I really like the CBC radio show “The Age of Persuasion” with Terry O’Reilly. It’s a 30 minute show about marketing... everything you might ever have wondered about marketing. This week’s show was about some rules or axioms of marketing titled “According to Hoyle”. I would like to cover a couple of points that was made that should help a job seeker present--AKA market--themselves.
A 30 second response is about 85 words. When answering a question, holding to people’s attention span will work in your favor. Our attention span is about 30 seconds. The average length of a TV ad is 30 seconds and I would argue that is this not a coincidence. When answering interview questions and taking two, three or even four minutes you’ll probably loose your audience and not make the point you were aiming to.
Make the product the hero of the ad. When telling a success story, make yourself the center of the story. Talk about what you did, the problem you solved. If you led the team, talk as if you were the team. They are going to hire you, not the team.
Job search is sales, and marketing helps the sale. The interview is were the sale is made and communicating the power of the benefits you bring to the table is paramount. Go out there and sell yourself in 85 word responses, showing yourself as the hero and all the benefit of hiring you.
Hey It’s a New Year
There are two kinds of people in the world... those who make New Year’s Resolutions and those that don’t. One might argue that there are a third kind, people who makes resolutions on January 1st and break them January 2nd. Regardless of which group you fit into, the New Year is a wonderful time to take stock on your career and where you’re going.
Vince Lombardi was famous for beginning the first day of football camp with the statement: Gentlemen, this is a football. Each new season he focused his team on the basics. I suggest this is a good strategy for us, regardless of where we are in our career journey. If you find that you’re 35 years old and haven’t be able to move out of front line management, or you’re 55 years old and hit the ceiling with your company, or you’re 45 years old and you have been looking for work for more than six months, it’s a good time to go back to basics.
Revisit your goals. Some goals are longer term than first considered. If you want a new job or a promotion and you’ve been working towards that for three, four or five months, now is a good time to sit down and review the goal, evaluating your progress and what still needs to be done. Then get to work.
Who can help. Making a move in your career isn’t a solo act. The other thing to realize is that there are people in your life who are willing to help you. You only need to ask for their assistance. It’s been an axiom pronounced by Success Gurus that if you desire success, surround yourself with successful people. Associate with people who have achieved what you would like to achieve because these folks are often in a position to assist you. I’ve found that when people are in a position to help someone, they are hurt or offended if the person fails to ask for their help.
Make some phone calls. It’s a new year, you can call everyone you know just to say Happy New Year. While you’re at it, go ahead and ask them if they know of anybody who could use a person with your skills and abilities. You can ask them if they have any contacts at any of your target companies. When they say yes, thank them and then call the new contacts you were just referred to.
Meet and Network with a lot of people. You can schedule a face to face network meeting with anyone you call who lives or works locally. The more networking meetings you have with folks, the more opportunities you’ll have to meet decision makers... and decision makers are in a better position to offer you a new job or promotion. It’s the new year... make it a successful new year!
Make the product the hero of the ad. When telling a success story, make yourself the center of the story. Talk about what you did, the problem you solved. If you led the team, talk as if you were the team. They are going to hire you, not the team.
