Discover Your Value Propositon – The Elevator Pitch, Part II

In a previous post, I outlined the importance of writing your value proposition or “elevator pitch.”  To recap, this is a short (30-second), prepared speech that addresses the questions, “Who are you?” and “What do you have to offer?”

In Part One, I suggested writing down your top five work and personal accomplishments. 

Now, think about what you want to achieve.  Tie these achievements to the target’s needs…

What problem do they (or their organization) have that you can help solve?  Remember, although the pitch describes what YOU offer, it is really about your target.   In fact, you should alter your pitch depending on your target.  (Once you have something solid worked up, it will be easy to adjust it depending on your audience.)

Offer specifics about your skills and accomplishments that address the target’s problems. Are they lagging in sales?  Maybe you have a fabulous sales track record.  Do they need new written materials?  Bring up your background and accomplishments in revising or creating such materials.  In other words, you are the answer to their problem!  (Who doesn’t want to meet the person who solves their problems?)

Demonstrate your interest and excitement about your work.  No one wants to engage a cold fish.  Don’t go overboard (no jumping on couches a la Tom Cruise), but be sure that you sound passionate about what you have to offer.

Practice your pitch.  Memorize it until you could say it if someone woke you up from a nap.  Once you know what you have to offer, it will be easy for you to tweak your pitch depending on the target and what their needs may be.

You may be surprised at how useful it is to have an elevator pitch ready at a moment’s notice.  It’s useful for networking as an answer to the question, “What do you do?” and you can rely on it as an introduction to a great “gate opener” (someone who has the potential to connect you to someone who may be instrumental in your job hunt).  

By sharing information about who you are and what you do that is targeted to the individual who could use your services, you are several steps ahead of most job seekers and professionals who are not prepared to describe what they offer.

Keppie Careers can help you with every aspect of your job search.  Need a resume?  Help with your linkedin.com profile?  Interview prep?  Take advantage of our experience:  www.keppiecareers.com

Discovering Your Value Proposition – The Elevator Pitch, Part I

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Have you written your elevator pitch?  Otherwise known as your value proposition or a personal infomercial, this is a brief (some say 2-minutes, I like 30 seconds) introduction to you with a focus on what you have to offer.  This technique is used all of the time in sales and marketing, and since your job search is all about marketing YOU, having a well practiced, targeted elevator pitch is a good idea.  (The name comes from the fact that you could deliver your “speech” while going down an elevator with a great contact.  I guess the length may depend on the height of the building!  Since most people have a pretty short attention span, assume most buildings are short.)

Just as your resume should be targeted to the reader’s needs instead of your own needs, your pitch should focus on how you can solve a problem for the listener.  What do you offer?  What is your hook?

Discovering Your Hook

What is special about you?  What skills and accomplishments set you apart from every other person in the room?  In your industry?

You need to know two things:

1. What the employer wants.
2. What you offer.

You will find out the employer’s needs via research, informational meetings and networking.  Discovering what you have to offer may take longer! 

Big brands like Disney decide what they offer before they create and place their advertisements.  When they want to advertise Disney World, they appeal to families and parents’ need for an affordable, yet magical vacation.  Their brand is all about magic and family fun.  Their television ads appear on shows with a high viewership of people Disney targets.

If Disney didn’t consider what they offer, they wouldn’t be able to target their marketing.  By defining themselves and what problem they solve, they can offer a hook (an affordable family vacation).

What is brand YOU all about?  What makes you special and unique?  Think about what you offer an employer.  Consider your top five work and personal accomplishments.  Write them down and think them over.

Read more about writing your elevator pitch…

Keppie Careers can help you with every aspect of your job search.  Need a resume?  Help with your linkedin.com profile?  Interview prep?  Take advantage of our experience:  www.keppiecareers.com

Build Your Networking Base as a Connector

In her recent Shifting Gears column in The New York Times, How We Introduce, and What It Means, Marci Alboher discusses different types of connectors.  She references wikipedia‘s definition:

Connectors are people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in the habit of making introductions. A connector is essentially the social equivalent of a computer network hub. Connectors usually know people across an array of social, planes, cultural, professional, and economic circles, and make a habit of introducing people who work or live in different circles.

Although connectors are rare — only one in several thousand people might be thought of as a true connector — they are, like mavens and salesmen, very important in the healthy function of civil society and business. Connectors are also important in trendsetting….

Alboher notes that there are different types of connectors, and describes these types in depth in her article.   In short, some are proactive, some passive and some don’t follow-up at all.

