Do you know what you have to offer the job market?
What is your job search brand?
The answer is simply that YOU are the brand, and the way you present yourself to future employers is the way that brand is being marketed. When making any career change you should define the aspects of your working life which, when combined, will enable you to gain great satisfaction and fulfilment from your work. Hopefully you’ll soon become one of those people who say “I love my work!”
Do you know what you have to offer?
Everything about you, your skills, experience, presentation and personality comprise your job search brand: YOU.
Your job search task is to show that brand off to its best advantage to prospective employers, and at the same time consider where you will be a good fit.
Whatever sort of change in employment that you want to make, there will be a three key elements that determine whether you should consider a particular job or career decision: what the work can offer, what you can offer and your unique criteria.
What the work can offer
People usually read a job advertisement fairly carefully, and you’ll be ahead of the game if you have read the tips in “New Jobs For Older Workers” (available through Clarity Career Management) about how to read between the lines of a job advertisement.
However surprisingly few people find out all they can about a company and about the people they’d be working with. The combination of Google, LinkedIn and company websites is a great place to start this important research. Remember that you are checking them out just as they are checking you out. Don’t take a job without knowing something about the company.
Your job search brand = What you can offer
This is the part that determines how you present your job search brand. In the workbook supporting “New Jobs For Older Workers” (available through this website) you create a series of precious documents detailing your skills, experience, personal attributes, values etc, all designed to help you prepare for a really successful career transition. While preparing to write your résumé you should have recognized your many work-related achievements. You have much to offer, so think carefully about where you want to share your lifetime of accumulated value and how your job search brand should be presented for the best possible outcome.
Your job search brand = Your unique criteria
When you know what you have to offer, and bring together all those important aspects of you, there is no need to doubt your capabilities. This will prepare you for the interviewers’ unspoken but underlying question “What do you have to offer our business?” If you deeply understand that your skills, experience and innate personality match the job that you are applying for, you can confidently explain this in an interview. Matching your unique combination of attributes with the job that is right for you provides you with what you are really seeking in your work life. Think of the intersection of these ideas as your “sweet spot” where you will truly love your work.
Of course no-one can guarantee that when you recognise this “sweet spot” you will be able to immediately find work which meets your needs completely. However you have a far higher chance of finding or creating it if you have recognised what it is that you really want to do!
This book is a must read!
These articles will help you also.
Get a job using LinkedIn: 10 Top Tips and Organise your job search: 6 tips for 2021
Do you need help in the way you present yourself to future employers? Renovate your job search and get the job that you want!
