(This content was originally posted on MENGonline.)
Looking for a job today requires having a “job magnet” for both inbound and outbound marketing. A job magnet helps:
- Someone find you with a job or project that fits your skills, and
- You make a strong connection with the recruiter and hiring executive.
Here are three questions that I recently asked a friend who was networking as part of his job search:
1. What’s your job magnet?
Similar questions using different words:
- What’s your positioning?
- What’s your unique selling proposition?
- How are you uniquely useful to potential employers?
Marketers position products and services for a living. But most executives, including marketers, struggle with positioning themselves. They’d never permit a generic positioning for what they’re selling… except for themselves.
Executives are great at presenting a litany of skills but seldom put them into a unique positioning that’s stronger and elevates them to a higher level job. Ask yourself:
- What will attract recruiters to you?
- What will make you stand out from a hundred (or even a thousand) others with similar backgrounds?
- What’s your memorable and meaningful message?
- And how do you express it in a single thought that would fit on a billboard?
The best job magnets typically include both functional and cultural skills. And the magnet must be specific. In fact, if your magnet isn’t specific enough to exclude you from jobs you could do, you are being too general to help get any job.
2. Who should care about your job magnet?
To paraphrase Kojak (for those old enough to remember him): Who needs you, baby? This is basic market segmentation. If you’re trying to stay in the same industry, this is a simple analysis that shouldn’t take you long. Most people I’ve talked with recently, however, are trying to move to a new industry, so their segmentation is more difficult and important.
Your targeted industry needs to quickly recognize that your job magnet is valuable to them. The key is to have a job magnet that fills a recognized critical void that’s more important than a list of job requirements.
3. How do you tell them about your job magnet? (Or: What’s your multi-channel media plan?)
As a start, of course: phone, email and LinkedIn. I find the specifics of the plan of secondary importance behind relentless execution.
You need an outbound push plan to reach out to your targeted segment. Equally important, you need a Social Media and SEO plan to help others discover you.