The purpose of this section is to help you take what you’ve learned about yourself and position it into a clear and intentional brand within your job search materials. You might be as clear as day about who you are and the unique value you can offer, but if it’s not clear to others, it’s a non-starter.
I strongly encourage you to consistently revisit your YouMap® through every step of this section. It provides a solid starting point to display your unique design by using the language and insights from your profile. It’s also a great way to convey a consistent message across your job search materials and LinkedIn profile, or on your website, if you have one.
Consistent messaging is crucial for a strong brand.
Some people have an aversion to the term “personal branding.” When I speak of brand, I’m simply referring to the ability to authentically demonstrate who you are and what you can do, which drives home the value you can bring an employer. This makes you more memorable and demonstrates your self-awareness. In short, you come across like you really have it together! The alternative is leaving someone unconvinced or unsure about what you have to offer.
I love the way Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot founder, explains personal branding:
“When a personal brand is an authentic extension of the real person and not an artificial construct, it inspires trust.”
Before you set out to show the world, you should first determine your target: those who need most what you do best. Sharing a honed message to a targeted audience will yield better results than taking a willy-nilly, unfocused approach to launching your job search. In short, you need a strategy, so that’s where we’ll begin.
Targeting Opportunities
When seeking new opportunities, avoid chasing roles. Seek companies you want to work for that will value the contributions you’re positioned to bring and that have a culture aligned to your values. Reference your YouMap® as you do your research to align who you are, what you do best, and what you deem most important to the environment you work in.
Do Your Research
Research companies of interest and read what current and former employees say about working there on websites such as Glassdoor.com and Vault.com. While it’s true some former, even current, employees write reviews out of revenge for a perceived slight—also known as sour grapes—you can identify consistent cultural themes that might be occurring after reading several reviews. Don’t let one negative review scare you away. Every company will have at least one bad review and likely more.
Note and categorize the complaints, such as:
• Communication problems
• Lack of strategy
• Chaotic change management
• Low employee morale
• Lack of promotional opportunities
• Incompetent management
• Culture problems such as gossip, backbiting, and finger-pointing
• Constant turnover or lay-offs
• Scarce training and/or development opportunities
• Low compensation or inadequate benefits
• Poor work/life balance
Also, make note of the positive themes you encounter such as opportunities for growth, a collaborative culture, excellent benefits, and strong leadership.
In addition to online employee feedback, research the company website to learn what they say in posted job descriptions about their culture and search for customer reviews. If customers are treated poorly, you could very well experience the same treatment as an employee. Perform a news search to read stories about companies of interest—anything you can get your hands on. To do this, perform a search in Google and click “News” to filter the results.
How does what you’re reading align with your prioritized list of values? Are job descriptions of interest highlighting the strengths and skills you enjoy and are good at, and are they aligned to your interests? Do they describe a culture you’ll likely enjoy? For example, if you value fun and vibrant workplace cultures, does that culture come across in their recruiting messaging?
As you review job descriptions at companies that appeal to you, go through and highlight the skills they’re looking for, both in the job description and in the motivated skills in your YouMap®. How many of the highlighted skills in the job description did you highlight in your profile? You should refer to your original motivated skills exercise. Note and compare all job descriptions of interest to the burn out and low priority skills you flagged.
Revisit the “My Motivated Skills Insights” section beginning on page 66. Did you capture insights that are helpful as you evaluate the job description? When you first completed your YouMap® you did so impartially, without influence from a specific opportunity. This helps guard against compromising on red flags a role might appear to have. The job description tells a story, both by what’s written and what’s not. Let me take a moment to explain.
Let’s say the job description is just a few sentences, doesn’t provide information about what the company values, who you should be, and a clear description of how the role fits into the mission and vision of the company or team. What if it also lacks expectations and deliverables for the position, what a high performer should look like, or perhaps even the challenges and opportunities you might face?
Personally, I view this as a big red flag.
Here are a few possible explanations for insufficient information in a job description:
Not much thought or importance is placed on their recruiting process.
