Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with career transition coach and career management consultant Randy Block.
This week, career coach Randy Block observed that in hard times, gift stores tend to do well, where in good times high-end stores do well. When things are going well, we tend to go to great lengths to impress others through our shopping habits, spending money at the high-end stores that have a lot of offer. However, when times are hard, we tend to gravitate to the gift stores and target our shopping to meet a specific, immediate need.
The same is true in recruiting. Companies can’t afford to shop for high-end talent that offers multiple skills. They are not looking for a jack-of-all-trades. They need a skilled expert who can stop their pain in one specific area. If you muddy the waters, and your value proposition, by bundling your specific value with other traits, it will be lost. You need to be able to address their specific point of pain without making them wade through excess information.
Be sure to present all the pertinent information right up front! Make it easy to find and easier to understand. There can be no question about the value you bring and that it’s aligned with what the target company needs now!
If you are worried about your age getting in the way, turn it to your advantage. Offer to use your expertise and wisdom to help solve their problem through a specific assignment. Contract work is less “age sensitive” and can lead to full time positions.
