A lot of job-seekers have been asking me lately about how to sell their value as opposed to specific skill sets. You don’t want to limit your job prospects, so you need to customize your resume and your pitch to each specific position you go after. However, the challenge most job seekers face is confusing past careers roles with their value proposition.
If you are at a cocktail party or even in a job interview and you pose the question, “What do you do?,” you will typically get a response like, “I’m in aerospace,” or “I’m a product manager.” I think of these kinds of responses as similar to those 1950s sitcoms, where dad goes off to the office every day but you never really understand what his job is. Before you can tell a potential employer what value you can bring to their company, you need to be able to define that value for yourself.
I recently discussed this topic with Randy Block, a seasoned career coach and the host of our most recent Experts Connection teleseminar on “Finding Work Over 50: What to do after you say ‘I’ve still got it!’” Randy said that he often works with executives who can’t define their value proposition. What makes you special? Randy’s mantra when working with clients is asking them again and again “What do you do?” until he gets an answer that makes sense.
As Randy says, companies are hiring solutions, not people. You need to be able to contribute either productivity or revenue. Job tasks and past responsibilities are meaningless to a potential employer. What are meaningful are shared values and chemistry, and your personal value proposition. Every job search has to start with what you value and what your motivational skills truly are. If you don’t know what your values are, then you have lost your compass.
If you are not clear on your value proposition or how to define what you really do, that is how you contribute to productivity or revenue, there are some tools that can help you get back on track. Randy recommends Elevations, a personal career evaluation tool that helps you identify your motivational skills and your work preferences. It’s an ideal tool if you are in career transition, or just unclear on your next step. He also recommends the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey, which maps how you answer the survey questions to others in the workforce so you can determine which professions might be a good fit.
Once you are clear about your direction and your value proposition, you can start connect that value proposition to either revenue or productivity and start networking! Companies are reluctant to hire strangers, so you need to find referrals into target companies in your chosen field.
Randy recommends preparing a one-page introduction for networking that includes your value proposition and benefits (not your job title or market sector but what you have to offer!). He also uses a networking business card that includes his name, personal brand, and the services he offers. Remember that the average adult knows 250 people, and each connection can lead to a new connection that is closer to your career goal. Once you have refined your personal packaging, you need to market yourself through all your personal contacts.
