Remember, back in the day, when all you needed to look for a job was to open the Sunday Times, look at the jobs (all alphabetically listed, of course), and send your resume in response to something that looked interesting?

Gone.  Finito.  Job hunting is more time-consuming now, and much, much more sophisticated.  And what it has become is . . . sales.  Well, guess what?  What do really successful products and services have?  Right!  They have instantly recognizable and well-loved brands.  Sometimes those brands are so successful that their names have come to stand for all the different makes of the same thing. . . think of “Kleenex” for facial tissues, and “Scotch Tape” for cellophane tape; think “Jello” for fruit-flavored gelatin dessert, and “Coke” for cola-flavored sodas.

What’s happened to the job search is that, to differentiate yourself from your competition, and turn you into the candidate of first choice, you’ve got to build your own brand.  Who are you?  What are your key strengths?  What sets you apart from your peers?  How do you want people to remember you?  For what?

It took me a couple of years to realize that what I did, and what I wanted people to know that I could help them with, was developing their “career charisma.”  It’s my way of letting you know how maximize your identity and strengths.

I’m hereby inviting all readers to send me a one-sentence description of your brand . . . what’s your personal statement, which will make you instantly recognizable, and make you stand out, memorably, in people’s minds?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm and is filed under The job market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.