Computer Careers Book
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Resume and Cover Letter Secrets Revealed
The economy is picking up. New employment, including that
of techies, is not as strong but still increasing and sooner or
later, some company will need to hire new techies if only to
replace the burnouts, heart attack victims and retirees.
How good are your chances?
One thing I stress in my book Secrets of Changing to a Computer
Career is that I don't pretend to be an expert on the general
job-seeking skills such as networking, sending out resumes etc.
However, once you have some IT skills, certifications and --
hopefully -- experience, you do need to those general job
seeking skills to make yourself look as good as possible to
prospective employers.
As I stressed in yesterday's entry, to fall short in marketing
your job skills to employers is a disservice to both them and
to you.
Therefore I recommend this resume writing book to everyone
wanting to wanting to get a job.
Resume and Cover Letter Secrets Revealed
Marketing is How You Help Other People
As the member of a generation which grew up thinking of big businesses and business people in general as selfish, it's taken me years to understand that, although many people involved with business ARE selfish and greedy, etc -- success demands UNselfishness.
Yes, the fiendish owners of the XYZ Corporation may be out to make a gazillion bucks for themselves -- but they'll fail if they can't give their customers products that they want.
A lot of marketing dollars are spent researching and analyzing new products and what particular consumer markets want those new products. Yet most new products fail.
Mmmm, maybe that does validate the perception that businesspeople are selfish -- otherwise, there'd be a lot fewer failed new product introducts, because they would understand what their customers really want and supply it.
Try as they will, no business can force customers to buy their products. They can entice and lie and trick us into trying something once, but we decide whether we'll buy again.
So, businesses succeed only to the extent they satisfy the needs and wants of their customers.
When you are searching for a job, you are also introducing a new product -- YOU! -- into the employment marketplace. Although of course you need and want a job to earn a check so you can pay your bills, you will succeed to the extent you satisfy your "customer" -- prospective employers.
Yes, you can trick them into thinking you're more qualified or hard working than you actually are, but they have the right to fire you if you aren't right for the job.
With this perspective, to be successful at searching for a new job means finding the customer/employer who needs the skills, experience and career potential you possess.
Just as you the consumer feel that it's not your responsibility to try every new soft drink introduced to the marketplace, but it's the responsibility of the company to convince you through their marketing that you should try the new soft drink -- even so it's YOUR responsibility to convince prospective employers that you can meet their needs.
Many people around this world believe that a job is a "right" - that businesses exist only to give them a job.
This is backward thinking. Businesses give people jobs because they need certain work done, whether it's cooking burgers or managing computer networks.
So this is an earlier article I wrote urging job seekers to focus on the needs of their "customers" (prospective employers) rather than to selfishly focus on themselves.
"Marketing" is How You Show Others How You Can Help Them, Including Selling Yourself for Jobs and Promotions