I recently attended a talk with Wendy Kinney, a networking guru, where she spoke about the different levels of connecting.  She noted that we must earn referrals by building trust and relationships with people. One of the strongest recommendations is when an ally inserts our name in a conversation and offers to set up a meeting without even being asked for a referral. (“It sounds like you should meet Miriam Salpeter.  She is a terrific career coach. I will set the meeting up.”)

This assumes that the connector has a fairly close relationship with each party and that it is possible to leverage the introduction.

Dan Shawbel, whose focus and website are all about personal branding,  reminds us that it is important to give before receiving.  I agree with this philosophy.  Just being aware of how important it is not only to be connected, but also to connect others, is a great step in the right direction.  Building trust and relationships with colleagues and associates is key to networking.  It’s something every professional should work on regularly – not only when job seeking.

Keppie Careers will help you get your career search off on the right foot.  We will write or edit your LinkedIn profile, compose your resume and coach you through the job hunt:  www.keppiecareers.com.

Enhance Your Linkedin Profile for Job Seeking

In light of the fact that linkedin has become a source of choice for people who love to hire passive job seekers (those who may not actually be seeking a new job), I thought it would be a good idea to remind readers to pay attention to your linkedin profile!

First, a note on visibility….

If you use linkedin, you know that your visibility goes up the more links you have. Your second- and third-degree connections help put your profile in front of more people. I am a 3rd degree link to all three candidates for President! (Yes, Obama, Clinton and McCain are all on linkedin!)

There are several ways to increase your connections:

1. The preferred way is to link with friends and colleagues. When I started on linkedin, I convinced a friend who always sends mass emails to a g’zillion friends to join linkedin. In about a day, she had over 100 connections, all of which became my 2nd degree connections.
2. Another easy way to increase your visibility is to link with a LION (linkedin open networker). These LIONS have over 500 connections and welcome any invitation to link. You gain visibility to all of their connections with the click of a mouse.

Your profile…

First things first – Be sure that anything in your profile is spelled and punctuated correctly! Typos scream “don’t hire me” to anyone with a critical eye. Have someone with an eagle eye proof your profile. (Keppie Careers will be happy to assist in revising or proofing your profile. Email us at results@keppiecareers.com for details.)

Especially if you are looking for a job, focus your profile to include skills and experiences that will be of interest to potential employers. As with a resume, don’t just list what you did – help the reader envision you working for them by highlighting your skills and accomplishments. As you would with your resume, use active and interesting language.

Unlike a resume, you can use mini paragraphs in your profile. Keep it short – large blocks of text are hard to read. It should be somewhat conversational to grab the reader’s attention. It is okay to use “I, me or my” in your profile, unlike in a resume. (Don’t overdo it, though. You don’t want to appear self-centered!)

Make use of the “HEADLINE” feature. It goes right under your name and is the first thing people see. If you are a marketing professional, you can say so! Maybe you are a “Skilled problem solver and community builder.” Think of a tag line that grabs attention and describes you.

I really like the “Summary” and “Specialties” sections. This is where you can briefly sum up what you offer. If you have a “Highlights of Qualifications” or an “Accomplishments Summary” section on your resume, it should be easy to transfer it to linkedin. The “Specialties” section is like a list of tags – keywords that describe you and your work.

If you have a website or blog, use the “other” category and name your site when you add the URL. Also, you can edit your linkedin URL in your profile to include your name.

Ask colleagues and clients to “recommend” you on linkedin. They can say all of the flowery, fabulous things about you that you can’t say about yourself! Only ask those you know will write a quality review. Most people will discount a poorly written recommendation.

Especially when you are job hunting, your linkedin profile may be your golden ticket. Make sure you keep it shiny!

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Keppie Careers will help you with every aspect of your job search…Resume writing, linkedin summary editing, interview prep, career coaching…Contact us to see how we can take your job search up a few notches! www.keppiecareers.com

Are You Linkedin?

Today, my cyber-friend, Chris Russell blogged about how linkedin.com has become a national resume database and a source of choice for recruiters who love to snag “passive” job seekers who are not actually looking for work!

Personally, I think linkedin is a fabulous resource, even if you aren’t looking (even passively) for a job.  I first became a fan when I located two long-lost high school friends on linkedin when Google and other search resources proved useless.  

When I first joined, I was amazed at how quickly my network grew and the connections I gained.  If you don’t join, you may never know that a good friend of yours has a first-hand connection to someone in a position to hire you or provide crucial career advice or information!

