SET Personal Marketing

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Giving You a Step-by-Step Action Plan

As we put together your overall marketing plan, one key thing that we will do is to recommend a step-by-step track to guide your search. We call this your action plan.

In today’s competitive arena most people will never get enough interviews with a hit-or-miss approach. This leaves too much to fate. Think of it this way. Chances are you’re marketing a “product” with millions of dollars of earnings capacity remaining in your career. That much value deserves your best effort. Besides, job hunting is a numbers game. So, why take a chance at doing a lot of things haphazardly, without a well- designed plan?

Similar to any company who is about to market a new product, a good plan can cut job hunting time in half and save money. It also helps people produce better results, and when people generate a lot of activity in a concentrated time period, they feel better and do better. Much better.

Recapping the components of your overall marketing plan

Job hunting goals: We surface all critical information about you and then decide on the goals that will best advance your career.

Liabilities: We identify liability issues that might restrict your success... and arrive at ways for minimizing their impact.

Assets and transferable skills: We pinpoint these and incorporate them into your resume, letters, and your personal website.

Industry alternatives: We will suggest the industry alternatives that we feel are best for you.

Action plan for getting interviews: We will lay out a step-by-step plan... a weekly agenda... that will guide your search. This is your complete track... a game plan. It will include a plan for your approach to interviewing and negotiations.

For more information be sure to check out SET Personal Marketing's Twitter, follow SET Personal Marketing's Facebook, watch SET Personal Marketing's videos on YouTube or visit SET Personal Marketing's website.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Equipping You With a Marketing Website

We will be creating and hosting your personal marketing website. We do this because our experience has proven that if you have a superior resume and marketing website, job hunting can be much easier.

Job hunting is all about getting enough of the “right people” to look at your credentials. A “Personal Marketing Website” is a website that presents your universal resume... and sometimes your biography... for those who wish to review it.

Here’s how this works at our firm. When we write resumes, we create a distinctive and professional “Personal Marketing Website.” Displaying one on the web in color... is an impressive way of presenting yourself. It gives you a fast, no-cost way to get your presentation in front of the right decision makers.

How? Because you can simply send out emails with a link to your “Personal Marketing Website.” Through our job hunting information system, all you need to do is get the names of decision makers... and emails of key employers... throughout the U.S.... or the world... in industries that are right for you... or in the area where you want to live.

Can this make networking easier? Yes. For people you already know... all you do is send an email to let them know that you are open to new opportunities... and that you put up a new and unique “personal marketing website.” And, when people see your presentation, they will be far more impressed than anything you could say over the phone.

With access to our Job Market Access Center (JMAC), you can even comfortably network people you don’t know. For example, you can quickly get the names of alumni from your school who hold influential jobs... or others who worked with you some years ago... or executives in an industry or metro area... whose advice and referrals you’d appreciate.

Can this website also be used for responding to ads? Absolutely. Mention your link in a compelling email and you’ll have a surefire way to dramatically stand out from everyone else who answers an ad. The bottom line is that if you’re in the market today... and don’t have a “Personal Marketing Website”... you will be searching with an unnecessary competitive disadvantage.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Equipping You With Superior Resumes and Letters Pt. 3

Optional resumes we can create

An “interview” resume. An interview resume is 2 to 3 pages. It is for presentation during or after interviews and reveals more about you when employers want to know more. If you used this too early... to develop interviews, it might not work well since it would reveal many more details about your industry background. (If you have an executive biography, you would not need this resume.)

An executive biography. This is a 3 to 5 page narrative document, written in a third-person style. It uses interesting stories, rich in detail, and is favored by top recruiters and senior executives. Today, these are the “Mercedes of presentations.” Those seeking $150,000 to 1 million dollars+ should have one. Decision makers often forward resumes to others to get consensus. And sometimes, you never meet the top people, but nevertheless they will often review your resume. The offer depends on a “thumbs up” from the resume presentation.

Executive biographies are also invaluable during negotiations. They convey the best possible solutions you can bring... creating a unique “sense-of-worth.” They are also ideal for high-level networking...because it is such a distinguished and high-level presentation.

The marketing letters we create for you

Certain people who must avoid revealing liabilities should use personalized letters, but they need to be focused and motivating. Custom benefit letters, tailored to the needs of organizations, can be highly effective. We typically create the following 12 letters for different occasions:

For responding to openings

For contacting recruiters

For contacting venture capitalists

For responding to emerging jobs

For direct contact with employers

For third-party letters to employers

For contacting directors of associations

For networking associates and friends

For networking alumni

For networking influential people

For setting up potential references

For following up your interviews

For more information be sure to check out SET Personal Marketing's Twitter, follow SET Personal Marketing's Facebook, watch SET Personal Marketing's videos on YouTube or visit SET Personal Marketing's website.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Equipping You With Superior Resumes and Letters Pt. 2

The resume styles we will create for you

A universal resume. The most essential is a universal resume—a one-page document that will be your introductory resume. Most people mistakenly believe that they need to tell their whole story in their initial resume. The reality is that you get better results when your initial resume is interesting, with a feeling of action—but short. This resume must be suitable for key word scanning, have short paragraphs, and be compelling. It must be headlined by a job title listing (e.g., Director of Marketing) that an employer might have available. Remember, your resume is an ad... not an epitaph.

An “Internet (or electronic)” resume. This second resume needs to be a narrative... usually no more than two-thirds of one page. It is surprising how few devote any thought to the way their resumes appear at the receiving end of an email transmission. When you are online, less is more. All you want is a positive response.

