Job Search - Marketing Yourself During Your Job Hunt

If you want to portray yourself as a viable potential employee, then you need to market yourself well. This is generally referred to as "positioning". Your self-marketing techniques will "make" or "break" your candidacy - and later on, they can do the same for your career.

There is a general myth surrounding marketing, where people generally misunderstand marketing as sales. A sale is just one part of marketing, while selling is considered as one of the most important tools of job hunting. By marketing yourself as a brand or a product, you will land the job that you want.

Marketing Strategy

Like any business, you should plan your self-marketing strategy well before you enter the job arena. Below are some questions that you should ask yourself in preparation:

-What is my position now and where would I like to see myself after 5 years
-What do I want from my career and where do I want my career to head?
-How can I convert my plans into actions?
-How do I succeed in my actions and how do I change them if I don't get the necessary results?

Study the Market

Market research is very important to analyze the trends of the job market, as well as to gather details about the company you want to work for. You can also talk to a senior person from your field and ask for his or her opinion on the future potential of that job. To succeed in your job search, you must know your potential employers. This information will help you draft a good cover letter or even tailor your resume so you have the best chance of landing an interview.

Marketing Mix

Marketing focuses on the 4 P's, which are product, promotion, price and place - this is called the marketing mix. These four points can be used to help you formulate a self-marketing strategy.

-Product- You need to examine your good and bad traits and make yourself indispensable or unique, so that you stand out from the crowd.

-Promotion- When it comes to your job search, promotion refers to the cover letter, resume, networking phone calls and interviewing. It includes all the tools you can use to get an initial interview call or job offer. So refine all your promotional tools and develop all of your skills.

-Place- Refers to distribution channels including cold calling, networking, web job hunting, job postings, headhunters and recruiters.

-Price- From a marketing point of view, price refers to all aspects of compensation you could expect from an employer, as well as strategies that could be applied to get your required salary package and compensation.

Marketing yourself well can catapult your career - and even the most adverse job-hunting environment can be overcome by good self-marketing strategies.