In addition to serving as a source for recruiters, Linkedin offers tools to help you create and promote  a personal brand.  The “Answers” section provides a forum to demonstrate your expertise as well as a great place to network with professionals in your industry and beyond.   Often, if you provide a response that seems useful, you will be invited to “link” with the questioner, thus expanding your contacts.

Don’t forget that networking is important throughout your career, even when (especially when) you are NOT looking for a job.  Don’t miss the linkedin boat!

Keppie Careers will help you with every aspect of your job search.  www.keppiecareers.com

Networking is About Relationships

If you’ve read anything I’ve written about networking (click on categories at the right and Networking to catch up), you know that I’m a big fan!

Today’s post is a reminder that networking isn’t about a meeting, it’s about a relationship.  If you flit from one networking contact to another without bothering to follow up with anyone, you will not reap the benefits of networking.

If you are trying to network with HR professionals or hiring managers, you are less likely to be successful with your networking.  Plan to meet and connect with people who are in the job you’d like to have and those who are a step or two above you.  Give them a reason to be interested in you!  Share information.  Ask about them and their career paths.  Ask about their company and its goals and methods.  The goal is to make contacts who may later suggest your name when an opening comes up, not to send your resume to a lot of people.

If you are sitting home, zapping resumes to this posting and that posting, you are not likely to have much luck.  Weave your career net instead of constantly casting off in search of a hit.  You’ll be better off.

Keppie Careers – We write resumes and support you in your job search.

http://www.keppiecareers.com

Netweaving – An Underutilized Job Search Strategy

I attended a networking meeting this week, and one of the participants talked about “netWEAVING,” the process of creating communities to help one another find solutions for problems.

This is not a new concept.  An article by TechRepublic by Michael Sisco explains:

The term was coined by Bob Littell, a consultant who focuses on strategic marketing, product design, development, and implementation issues within the financial services industry. Rather than going to the “party” to learn what you can that might lead to new business, you attend with the intent of learning all you can from as many people as possible about their business, their needs, and their challenges. The objective is to try to help as many people as you can. The help or insight you provide may be putting them in touch with someone you know or sharing insight that can help the other person.

This approach, which is reciprocal by design, may be more comfortable for those who view networking in a negative way because it seems too much like “using people.”  If you focus on going out to seek and share information, your return will be even greater!

Keppie Careers can transform your resume and help you learn how to network and netweave!  Our mission is to advise, encourage and enlighten job seekers!
www.keppiecareers.com

Branding You for Career Success

In some circles, “branding” sounds more like something you do to an animal than a topic for a career column.  Others nod silently, recognizing the concept…Self branding, actually thinking of yourself as a brand like Coke, Disney or Nike, is a career strategy.

If you recognize that a resume is nothing more than a marketing document – marketing you – thinking of yourself as a brand can actually help you focus on what you have to offer an employer.

You need to know yourself to sell your skills.  Think about it:  What makes you special or different?  Can you succinctly talk about it in 15 words or less?  How about in a 30-second “infomercial” for yourself?  Otherwise known as the “elevator pitch,” having something short and sweet to say that describes you (your brand) is key to networking and job searching.

Once you clearly and efficiently describe what is unique about you, you are on the road to defining “BRAND YOU.”

Stay tuned for more on personal branding in future blogs!

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Looking for a job, but you need help figuring out what makes you unique?  Can’t put your finger on what skills you have to offer?  Keppie Careers can help!  We’ll transform your resume and support you every step of the way!

Our mission:  to advise, encourage and enlighten job seekers!

www.keppiecareers.com

Networking – Informational Interviewing/Getting Started

If you haven’t read my previous posts about Networking, click on NETWORKING in the Categories section to your right.

This is Part II of my post on Informational Interviewing. Read Part I to learn about this networking strategy.

How to get started with your Informational Interviews…
It is usually easiest to start with close contacts. Think about your network. Can anyone you know potentially put you in touch with someone who could provide useful information? Certainly consider using a service such as linkedin.com, which allows you to see the names of your contacts’ links and request introductions, but don’t forget your neighbors, relatives, colleagues and friends. Touch base with them to ask for suggestions of people to meet in a field you are pursuing.