The hiring manager is so busy they hurriedly slapped together a job description.
The hiring manager hasn’t taken time to define the needs of the position.
Someone who doesn’t understand the needs of the position wrote the job description.
The role is new and hasn’t been fully thought-out.
The company is secretive about sharing details for roles in their organization.
None of these reasons position you for success. If the expectations of the role aren’t clear, how can your success be clearly measured?
If hiring managers are too busy to put thought to roles they’re hiring for, what does that say about what’s strategically important to them, or the work/life prioritization of the company?
If the recruiting process and messaging to attract the right people into the right roles of the company isn’t of paramount importance, what might that say about the organization’s culture?
Other sources of research are informational interviews, which I discussed in detail near the end of the “Blaze Your Path” section. I often ask people (not the same ones repeatedly) if they would be willing to speak to a client who is considering a specific company they are knowledgeable about. In fact, I just did so today before writing this. A former coworker said she would be happy to discuss her experience with a company my client is interested in.
Once you have a short list of company targets, if the employment section of their website has job search alerts, turn them on for roles you’re targeting to be notified of available positions. If not, put it on your calendar to check at least once weekly for new postings on their website.
Additionally, note the social media icons on the company’s website and follow them across those channels. This is another way to learn about new openings and provides a way to thoughtfully interact with the company and get noticed by adding value to their online content.
Once you’ve targeted prospects, you need to engage in conversations with people to turn prospects into opportunities.
Tip: Stay focused on the position you’re trying to land! Keep your messaging targeted and consistent throughout each of the upcoming sections.
Networking & Informational Interviews
To network effectively and make a strong impression in informational interviews you must learn to develop your competence in networking conversations. This is often referred to as your elevator pitch, but because people don’t like to be “pitched” to, I’ll refer to this as a networking conversation.
As you target your prospects, you’ll want to request informational interviews through your network, engage in formal networking events, and informally network with people you meet as you go about your day.
I am a co-host for LinkedIn Local in Charlotte, NC. You can tell who has taken time to craft an effective networking conversation. Some of the attendees can effortlessly explain what they do, who they serve, and the value they bring.
Others spoke about themselves for a couple of minutes, and I still didn’t have a clear sense of what they did, whom they helped, or the value they provided. If you’re not familiar, LinkedIn Local is a networking event to meet the people behind the profiles. It gives LinkedIn connections an opportunity to cultivate professional online relationships face-to-face.
Sometimes it’s difficult to understand someone’s line of work because they use industry jargon that stands in the way of our comprehension. I fall into this trap on occasion myself.
When I first started clarifying my own brand, I spent a lot of time telling people how I helped them. In general, people don’t care about the how. I would rattle off all the things I do, all the tools I use. Yawn. Be mindful of this as you craft your message.
My mentor, Steve Lishansky, helped me see a better way. He told me a story about a kitchen contractor. If you decided to renovate your kitchen, whom would you rather hire: contractor number one or contractor number two?
Contractor number one pulls out his tools, shows you each one, and explains how he uses it. He also details how his tools are top-of-the-line and better than those of other contractors.
Contractor number two asks you how you envision your family using this new space and what goals you want to accomplish with your new kitchen design. Will you have family gatherings here? Do you cook and bake regularly? How do you want the space to make you and your family feel when you’re in it?
The first contractor is focused on the means. The second, the result. This caused me to rethink the way I position myself in the world. Now, I usually share my “why” and “what” but not the “how” unless asked.
“Do you love Mondays? I help people who are tired of dreading Monday find career satisfaction through five key areas of focus: certifying coaches, career discovery coaching, executive coaching, workshops, and writing books.”
Rather than share gory details of my process, my certifications—my “how”—I focus on the problem I solve and the outcome prospective clients want.
When you find yourself in a networking scenario, it’s critical to communicate three things:
1. The kind of role (or customers) you’re targeting
2. The strengths and experience you bring
3. The value the employer (or customer) will receive
Here are some examples illustrating this approach for different career phases.
