MEAPA Helps Individuals Communicate Their Value In Order to Find a Job

If you and/or your organization would like to hire MEAPA to conduct a workshop based on our proven process known as The ABCs of Marketing Yourself please contact MEAPA today.  Clients have also hired us to customize the cover of one of our publications.  To view samples of our customized covers please click here.  A brief outline of topics in The ABCs of Marketing Yourself include the following:

1. Set aside daily time – use your calendar to identify time each day to find a job.  You may have to rearrange a few things but it is important to realize that setting aside time to find employment is a job in and of itself.  Perhaps you get up a few minutes early or stay up a bit later but setting time aside each day is a priority in order to find a job.
   
   • To help assess how you spend your time complete MEAPA's Time Assessment exercise. 
     
2. Increase flexibility – instead of looking in a narrow list of jobs, widen your scope and consider positions outside your comfort zone.  Use your network and ask people what types of jobs exist in their industry and keep a list of those that appear interesting even though they may not be your first choice.
   • Richard Bolles, author of What Colour is Your Parachute?, echoed such sentiment and concluded that "Even in tough times there are jobs to be had, but applicants have to work far harder to get an employer's attention... They need to market themselves better and consider a broader range of employers."
     
3. Monitor your demands – if you want to find a new job so strongly is your demand for a high salary getting in the way?  Are you making unreasonable demands regarding benefits or other aspects of the job?  Are you rejecting one job to wait for a perfect one to come along?  Can you challenge yourself to take one job yet continue to look for another or must you wait for one company to comply with all of your demands?
   
4. Consider other industries – just as you should consider different positions for which you usually apply also look at other industries.  
5. Identify your life approach – as you face rejection or being ignored over a period of time during your job search be sure to identify your life approach.  Doing so can help you continue to remain positive and move forward as you work on communicating your value.
   
6. Assess your traits and habits - when is the last time you assessed your traits and habits in order to increase your self-awareness?  Identifying the frequency by which you practice the traits of successful people will allow you to better understand yourself as you work towards goals.
7. Evaluate your professional skills – when is the last time you evaluated in great detail your professional skills?  Are you even aware of the specific skills employers are requiring of their employees?
8. Define your success factors – success factors are those three to five accomplishments that help you differentiate yourself from others and demonstrate your value.  They should be located at the top of your resume, the back of your business card and also visible on your web site.  Remember it is your responsibility to make it easy for people to understand your value and the success factors do that by providing a brief yet impactful series of bullet points.
9. Write your personal statement – write out a personal statement of 75 words or less that summarizes your story.  This personal statement forms the foundation upon which you can then identify your value proposition of seven words or less as well as your one word descriptor.
10. Build a value proposition – in seven words or less create a phrase that best summarizes your value.  Doing so will also allow you to provide a clear, concise and compelling statement to people and help differentiate yourself.
11. Defend your one word – from your value proposition select one word that best identifies the value you bring to the marketplace.    
12. Design your business card - using your one word and value proposition design a personal business card.  Doing so will help you differentiate yourself and also provides a creative medium you can use to illustrate your value.      
    
13. Create a web site - one of the necessities of communicating your value today is to have your own web site.  There are free resources available with easy set up instructions to use.
14. Read - understand that the world is changing and the best way to keep informed is to read.  Between blogs, newspapers and books it is very easy to stay informed and learn about new developments that are relevant for you.
15. Update your LinkedIn profile - work diligently to build a professional appearance on LinkedIn.  Maintain it on a regular basis and network as much as possible online as well as in person.