============================================== "Achieve Your Dreams" - Volume 12, July 2005 ============================================== Greetings! Welcome to "Achieve Your Dreams", a bi-monthly newsletter for people with a dream - - whether it's accelerating a career, changing careers, building a business, securing a new job, achieving that long-desired goal, or discovering a new life vision and direction. Each newsletter will offer 1-2 noteworthy articles, a section on "Office Happenings" and "Helpful Resources", and some favorite quotes and sayings to motivate and inspire you. In this issue: 1. "10 Tips for Creating and Communicating Your Career Brand" 2. Office Happenings (Newly Revised Strong Interest Inventory) 3. Helpful Resources (Tip: Searching for Job Titles in Google) 4. Favorite Quotes Feel free to forward this to those you believe would find it useful. Feedback is encouraged and appreciated. If there is a specific topic you'd like covered, please send the suggestion to me via the e-mail address below. Enjoy ... ======================================================== 10 TIPS FOR CREATING AND COMMUNICATING YOUR CAREER BRAND ======================================================== Whether you are changing careers, searching for a new job, or committed to accelerating your career, developing and communicating your unique career brand is essential. What is a career brand you ask? Branding can be described as many things, but it's best defined as a promise... a promise of the value of the product... a promise that the product is better than all the competing products. Branding is developing an image -- with results to match. Developing your unique career brand is essential to career advancement because branding helps define who you are, how you are great, and why you should be sought out. Branding is your reputation. Branding is about building a name for yourself, showcasing what sets you apart from others, and describing the added value you bring to an organization. And it's especially important when searching for a new job or vying for that promotion or transfer. Let's face it, searching for a job or getting ahead in your career is about marketing. You are the product and the employer is the consumer. A clear and compelling career brand helps employers perceive the benefits of your product, giving you an advantage over your competition. These 10 tips will help guide you in creating and communicating a career brand that will help you be the employee of choice - 1. Take some time to think about your experience and background. What makes your background unique? How are you different from others who do the same job as you? What talents, strengths and expertise do you want to be known for in your career? What kind of employer will be drawn to, connect with, and pay a premium for those things? 2. Hone your product benefits into a 3-Point Marketing Message that conveys your unique strengths. This is a critical sound bite in your branding campaign. Here's a short and succinct example: I excel at the 3 R's of sales: research, relationships, and revenue -- I exhaustively research client needs, build relationships based on serving those needs, and have a track recording of driving record revenue as a result. 3. Add a Benefit-Driven Target Statement to your Marketing Message that further exemplifies your value to a hiring manager. Align your statement with employer buying motivators, such as generating revenue, saving money, or solving a problem. 4. Successful career brands weave together three A's: Authentic image, Advantages, and Awareness. Learn to project an image of your authentic self, succinctly describe to others the advantages you offer in getting the job done, and confidently make employers and hiring managers aware of those advantages. 5. Branding can be accomplished through verbal and visual means. Verbal branding includes your sound bites and success stories, while visual branding is accomplished through your actions, attitude, and attire. Be aware of both. 6. Mix-and-match your success stories and sound bites to create a comfortable yet compelling 2-Minute Introduction. Consider using a tagline that helps people remember you in a unique and favorable light. Perhaps you can dub yourself "Mr. FedEx" because you always deliver projects on time! 7. Practice. You must be able to deliver your success stories and sound bites naturally, without appearing as though you're reading a telemarketing script. 8. Visual branding means you must look the part. Ask for wardrobe advice from someone who is successful and has a good sense of style. If uncertain about how to dress for a networking event or interview, ere on the side of formality. 9. Visual branding also means you must act the part. Candidly evaluate your mindset, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes. Are these consistent with others in your field who have attained notable success? 10. Nothing in marketing is more powerful than promotion by word-of-mouth. Thus, nothing is more powerful in building your career brand than what your network of contacts -- friends, colleagues, customers, clients, and former bosses -- say about you and your skills, education, and accomplishments. Keep in good contact with your network and be sure they know of your capabilities and most recent successes. ================= Office Happenings ================= The Strong Interest Inventory has been updated and enhanced! For those who have never taken it, the Strong is a widely used career assessment that measures a person's interests in a broad range of occupations, work activities, leisure activities, and school subjects. Interests are then categorized into six themes that provide insight into potential new career options. Many of my clients have found the Strong an immensely valuable tool in their quest to change careers. Recently, the Strong was updated to include significantly more career options and a more user-friendly format. Beginning August 15, I will be including this enhanced version in my coaching practice. The Strong is easily completed on-line and is offered to all of my full-time clients as part of their monthly coaching fee. Individuals who are not current clients, but would like to take the Strong, are welcome to contact me at 617-968-7747 or jeanne@careerdesigns.biz to arrange for a special coaching session. ================= Helpful Resources ================= Job Title Confusion? Google to the Rescue! It's not unusual for job seekers to overlook an open position simply because they don't know what the title of that job is in the company they are targeting. Google can come to the rescue, with its ability to find synonyms and concepts from a set of words that are provided. What this means for job seekers is that by typing in current job titles, they can identify other titles they might overlook in their search for job leads. To give this a try, go to http://labs.google.com/sets and insert two common search job titles: "receptionist" and "clerical" without the quotes), then click "small set" and see how the site uncovers all the other related job titles. Source: hrms-netassets.net) Women Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century. The US Government has put together a very useful site for women entrepreneurs. This website offers key resources, targeted infor- mation, registration for online programs, and networking opportunities to help women build an entrepreneurial career. Check out http://www.women-21.gov =============== Favorite Quotes =============== "We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving... And we all have the power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing." -- Louisa May Alcott "For true success, ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?" -- James Allen "Action is the foundational key to all success." -- Pablo Picasso "It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." -- Edmund Hillary I hope you are all enjoying a fun-filled and relaxing summer! In support of you, Jeanne ****************************** Jeanne Knight, JCTC Career and Job Search Coach jeanne@careerdesigns.biz www.careerdesigns.biz 617-968-7747 Office Hours: M-TH 8:30am - 5:00pm FRI 8:30am - 12:00noon ** If you would like someone added to this newsletter distribu- tion list, please forward their name and e-mail address to me. They will be added promptly. ** If you would like to be removed from this list, please reply to me via this e-mail address. I will remove your name promptly.