most risk of coming across as a “commodity” and you’ll be in the most danger of blending into the background, as one of many talented, eager people out there looking for an opportunity.

So when I think back at WHO I REMEMBER MOST out of the thousands of people I’ve had the chance to work with over the years, and who I’d immediately think to call if I came across a suitable lead, the individuals in question would include:

…the sales manager who said he could win the war with average talent
…the administrative assistant who was fearless about taking on new tasks and responsibilities
…the financial analyst who touted his gift for telling stories with numbers
…the second-wind CEO who specializes in getting companies kick-started again, once they’ve hit a plateau
…the software development manager who billed himself as organizational drain-o and who can quickly get projects unstuck and back on track
…the COO who prides himself on bringing apolitical leadership to organizations, rising above petty turf battles to get the organization’s priorities addressed and resolved

While I’ve kept the names of the above people anonymous, I can assure you that I remember each of these individuals quite distinctly, and would instantly recognize a good opportunity for them, despite the fact that in most cases years have gone by since I’ve last talked with them.  Their branding themes simply had that much staying power and to this day, I’m still primed and ready to serve as a networking ally for them, sending long any leads or referrals that might match their unique strengths.

As for some more recent examples, I asked for and received permission to share the branding strategy of three specific individuals who I’ve chatted with in the last few weeks, since I believe all of them are doing an excellent job of identifying their core value proposition — and setting themselves apart from the pack.

Jill Berger is a current client of mine who is seeking an opportunity to serve as an Executive Assistant (or similar role) for a busy individual or manager in need of an extremely dedicated, trustworthy, and well-rounded assistant by his or her side.  Having served in similar positions in the past, and received outstanding performance reviews from each executive she’s supported, her experience in this regard is excessively well-documented.  And yet, there are hundreds of other candidates out there in Puget Sound right now, most likely, who could match Jill’s experience (at least on paper) blow for blow.  So how has Jill started to differentiate herself?  It hit her one day that there is one core theme that ties together almost all of her personal and professional passions: the concept of rhythm.  As a ballroom dancer, and fly fisherwoman, Jill chooses to spend most of her free time engaged in very rhythmic, flowing activities.  And when she looked back on the feedback she’d received from her past supervisors, many of the comments emphasize how good she was at “reading their minds” and “knowing when to push and when to yield” in terms of the work relationship.  So now, when given the chance to interview, she immediately brings up this concept and explains that a great deal of her success has come from her innate sense of rhythm and timing — and her ability to know, instinctly, how to partner with executives in a smooth and effective fashion.  Bingo!  Instant differentiation…

Next, take the case of Anthea Hubanks.  Anthea is another client I’m working with who has strong administrative skill sets and who is also looking for a suitable assignment in an administrative support capacity.  Anthea, however, unlike Jill, prides herself most on her writing and editing skills.  She not only has a great deal of formal training in the writing arts, but knows how to edit and proofread like a pro, as well.  My advice to her has therefore been to play these skills up in a huge way in her job search campaign, since while everybody she competes with is obviously going to claim to have “excellent written and verbal communication” skills, very few of them will be able to say they offer “master-class talents in writing, editing, and proofreading executive correspondence.”  See the distinction?  So now, all she has to do is stick to her message until she finds that one executive out there who is a brilliant leader or technical expert, but not very good at (or simply doesn’t enjoy) the writing aspect of his or her job.  At that point, Anthea’s strengths should leap off the page and make her the clear-cut choice for the role in question!

Lastly, I’d point to the case of Janice Williams, a fellow career coach in the area with whom I’ve become acquainted and am now pleased to have added as a referral partner on the “Partners” tab of my website.  Had Janice come across to me as “just another career coach” when we first met, I likely wouldn’t have been too interested in exploring a referral relationship, since we’d have been treading on too much of the same ground.  From the outset, however, Janice (a former HR executive, among other things) expressed her crystal-clear passion for helping people plan the unique transition that takes place from their careers into their retirement years — and for helping retired individuals explore “encore careers” where they could contribute their skills, strengths, and talents.  Since this niche is by no means a specialty of mine, it made all the sense in the world to cultivate a relationship with her, since I definitely encounter people looking for this assistance — and who would be better served by her, as a specialist in that area, than through my own firm.  Again, I consider this a testimonial to the power of personal branding in action.

So in closing, my hope is that these three recent examples help illustrate the process that most job hunters, as well as professional consultants and business owners, should go through in order to differentiate themselves successfully from their competition.  It takes some hard work to distill out just the right message, and even more work to stick to this message consistently, month after month, but over time it will have the desired effect — and people will remember you and your value proposition, possibly years later, even if you’re not around to reinforce it!

Speaking personally, I know for a fact that I have a much stronger grasp of the kinds of opportunities that Jill, Anthea, and Janice are looking for out there — and the assignments that would fit them — than I do most of the people I encounter.  When you think about it, isn’t this really the only test that matters?

P.S.  And if the stories above have triggered any suitable leads for these three ladies in your mind, please send them along!  I told each one of them that as a benefit of volunteering for this article, the Career Horizons network might be able to lend a hand on their behalf…