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.
One of the persistent problems in job search is prevarication. Applicants may not actually lie on their marketing documents or in an interview, but they are certainly capable of exaggeration. Of course, the problem with manufacturing credentials or overstating your qualifications is that it takes a lot of work to keep up the pretense. Usually one lie leads to another, and another, and you may be called upon to prove false claims. It becomes exhausting to keep up, trying to remember what you told each party in the hiring process. Of course, candidates do land positions for which they are not qualified, but when that happens, everyone loses.
This week, career coach Randy Block reminded those who attended the call of the words of Oscar Wilde, “Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”
Don’t try to change your qualifications or adjust your personal brand to fit every job application or job posting. Don’t try to second-guess what others think or what you believe they want to hear about your qualifications.
If you aren’t real, or authentic in your pitch, everyone will come to see that in time, and that could negatively affect your future. You are the only one who knows what you enjoy doing and what you are truly good at. Randy said he works with executives to help them uncover their brand and capture it in a few short sentences that make them unique and relevant to the right company. Your personal brand helps attract the right companies and promotes symbiosis, while repelling those hiring companies that aren’t a good fit.
If you can be true to your strengths then you can find work that challenges you, drives you, and engages you. Aligning your brand with the right company means the company finds the right executive to solve their problem. In exchange, they get a happy, engaged employee willing to make a real contribution to the company. It’s a win-win situation.
Your best strategy is to be true to yourself and then disseminate a consistent brand message across all your marketing documents and social media profiles. Make sure company recruiters can find you on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, Klout, Google Profiles and Google Plus. A good place to start is the executive bio. Randy advises all of his clients to use an executive bio rather than a resume to make introductions. The bio says “let’s talk” rather than “I need a job” and tends to be a good conversation starter.
Don't limit yourself. Make sure your tool kit has all the right tools in it, including a dynamite executive bio. If you need help NETSHARE can recommend excellent, dependable professionals who can assist you with your marketing documents.
