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Whilst the outlook for marketing jobs in 2010 is positive, competition for places remains fierce.  Jobseekers need to get creative.

 

Check out these examples of how thinking outside the box can make you different from your competitors.

 

Creative rating (out of 5):     

Have a strategy     

Whatever you do, make sure you aren’t entering a potentially life-changing project without some sort of plan.  Michelle Fischer, managing director of specialist HR & Talent Management Consultancy, Creative Leadership, believes jobseekers should follow a 5-step process:

1. Know what you’re looking for – by identifying the right type of role from the start you will reduce speculative search and apply methods
2. Make it easy to find you – engage in social media to make your online profile extraordinary
3. Go where the employers are – use social media and offline networking event to hang out where you need to be seen
4. Make an effort – not just on your personal presentation but hard work
5. Look in the mirror – what do you see?  Is this what others see?  How’s your brand working?

Most jobseekers stick to the usual suspects when searching for a job: speculative applications; newspaper ads, recruitment agencies; job boards; networking.  These days job-seeking methods must be adaptive and individually relevant.  With the emergence of social media many of the ‘usual’ channels, whilst remaining relevant, may be antiquated in their design. Job-seeking is getting creative.

Get a decent CV    

Yes, yes, it’s an old one but the common CV and it’s craftily-written cover letter continue to provide the platform from which most recruiting managers form initial opinions.  Whether it’s the traditional format or a more contemporary digital profile – such as LinkedIn – the idea’s the same: setting out your stall for employers to buy from. 

Here’s some initiative: when sending your CV to a creative department, why not go all old-school by wrapping it round a bottle of whisky/wine?!  Guarantee nobody else is doing that!

How to make sure your CV gets noticed

Build your personal brand   

Brand Beckham would not be a multi-million pound marketing empire had David – or more likely his management team – not considered cashing in on his sellable assets.  Now, you may not be able to swing your boot at a spherical shape with quite the same panache as Becks, and, lads, chances are you don’t look quite so hot in your misses’ thong, but you’ve got talents that set you apart from your peers – and you need to shout about it.  Identifying these talents and working to make them better, more tangible, will make you the Goldenballs of your industry.

10 steps to making your personal brand come alive

Using social media   

If you’re not harnessing the virtues of social media you’re probably either a coal-miner or a bus driver.  But for marketing jobseekers, social engagement is an absolute must – whether LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Xing and/or any other platform picked from the well of digital networking – because unless you’re hanging out in the places your competitors and future employers are lurking, opportunities will pass you by.  Warning: once you’re in social media, you’d better use it.  For an empty digital footprint is worse than no footprint at all.

How to use social media to find your next job

Blogging    

For a number of reasons blogging isn’t for everyone, but by far the most common misgiving is the supposed amount of time writing sucks from our everyday lives– especially if we’re no good at it.  But this excuse is actually a bit of a folly: blogging doesn’t have to be about augmented pieces like this one and it certainly doesn’t have to be as regular, but the benefits of consistent thoughts and messages can be insurmountable to a marketing professional.  For blogs are beginning to gain traction with Google and, like it or loathe it, Google’s beady eye is well-positioned to cast a cursory glance at wherever it chooses; or, given the right amount of flirting, wherever you choose it.

Big Brother is watching you and it likes the look of blogs

Send half your CV    

Find a company you want to work for.  Write a great cover letter on why you are a good fit, pointing to the enclosed CV.  Don’t seal the envelope and don’t enclose a CV.  They’ll think the CV fell out in the post.  They will call and engage in a conversation.  Sell yourself shamelessly.  That’s your occupation, right?

How to write the perfect cover letter

Take to the streets    

Eighteen months ago when UK Ltd was in meltdown London was awash with shameless unemployed folk traipsing up and down the Square Mile draped in bill-boards or festooned with flamboyant accentuations of their creative minds, proactive natures and good-old British spirit.  And it worked.  And done correctly, it still can.  See this bright button at work:

Mark at Canary Wharf on the 5th November 2009 encouraging employers to think outside the box and recruit him!  Mark was speaking with Mike Taylor from Web-Based-Recruitment.com, organisers of the Social Media In Recruitment Conference.

Be a sniper, not a bomber

There is absolutely nothing clever – or creative – whatsoever about spamming companies with your CV.  It’s almost embarrassing to comment but since there are still truck-loads of jobseekers taking a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to their job application campaign, it needs to be said.  Multi-applying will not get you a job any quicker.  In fact, it will prohibit your chances dramatically.  Not only are you wasting your own time in filling our forms and sending the information, you will quickly build up a reputation for misrepresentation – not good for a marketing professional.  Apply only for what you absolutely KNOW you are suited to.

The jobseeker’s guide through the hiring process – 11 top tips

Get out and meet people   

How can you really trust someone you have never met? You need to see the white’s of their eyes, feel the sincerity in a handshake and interpret how they present themselves before committing to a partnership.

Most normal people wouldn’t get married before at least a first date and there ought not to be a difference in business relationships. People buy people and cutting through all the mustard it is the likeability factor that turns nothing into nuptials.

Networking should be a significant factor in anyone’s self-branding strategy; whether you are looking to find a new job, build your contact base or find like-minded professionals for your own team.

Network your way to better career prospects

Work for free    

Offering your skills for free in return for the chance to enhance your experience is the single best way to add a worthwhile contribution to your CV, whilst keeping you sane.  Your proactive stance and undaunted dedication to your own career will win you many admirers, including those with hiring budgets!

Deciding on a path of industry benevolence will set you apart from your competitors. There are no guarantees in this fickle world but adopting a ‘back-scratching’ attitude to the way you find a job could change your life, let alone your career. So turn off the goggle-box, clamber from the sofa and do something more worthwhile, instead.

How working for free earns you more money

Join a niche community   (you should already have done this!)

By connecting with like-minded folk you are opening doors to opportunities that would otherwise drift by.  But there’s little point in being part of a community where members have no relevance to your own aspirations.  By keeping it niche you retain exclusivity, and this drives common causes.  A good community should allow you engage in tangible social media (of course!), careers fairs, trade shows, seminars, conferences, training courses and networking events; all of which afford afford one significant benefit: making new contacts.

It’s about learning from peers and taking advantage of an accepted stage for self-promotion.

How to make the most of a marketing community on LinkedIn

Feeling inspired for more?  Then read How being creative will get you a job in marketing and what to do with your degree

 

     

Can you think of any more creative ways to find a job?  Have you been particularly smart in your hunt for a job?  Would love to learn your thoughts.

 

Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs

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