Find your passion. Build your career. Live fulfilled.^SM

Oh, you don’t have any? Hmmm. You probably won’t be hired. Everyone has some and to overcome this, it’s all about how you position your answer.  Most people assume that the following answers will usually do the trick:

• I’m a perfectionist
• I’m reliable/dependable to a fault, even when I’m sick
• I take care of the customer/client, even when I may have to bend some rules
• I know this is a writing job, but I hate writing and am not very good at it

The problem with these answers is that everyone uses them, and a skilled interviewer will see right through them. You see, they don’t tell anyone anything. Or, worse, you’ve just talked yourself out of a job.

So the question arises – how do you share a weakness honestly without ruining your chances for the position?

It would never be wise to lie. Likewise, it would never be wise to flat out say that you often come in late, can’t get your work done in a timely or correct way, can’t get along with others, etc. That’s career suicide.  Thus, the trick is to take these types of negatives and to turn them into positives. For example, if you’re chronically late and it was due to a situation that  no longer exists, then you tell the story that way  – “My (fill in the blank) was sick with a very severe illness and this often caused me to be late. I’m pleased to report that (s/he) is now better, and all of those issues are now fully resolved”.  Or, “I mistreated a customer once and I’ll never forget it. I realized later that it was a bad experience for everyone, and I recognized it as a weakness of mine [whatever the mistreatment was] and so I’ve taken a course on customer service to help me be better prepared to deal with that type of situation again”. That shows initiative and class, and that you learned something and overcame an obstacle.

Honesty didn’t hurt you; it likely helped you. Significantly. People want to hire people who they trust, and someone who is self-aware and who take responsibility for their own actions is usually someone who can be trusted.

Michael Trust, MPA, SPHR-CA, is a Certified Career Coach and a Certified Executive Career Coach, who helps people find their passion and fulfill their dreams as they relate to careers through his organization, Trustworthy Coaching, www.TrustworthyCoaching.com.  Mr. Trust’s Coaching, Business, and Human Resources experience spans twenty years, and he has had major roles in staffing in all of his Human Resource positions. In addition, he has coached individuals at all career levels relative to their career paths, job search strategies, business strategies, and related areas. Mr. Trust is also a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Copyright © 2010, Trustworthy Coaching.  All Worldwide Rights Reserved.

Branding – The Main Key to Your Job Search Success

Anyone who has been around marketing knows about branding and the extremely important role that it plays in selling products and services.  The trend over the last couple of years is to extend the concept of branding to job search strategies. If you step back and think about it, it makes sense: why not use the same principles and practices used to sell products and services to sell yourself?  It can be highly effective and can differentiate you from the multitude of other applicants and candidates for positions.

So what is this and how does it work?

Essentially – quick! – if I ask you about soft drinks, what comes to mind? Coke? Pepsi? Mountain Dew? Sprite? Barq’s Root Beer? That’s branding in a nutshell.  Now, if I ask someone about you, what immediately comes into their mind? That’s the essence of branding yourself. So, how does it work? What’s your niche or specialty in your chosen profession? You will build your brand around that. In order to do that, you will likely:

Determine your niche and what’s unique about what you bring to your niche

• • If you are in a profession that doesn’t really lend itself to a niche, what career related unique qualities and attributes about you can you point out?
  • What is it that you’re really good at and enjoy – even if you do a lot of things – it’s that passion and skill that really are your niche?
  • Do you set goals, actions, targets, results, and deadlines, and consistently meet them? Can you demonstrate that?  Do you have both short-term and long-term goals (not necessarily congruent – your short term goal could be very different from your long term goal, and be driven by a different set of factors)?
  • Can you show that you’re current in all of the skills and knowledge necessary in your profession? While it’s great to obtain additional education or training for personal pleasure and interest, if it doesn’t add to your marketability in your profession, it doesn’t help you with obtaining a new position in the same profession.  It may, however, help you to change professions. And, education for general learning is always a good thing – so long as it doesn’t detract from your overall professional goals, and doesn’t allow you to sacrifice education or training in your profession that you might need right now.
  • Do you have a team of people in whom you trust and with whom you mutually work to help you achieve your goals (even if you’re not working, you can still have a team – former colleagues, people current in your field, etc.)?
    • Can people on this team mentor you, teach you, coach you (these are all different skills, even though they may sound like they are the same), encourage you, and help you build your skills?
    • If appropriate, do you have collateral materials to help you showcase your accomplishments and results? Can you easily point to results that you can quantify or otherwise show value to a potential employer, to your team, to your network?
      • Materials can include your resume, cover letter, business cards that have a tag line about what you do, an online portfolio.
      • Today, materials should include a Linkedin page, a Plaxo page, a Twitter account name, a professionally written (which you can do yourself) biography, and if used only for professional purposes, a Facebook page.
      • Do people *know* that you’re seeking a new opportunity? Have you communicated your brand in a concise way and can you adequately follow up with more information?
        • Do you set up informational interviews with people who know your field?
        • Do you set up informational interviews with people in the companies for which you want to work?
        • Do you let your network, and their networks, know of your job search?
        • Do you offer reciprocity in terms of helping those who help you?
        • Do you help people who can’t help you, but for whom you can provide valuable information? Do these people know that you’re looking for a new position?
        • Do you actively network?
        • Do you flood the market, politely and appropriately, with your brand?
        • Are you flexible enough to change your course if you obtain information that suggests another course would be better?
          • Times change quickly these days. Are you nimble enough to change with them?
          • There are many ways to achieve your goals and plans change. Can you foresee different situations and can you quickly and easily adapt to them?
          • Do you have ways to effectively and efficiently get your resume and other materials as appropriate into the right peoples’ hands quickly?

Times are different even from just a few years ago. Competition is fierce, and there are many, many highly qualified people in the market. The key to branding the product, YOU, is to stand out and to be differentiated.  What is it that you DO? Once you determine that, you can brand around it.

Michael Trust, MPA, SPHR-CA, is a Certified Career Coach and a Certified Executive Career Coach, who helps people find their passion and fulfill their dreams as they relate to careers through his organization, Trustworthy Coaching, www.TrustworhthyCoaching.com.  Mr. Trust’s Coaching, Business, and Human Resources experience spans twenty years, and he has had major roles in staffing in all of his Human Resource positions. In addition, he has coached individuals at all career levels relative to their career paths, job search strategies, business strategies, and related areas. Mr. Trust is also a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Copyright © 2010, Trustworthy Coaching.  All Worldwide Rights Reserved.