This article will discuss the next habit in my “9 Habits of Highly Ineffective Job Seekers” series: They undervalue marketing.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is “the action or business of promoting and selling products or services.” Don’t let the simple definition fool you. Marketing is complex and multidimensional; getting into the intricacies of the art and science behind it goes far beyond the scope of this article. Nevertheless, it is important for you to understand a fundamental tenet that will make a world of difference as you attempt to stand out amongst your peers and obtain that interview.
Transcending “Noise”
Sometimes I wonder how we, as consumers, make any decisions at all given the constant, relentless advertising we endure. Most of us don’t notice it until we step back and pay attention. It just so happens that I took note as I prepared for my trip to the dentist a few days ago.
As I looked up directions, website banners advertised dental review services. When I walked into my living room to turn off the morning news, a commercial urged me to travel to Hawaii this summer. In my car, I listened to radio commercials as I drove by billboards advertising TV shows and once-a-year sales events, and I passed a sign flipper attracting customers into a real estate office. Having difficulty finding the building, I opened a map app on my smartphone when an ad popped up for a nearby restaurant. While I awaited the dentist, a closed-circuit TV displayed periodontal health commercials, and the magazine I read was cluttered with car, watch, suit, and fragrance ads on nearly every other page. And that was in just about an hour. Whew!
With all of this “noise” coming at us, do you ever wonder how certain products and services make it through our filters while others get left behind?
It comes down to three steps:1
- We view and quickly observe our possible choices. It is important to note that the more options available, the less time we spend evaluating each option.
- We form a short list of contenders from those options.
- We make our buying decision. Ultimately, we make our choice based on our perception that the product or service’s value outweighs that of its competitors and its price.
What Does This Have To Do With Job Hunting?
When it comes to your job search, you must realize the way you evaluate products and services is not very different than the way companies evaluate you. You are both a product and a service to your potential employer. You are the product, your skills are the service, and your salary is the price. Just as consumers are bombarded by ads, recruiters, human resources professionals, and hiring managers are inundated by resumes and cover letters, especially as unemployment remains high.2 And, just as consumers use the three-step process above to narrow down our choices, employers use a similar approach:
- They view applicants from a variety of sources. Once again, the more they receive, the less time they spend evaluating each one.
- They form a short list of contenders. That is, they pick a select few to interview from the many applicants available.
- They make their hiring decision by choosing the candidate that they perceive will give them the best value for the salary paid.
By reading the processes above, can you guess which step gets you from the disheartening and seemingly-hopeless task of searching for a job to the hopeful situation of interviewing for a job? If you said “number 2,” you are correct. This is a critical step, as it narrows dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of possible choices to an easily “digestible” few. And can you guess what it is about products, services, and applicants that make it to the coveted list of contenders or interviewees? They appealed to us because they somehow seemed better than the alternatives. In short, they differentiated themselves.
Differentiating Yourself
We now understand differentiation is the name of the game, great, but how do we go about making it work for us? Most of us know that marketing yourself to employers requires a cover letter and a résumé. We spend hour upon hour sending our information to any company with a job that remotely resembles what we seek in hopes of leaving behind our unemployed or unfulfilled status. Disappointingly, most of us believe this is where our marketing efforts should end. I rarely go a day without someone telling me about all the effort they expended into a fruitless job search, only to uncover the individual has put forth 100% of this effort in front of a computer screen.
Can you really differentiate yourself with just a cover letter and resume? Perhaps a few of you can, but most of us must go to further lengths to avoid the “black hole” that relentlessly consumes the resumes and cover letters of the ordinary every day. Fortunately, one single action will immediately get you from ordinary (part of the “noise” that is filtered out by employers) to extraordinary (one of the choice few that makes it into the interview): leaving your house.
Don’t Go At It Alone
I’m sure I’m not the first, and I won’t be the last, to mention the importance of networking, and there is good reason for this: the simple act of leaving the house to conduct your job search is one tactic that immediately differentiates you from most of your competition. Why? Because 75% of us or more (and I’m being conservative) believe we can conduct an effective job search from home. So, simply leaving your computer behind and stepping out the door means you have already begun to stand out from your peers.
I know some of you cringe at the thought of networking. Next to public speaking, I know of few activities that intimidate so many. However, this is because most of you think of networking as entering a room full of strangers, boldly approaching a group, and talking about how great you are just before you ask one of them to hire you. No wonder you’re intimidated. If that is how I defined networking, I wouldn’t leave the house either. But there is good news. Networking can be non-intimidating and effective by following a few, easy steps. To learn how, please come back to read my next article, which I will post very shortly.
9 Habits of Highly Ineffective Job Seekers
- They underestimate the importance of attitude.
- They don’t look in the mirror (closely enough).
- They don’t do their homework.
- They undervalue marketing.
- They go at it alone.
- Their weapon of choice is a bomb instead of a bow and arrow.
- They take “a one size fits all” approach.
- They focus on tasks over results.
- They don’t sweat the small stuff.
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