Retailing yourself!
Many people talk about not knowing where to go to seek out a work experience
placement, but frequently, this goal is a lot closer than first realised.
The key is through developing a successful marketing strategy; a strategy
that markets you as if you were a product! This means of course that
you need to view the receiver of your information as the ‘buyer’
that you are marketing your product to. This strategy you may be surprised
to learn comprises many aspects that you have become familiar with.
THE PRODUCT
- Features and benefits
Features and benefits include your personal qualities, motivations,
skills, qualifications, competences, experiences and achievements
and so on. Consider these aspects as your very own list of personal
ingredients that make up you - your very own personal inventory that,
as a whole, presents a ‘product’ that you will deliver
to the marketplace. You will need to ensure you are able to articulate
these effectively to potential “buyers” as they need to
know what you have to offer
- Your competitive advantage within the market place
Your competitive advantage will develop as you research, become familiar
with and understand the marketplace. This involves your understanding
of industry sectors including trends, competitiveness, and necessary
qualifications, licences or certifications that you may require now
or that you can anticipate needing in near future
THE BUYER
- Potential employers or entrepreneurial contacts and their
requirements
Understanding your ‘product’ specifications will enable
you to narrowing your available opportunities within the market place
into a preferred listing of potential contacts means that you will
be in a better position to target your ‘self’, skills
and abilities within the market place more effectively and in a timely
manner
- Where and how your potential contacts buy their product
Taking the initiative to actively research, learn about and to understand
the recruitment activities and selection methodologies of your narrowed
listing will enable you to better understand how, when and where ‘they’
buy their product so that you have a clearer understanding of when,
where and how those opportunities will occur. This is true regardless
of whether you are seeking an employment vacancy, contractor or consultant
positions or other business activities
PACKAGING
- Positioning
Positioning yourself in the market place is how well you extract from
and are able to articulate your unique skills and package them as
the relevant “mix and match” components from your personal
inventory as complementary to your preferred ‘buyers’
list. You will reveal these aspects in your ‘packaging’;
ie your suite of labour market access skills, methodologies and materials
that you use such as networking, résumés and electronic
mediums. All highlight the message that you wish the ‘buyer’
to see of you
- Effective marketing initiatives
Effective marketing initiatives demand a broad range of activities
in many formats to be successful and extend past what is seen within
the newspaper and on commercially oriented internet sites. It will
include professional memberships, following up on leads from networking
activities. Remember to tackle this from the ‘buyers’
point of view and from understanding that you need to differentiate
your ‘self’ from other ‘products’ in the competitive
market place
Adapted from: Charleston, P. 2003. Tap the hidden job market. Choice
Books: Australia. p. 21-22
Making contact
Whatever your means of making getting in touch – your first contact
must be professional! Attached below are resources that will help you
put together a letter, email or résumé and some tips on
verbal communication too. Don’t forget to visit your school, college,
university, community or private careers advisor to get some help too.
Always follow-up on each contact you have made. If
you have not had a response, enquire as to how your application for
a work placement is progressing. Log your contacts, activities and key
dates on your action planner.
Contact in writing
The basic rules of written communication are to:
- be clear in the purpose of what you are writing about
- be formal, but not to the extent that you loose enthusiasm and
personality in what you are writing about
- ensure correct spelling and grammar
- avoid acronyms, unless you are confident the reader will fully
understand them
Contact in person
Your voice and how you express yourself will make a long and lasting
impression! When making contact in person or over the telephone, be
sure to speak clearly and maintain a professional tone at all times.
Avoid “ums” and “ahs”, slang, and a poor use
of the English language, such as “I dunno”!
Consider also, what your answering machine and email address says about
you! If have given out your contact details and expect to be called,
take the time to get it to sound like you want to sound!
ACTIVITY
Develop a telephone spiel. Practice with a friend and make a recording.
Draft a letter or an email. Have someone else check it for clarity,
spelling, grammar and typos.
Record a new answering machine message for your landline and mobile.
Resources:
A Placement Guide - [.pdf
| 128.02 kb]
Contains useful information on what to do before, during and after
your placement!
Making Contact - [.pdf |
152.52 kb]
General notes on self marketing relating to letter and email writing
and telephone conversations.
Marketing
Yourself
While written for university students, the information in this attachment
is applicable to everyone.
A Resume
Workshop
The information contained in this section is very basic and is aimed
at school leavers/university graduates who have never written a resume.
That said... it would still be valuable for people of any age to work
through the material.
Tips
on writing a persuasive cover letter
Your application cover letter is an opportunity to make a personal
introduction and show a potential employer how your particular set of
knowledge and skills can be of value to them. In all effective sales
letters, the interests of the reader come first
Writing
Your International Resume
If you're thinking about a job overseas, you may need to reformat
your resume to fit the traditional requirements of the country where
you'd like to work. Here are job application guidelines from five countries
you may be interested in (and a link at the end to information from
more countries).
|
