Stop Applying and Start Marketing!

When you go shopping for a new car, do you send an email to all the dealers in your area, asking if they'll please let you buy their car? How about when you need a new pair of shoes? Would you walk around the mall looking for a store that would consider accepting you as a customer?

Of course not! You choose the car you want. You look at all the shoes on offer and select the ones you like. You are in control of those decisions, as you should be.

So why is it so different when it comes to job search? Why, instead of shopping around for a position that suits them, do so many people ask random companies to hire them?

And why do so many people jump at the first job that's offered, whether or not it's a good fit?

I really don't think it needs to be that way for most people. I think it's possible to completely change the way you think about your job search - to shift gears from asking someone to hire you, to shopping around for the opportunity that best suits you.

Don't get me wrong. I understand that financial concerns can sometimes force us to take less-than-perfect positions - but in those cases, you can take the emergency job and still apply the principle I'm going to talk about here to find the job that is right for you in the long-term.

The shift I want you to make is to first understand that you are uniquely valuable. You have a set of skills, experiences and accomplishments that no one else has. And somewhere there are organizations who need what you have to offer. This applies whether you are a new entrant into the job market or a seasoned executive.

You goal during job search should not be to randomly fire out thousands of copies of your resume - but to find and contact those companies who need what you have to offer. In other words, look for the people who are buying what you're selling.

There are 3 steps to shopping for the right job:

1) Know who you are.

You can't know who needs you, until you truly understand what you have to offer.

I call this 'defining your value proposition.' To do this, think about what others say about you. Consider when you're at your best. Think back over your work history. Identify exactly how you add value to your employers. As an example, my value proposition is:

I combine prior experience as a Human Resources executive, and my knowledge of marketing, to write resumes that help people get the job of their dreams.

What's yours?

2) Define your Target Market

Now that you know what your strengths are, you can start to select companies who value those strengths. For example, if you're a retail employee whose biggest strength is being able to connect with customers and make them feel good, look for retailers who truly value customer service - not just in their slogans but in their actions - and then write a resume that highlights your customer service talents.

If you're an executive whose strength is turning around struggling operations, research to find companies in need of those skills and approach them directly with a resume that highlights exactly what you have done in those areas.

If you're a web designer with a special talent for designing websites that sell, highlight that as your value proposition and create a resume centered on that to send to all the web design agencies in your area. Your resume will appeal to the agencies who value and need that skill set.

Will you eliminate a lot of possibilities this way? Absolutely! But they're the wrong opportunities anyway, so they'll eat up a lot of your time and should you be unlucky enough to get the job, they won't make you happy.

3) Communicate Your Value Proposition

Don't try to make your resume and cover letters a catalog of everything you've ever done well in your career - instead focus on communicating why you are uniquely qualified to meet the company's needs. If customer service is your message, make that the focus of your resume and cover letter. Quote from customer 'thank-you' letters or performance reviews to support your claims. Highlight accomplishments that relate to good customer service. Use every word to show why you are the PERFECT fit.

And carry this over into your interviews. Make customer service the focus of your answers to questions like 'why should we hire you?' and 'What's your greatest strength?'

This approach would be cold and manipulative if you didn't start from your own strengths. It would be wrong to just identify what a company wants and then target all your communications towards showing you have those skills if you don't. But when you're starting from your authentic self - your unique value proposition - this approach is not only the most likely to secure you a position quickly, it's the most likely to secure you the right position.