A “quick-response” resume. This third resume makes it easy for you to respond quickly to emerging situations you read about. It positions the text on the right-hand side of the page so you can write handwritten notes and dispatch a resume without a cover letter. Clients consistently tell us that executives respond well to their notes, which cited events that were signals of emerging jobs.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Equipping You With Superior Resumes and Letters Pt. 1

To appreciate the importance of superior resumes, let’s first talk a little bit about the competition, and why it has devastated so many talented people. And keep in mind that when you look for a new job, you are reduced to how you look on paper.

Today, the number of resumes in circulation exceeds the imagination. GE receives 800,000 resumes a year... but they only hire about 4,000 people. That’s 1 out of every 200. Other well-known firms say they get over 1,000 resumes for every opening. And, when it comes to submitting your resume to an attractive ad... you should know that employers are now getting hundreds of candidates. Leading recruiters, like Korn Ferry and Heidrick and Struggles, now claim to receive more than 1,500 resumes a work day... 30,000 each month.

Despite the enormous competition, many people create a resume, show it to some friends or family members and then assume it’s fine. Ann Landers is famous for many quotes, but one applies here. “Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.”

While many professionals still use traditional resumes, with this amount of competition, the fact is they don’t work very well anymore. The reason is that most of these resumes have common weaknesses that can restrict job hunting success.

Image. Your resume must start by projecting an outstanding image... one that sets you apart. It must be eye-catching... not ordinary, plain vanilla and flat.

Liabilities. Even top executives can find themselves continually derailed... because of the negative information they made available... without realizing it.

Transferable skills. Does it just sell your history and experience? Selling skills is an absolute necessity if you want to expand your market... change industries... join a growth firm... appeal to venture capitalists... or impress CEOs and other key decision makers.

How you will contribute. You can’t have a resume that forces the reader to try to figure out how to use you. If so, you won’t get many calls. Why? Because people simply won’t take the time to study resumes. They’ll put it in the “no pile”... or toss it. Your resume has just 20 seconds to make your case... and get people to read further... or better yet... call you. If it doesn’t do this, you won’t even get in the game.

Being scanning ready. Scanning software has forever changed the selection process. Most organizations only keep the best 5% of resumes they receive... and scan just the first page into their databases. When employers are looking for someone, they simply input key words... bring up matching resumes... and review them. That determines who gets interviewed.

Dynamic. In today’s market, you must inspire the reader... being boring doesn’t work. The words you select need to have some reasonable punch, substance and sparkle. Your resume needs to be interesting and compelling. There are a lot of excellent competitors out there... and the worst thing you can do is undersell yourself.

Friday, August 26, 2011

It's Important to Neutralize Your Liabilities

We will be recommending solutions for best neutralizing any liabilities that you possess. As part of our job hunting information system, you will be able to initially review solutions that we have developed and refined over the years for all common liabilities. We will ask you to review these. Once you have done that, we will custom fit those solutions to your personal situation.

Common liabilities

Few professionals devote enough thought to properly handling their liabilities... in their resumes and letters... and in their phone conversations and interviews. We’ve learned from experience that if you don’t anticipate all of your liabilities and develop strategies for neutralizing them, you will lose out on many good opportunities for which you are well qualified.

Unfortunately, many people are not even aware of their liabilities until it’s too late. The good news is that in the course of serving tens of thousands of clients, we have developed proven solutions for largely neutralizing almost any concern you may have, and they are very easy to put into action.

Unemployed.
Unemployed a while.
Age could be a concern.
Changed jobs too often.
Too specialized.
Too generalized.
Too long with one firm.
Too long in one industry.
Lack a degree.
Career may have peaked.
Lack large firm experience.
Firm has done poorly.
Jobs are all similar.
Lack career progression.
History has gaps.
Been passed over.
References are doubtful.
Haven’t been a leader.
Been an entrepreneur.
Short work history.
Need to change careers.
Just changed positions.
Achievements are minor.
Earnings have been low.
Need confidentiality.
Too high previous earnings.
Job titles aren’t impressive.
Lack line experience.
Need much more income.
Achievements not measurable.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Uncovering Your Best Industry Options Pt. 3

If you have no knowledge of an industry but have an interest in exploring situations, extra steps are recommended. As mentioned, the easiest way to acquire knowledge of a new industry, and gain credibility for it, is to read trade publications. They will bring you up to date on personnel changes, new products, information on companies, and challenges as seen by industry leaders.

Another way to acquire knowledge is to talk with executives already in the field. In some cases you can go further by getting more formal input, attending trade shows and the like. The most radical approach is to take a lower level job in an industry in order to acquire knowledge.

During the last decade we’ve witnessed declines in many industries. However, don’t overlook opportunities in troubled industries. Executives who have worked for firms under pressure often find they can be valuable to distributors or consulting firms. Those who learned tough lessons in competitive battles can function as veterans in any industry.

As you begin to consider industry options, you’ll also need to decide whether you should take a narrow view. This is essential if there are a lot of growth companies in the industries to which you relate best.

However, if you are part of an industry that is suffering a decline, then you will want to adopt a broad view of your options. The more you understand the dynamics of a market, the more you can spot potential opportunities.

Historically, executives tend to overrate the barriers and to underrate their own abilities to make contributions in new areas. It is, of course, up to you to take the initiative to learn something about new companies, new industries, and the problems and opportunities they face.

As you review potential industries of interest, remember that while glamorous high tech and service businesses receive 90% of the publicity today, many executives will find far more opportunities in industries that are considered low tech or non-glamorous by today’s standards.