Selling Yourself to Management

As I said in my last post, as a recruiter, I am not actually seeing any evidence of a Recession outside of the financial industry. However, many of the strategies that protect you in a bad market also improve your status with in a good market.

• Network to keep your value, your brand, visible at all times with your present management and clients. Networking builds bridges to get things accomplished on an every day basis. You should be networking at 2 or 3 title levels above you as insurance if your boss leaves the company. Network with other departments. Network with people junior to you as they may have very different philosophies towards work. Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: branding + positioning, career strategy, networking, salary | No Comments »

Jobs to Target

As a recruiter, I am not actually seeing any evidence of a Recession although that may change. I am seeing a mixed market, but that has been true since 9/11/01. The most obvious exception is the Financial companies which have been disproportionately affected by the mortgage market defaults. Whether or not we evolve in to a Recession, many of the strategies that protect you in a bad market also will help you get ahead and be more promotable than your co-workers in any market.

These are the more secure roles and companies to target if possible:

• The companies and product groups which cannot afford NOT to innovate continuously or they risk falling behind their competitors. Examples are medical device companies in highly Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: career strategy | No Comments »

This is one if my favorite networking stories and it shows the power of enlisting family and friends to help.

A man I was counseling, we will call him Max, was on his way to a Hanukkah celebration where there would be 50 family members. He had been out of work for several months, working only part-time as a consultant, and his uncles were asking him whom they could call on his behalf. He was dreading the event because he was imagining aunts pinching him on the cheek and uncles having people call him with leads that would not be a close fit. Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: networking, resume + cover letter | No Comments »

If you dread the thought of networking, you are not alone. Most of us can describe networking that is not effective:

Good networking is not a three martini lunch.

Good networking is not standing up in a crowd of strangers and announcing you are a sales manager looking for a contact at company X.

Networking should have two elements:

First, networking should be a long-term campaign to establish your value in the business community. It is about defining and establishing your brand – what makes you unique or different amongst people with somewhat similar backgrounds. It is about building awareness for your brand with an ever-larger audience. It is about keeping your value proposition top of mind over the long-term so that when someone in the community has need of your services, he/she remembers you are out there and reaches out to you. Your objective is to craft your message so that the right Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: branding + positioning, career strategy, networking | No Comments »