Recent Graduate
I’m a recent graduate with a degree in business and I’m seeking a role in digital marketing. While obtaining my degree, I enjoyed my marketing classes most and had the chance to create a social media marketing campaign for a local business as my cornerstone project. Because of the campaign, the business increased their followers by 500% across three platforms and gained seven new clients totaling $120,000 in new business.
Career Transition
I’m an accountant with ten years of experience seeking a process improvement role in a medium-sized financial services company. I recently acquired my Six Sigma Green Belt and transformed the accounting function in my current role through process reengineering and improvements, saving the company $100,000 annually.
Seeking Promotion to Management
I’m a project manager seeking to move into management in the healthcare industry. I’ve had much success as an individual contributor. However, over the past three years, I’ve mentored five people in career development resulting in three of those people receiving promotions. My greatest contribution to an employer is my ability to grow and develop people to their greatest potential.
To create your networking conversation, you should expand on the My Unique Contribution statement from your YouMap®. Also, reference your “Strengths Insight Guide,” which offers descriptive language about your strengths. The Strengths Insight Guide was introduced in the “Discover Your Strengths” section.
Use the space below to capture your three-part statement, explained above, for your networking conversations. Practice it aloud and tweak it until it feels natural. Remember, you’re writing your networking conversation to be spoken. Since we don’t speak the way we write, you’re going to need to edit and rework it until it flows.
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After you’ve practiced aloud, share your networking conversation with a friend or family member for feedback. You never know when a networking opportunity will present itself, so you must always be ready!
The job services site, Workopolis, reports that on average only 2% of applicants are contacted for an interview. Therefore, your most effective strategy is to network into a company to dramatically increase your odds with a personal referral. One of the ways you can stand out in networking is by using a personal networking sheet.
The Personal Networking Sheet
My colleague, Bernie, recently shared a networking document with me that he created to help others support him in his job search. Bernie included the following informational sections in his networking sheet:
• Introduction
• Desired role
• Possible positions
• Summary of professional background
• Strengths and skills
• Highlight of related achievements
• Target companies
• How you might help me
Peruse the image of Bernie’s networking sheet below. One thing I like best about his document is the “Possible Positions” section that lists roles that are a good fit for him. This is helpful to those he’s networking with because it sparks ideas such as the right people they should introduce to him.
If you’re interested in customizing your own networking sheet, Bernie has generously shared his template available for download at MyYouMap.com.
You can send your networking sheet to people in preparation for a networking conversation or take copies with you when networking in person.
Networking on LinkedIn
In addition to a face-to-face networking strategy, you should leverage the power of LinkedIn to identify people for networking conversations to help you access a company from the inside.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—pursue companies, not job
s. If you’ve already worked through the “Targeting Opportunities” part of this section, you might already have your desired companies identified. If so, here is how you can use LinkedIn to network into those companies.
Open a browser and go to www.linkedin.com, type the company name in the search box, then hit enter. If there is no other company by the same name, the search will take you directly to the company page. Otherwise, you will need to click the correct company from the list of results.
The screenshot below shows a search result for my company, Virtus Career Consulting. If I want to view everyone who works at Virtus Career Consulting, I can click on “See all 4 employees on LinkedIn” to view the list of employees.
After clicking the link to see all four employees on LinkedIn at Virtus Career Consulting, I receive a list of employees who have Virtus Career Consulting listed as their current or previous employer on their LinkedIn profile:
I can now see everyone on LinkedIn who works at Virtus Career Consulting including their job titles, location, and degrees of connection to me. Of course, everyone listed here is a 1st degree connection of mine, which means we are directly connected to each other on LinkedIn.
A 2nd degree connection indicates the person is connected to someone I am directly connected to. If someone is a 3rd degree connection, they are connected to one or more of my second degree connections. Leverage 1st and 2nd degree connections for networking as a priority over third connections unless you have none. Contacting third degree connections is like conducting cold calls. You can certainly engage in cold outreach, but your success rate might be lower.
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