Once you have a list of one or two contacts, e-mail asking for a meeting. Be sure to mention the name of the person who suggested you contact them. State that you would like to meet for coffee to ask for advice and information concerning their field or organization. Emphasize that you are seeking information, not a specific opportunity. (If you do this when you are employed, you have more credibility). In your e-mail, indicate that you will follow-up by calling them, and then do it!

You may be surprised, but most people will be willing to meet with you or speak on the phone. If, when you call, they refuse, ask if they can suggest someone else to meet so you do not lose the opportunity altogether.

The Meeting

Confirm your appointment and meeting place a day or two in advance. Arrive early and be prepared. Unlike a real interview, it is okay to have a list of questions. Use a professional writing tablet and pen. As a formality, ask if it is okay to take notes.

• Have questions to ask and things to tell about yourself.
• Know your resume and skills and accomplishments backwards and forwards.
• Dress and act professionally.
• Research – know what you need to know and what you do know! Don’t waste your time and theirs asking about topics that are clearly spelled out on their website, for example.
• Bring your resume, and when the time seems right, offer it to ask for their insights and feedback.

Obstacles

• Silences: refer to list of open-ended questions.
• Lengthy answers – If you are benefiting from information, let them continue. If it isn’t relevant, or they seem to be rambling on, refocus the interview by stating that you don’t want to take too much of their time and ask a different question.

Follow-up

• Always send a thank you note right away.
• Always ask if they can suggest another contact.
• Always ask if you can keep in touch and what is the best way.
• Keep track and follow up with your network. If Sue suggested you speak to Bob, and Bob winds up hiring you, make sure that Sue hears from you before Bob mentions it to her! You don’t want anyone to feel that you “used” them – by following up and being appreciative, you’ll garner good will.
• Organize your network and touch base regularly – once or twice a year. A holiday or new year card is one great way to be in touch. Forwarding information or a topical article occasionally to members of your network who might be interested is another great way to remind them about you and your interest.

Work your net! It’s the best way to find an opportunity!

www.keppiecareers.com

We advise, encourage and enlighten job seekers!

Recession Proof Your Career

Clearly, the U.S. economy has seen better days.  Justin Lahart wrote in The Wall Street Journal Online that a combination of debt, high food and energy prices and a weakening job market points to a troubled economy. 

I have written about these concerns…Numbers show that unemployment is at a 2-year high.  In December, the economy only added 18,000 jobs instead of the 70,000 predicted.  These are the worst numbers reported since August 2003.  U.S. News & World Report’s Best Careers for 2008 lists jobs with a positive growth outlook, but job losses will cut across many industries – from banking to Yahoo!

What can you do now if you think you may lose your job? 

Anita Bruzzese, columnist and author of 45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy,  offered several tips for those concerned about their jobs in her blog, Protecting Your Job in Tough Times.  She suggests:

• Getting connected by increasing face time in the office (including telecommuters).
• Keeping in touch with contacts in other departments to get the pulse of your company’s situation.  If things look bad, you can start getting resumes out.
• Network like crazy.
• Stay on the cutting edge of your field and be ready to lead, as leaders and innovators will find opportunities.

Penelope Trunk, a columnist whose book and blog is Brazen Careerist, offers this advice to prepare for a bad job market:

• Be a specialist, not a generalist, as a tight job market will allow employers to seek an exact match to their qualifications.
• If you can’t list a few strong accomplishments for your current job, make something big happen now so you’ll have good fodder for your resume.
• Consider graduate school.
• Focus on the quality of your work and securing strong mentors.

All of these suggestions remind us that it’s not a good idea to wait for a crisis to plot our career path.  Networking, specializing, leading, finding mentors — none of these are things that can be done overnight.  We are so busy DOING our jobs, we don’t take the time to drive our own career bus, so to speak.

We should all consider this a wake-up call.  Plan ahead.  Network all of the time, not only when you are looking for a job.  Cultivate mentorships, both in and outside of your company.  Focus on how you can stay ahead of the pack in your field and be a leader.  Always have an up-to-date resume that you can confidently use at the drop of a hat should an opportunity arise.

Hopefully, if the next pink slip is yours, you will be able to see past the scary part of losing a job to the potential prospects.  Maybe, with hard work and effort, you will be able to find something that may be a better opportunity for you.  Much has been said on the power of positive thinking…Maybe now is a good time for that.

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Note:  Keppie Careers provides a toolbox of practical tips, useful advice, support and encouragement for job seekers.  Please let us know if we can help as you prepare for what look to be tough times for all of us.

www.keppiecareers.com

We advise, encourage and enlighten job seekers!