YOU are the product

YOU are the product is the message we hear. It sounds good. Promoting yourself makes perfect sense in today's marketplace. Yet, when we sit down to actually put a marketing piece together for ourselves, it's one of the hardest tasks ever!

There's a process I've used that's helped a great deal. Every product has features. Think about your smart phone. It's features include: easy-to-read screen, small size, multi-functional, great connectivity. Those features are what the product does. Your phone also has benefits....that's what the product does for you. So, the features of your smart phone would be that it allows you to communicate on different media. You can work from anywhere and you are more productive.

So, what are your features? Your education, experience, industry knowledge. people skills, communication skills, special training and talents all qualify as features. What are the benefits of these features to an organization? Your educational benefits are that you have reasoning and decision-making skills. Your experience means you can "hit the ground running". Your industry knowledge means less on-the-job training. People and communication skills means you are a team player and can explain ideas.

So, sit down and write a list of your features and benefits and create your marketing piece. You're a great product and we need you!

New Year's Resolutions

Our guest blogger is Pam Waits. Pam is an HR executive who is passionate about her work. She's very good at it! Pam is expanding her reach through writing and as you'll discover she's an excellent writer as well. Enjoy!

This blog is directed to all of you employers out there and it’s from those of us who are seeking new employment.

There are a lot of us in the market and we have great ideas so please pay attention. The list is comprehensive and I invite you to take a few minutes to read these resolutions. They could help you discover an incredibly talented, loyal batch of new employees who will help you outpace your competition. Here goes.

I, Employer, will:

1. Treat you with respect. I will never lose sight of the fact that even if I don’t hire you, you could be my customer. And while I’m at it, I will be sure to treat the people who already work for me with respect, too.

2. Keep you the job seeker informed throughout the process. I know that your timetable is different than mine. You have a greater sense of urgency and I shouldn’t keep you hanging. Specifically, here is what I plan to do:

A. Acknowledge receipt of your resume/application. At the very least, I will use some form of auto response. I know that you often feel like you are sending information into a black hole and I want you to know that your effort has been successful.

B. Let you know after completing a phone interview if you are moving on to the next step or if it’s the end of the line. By doing this, we can both move on and you won’t need to take your time or that of my recruiters by leaving messages.

C. Provide as much information to you as I can if I decide to interview you face-to-face (e.g., job description, work environment, company culture). In return, I expect you to review this information before the interview and withdraw your candidacy if you aren’t qualified for or interested in working for me.

D. Provide you a status report if you go through face-to-face interviews. I will let you know if there’s another step, what that looks like, whether you will be participating and the expected timeframe.

E. I will notify you even if you didn’t get the job so you can move on. I will make every effort to do this on the phone instead of e-mail as a sign of my professionalism and respect for you. I think this will enhance my reputation as a top employer.

3. Return your calls and/or e-mails if I somehow fail to keep the lines of communication open. If nothing else, I will let you know that I got your message and that I don’t have an update to give you. This demonstrates that I am courteous and respect you. I expect you to show me that same courtesy and respect in return.

4. Start and end appointments (phone and face-to-face interviews) with you on time. If there is a schedule change, I will let you know as soon as I know.

5. Keep the interview process as simple as possible. If I need multiple interviews with you, I will only ask if you are one of my finalists.

6. Interview you only if I am interested in hiring you – not to tap into your expertise or benchmark your salary.

7. Not interview you until I have approval to fill a position or until I know what I want. I don’t want to waste my time or get your hopes up.

8. Not check your references unless I intend to make you an offer. To do otherwise wastes my time and the time of your references. It also sets an inaccurate expectation with you that I intend to make an offer and that just isn’t fair.

9. Consider you if you meet my qualifications, even if you don’t have experience in my industry. I will be open to the fact that you could bring a fresh perspective that would benefit my organization. I will even take that one step farther and start interviewing people from “outside the box” to see what new dynamism I can bring into my organization. I think I have been missing talent and opportunity by limiting myself given that many talented people are trying to transition to new careers and news areas of expertise.

10. Not discount you just because you are currently unemployed. I will be mindful that many people are out of work through no fault of their own and that the talent pool of the unemployed is very rich.

11. Not take advantage of the fact that you are unemployed. If I make you a job offer, I will compensate you fairly in line with your experience and qualifications.

12. Talk to you about my opportunity if I think there might be a fit, even if I think you are overqualified or the pay I am offering is too low. I will have an open discussion with you about my concerns and give you the opportunity to respond.

13. Vow to be realistic in my requirements and to make a decision. I won’t keep positions posted for months trying to find the candidate who “walks on water”. I will choose the candidate who meets my qualifications and will fit in with the culture of the organization.

14. Broaden my sources for filling positions to include networking (both formal and informal channels). I realize that in many cases posting jobs on Internet job sites only seems to create work for my HR staff. Many times the best candidates are found through referrals, not online.

Thanks to the people who contributed to and inspired this list of resolutions - may we inspire the employers who read it!