It’s all about you.

Today’s climate dictates that unless you stand out from the crowd your chances of successful career development are significantly stifled. How you market your skills is what sets you apart from your competitors.

In bygone days a CV was sent to a recruiter who matched your details against a post, where key-worded relevancy would generate interviews. This, of course, is no longer the case. With job applications continue to rise recruiters are struggling to see the wood for the trees so seek alternative methods of ‘star attraction’. The traditional CV does still work but guile is required to ensure yours gets noticed.

One of the most cunning ways to enhance your CV is to conjure a personal profile that screams ‘WOW!’ Bizarrely some jobseekers add their profile as a mere footnote their application, some overlook a profile altogether. This is worth a head-scratch!

If there is one thing I have learned from my years in the recruitment industry it is that a CV without a profile is not worth reading. Where is the sales pitch, the enigmatic appraisal of what’s on offer from this candidate? Some of the best applications I have ever seen might actually struggle to be classed as a CV, such is the profile content – and this is great. That’s what it’s all about: who are you, what do you do and how can you do this better than anyone else to the benefit of the company to whom you are applying?

So if a personal profile is a must, how do you set about delivering a message that doesn’t read as being a self-professing arrogance? Well, this is the cunning part. It’s all about being objective and providing your audience with ‘no brainer’ tangible information…

Career Coaching with Hogan Assessments

Hogan has been revered for over 25 years as a world class instrument in the recruitment and development of top talent. By distilling the essence of individuality from this world-renowned profiling system, a single feedback session provides deep insight into your strengths and potential areas of development. It can be a life-changing experience.

The breadth of this understanding allows strategic career choices to be made as well as offering a potential employer an unbiased interpretation of your character, elevating you above your competition and giving you the confidence to take your career to the next level.

The Hogan Profile arms you with all the tools you need to create the most productive and individually effective career pathway – whether mapping a route towards change, starting your own business or making a deeper commitment to yourself and your future. The results of a consultation with the enigmatic Suzie Sharpe are truly remarkable.

Recently I undertook the Hogan Assessment as part of a research programme for the Only Marketing Jobs site partner scheme. And here’s my synopsis:

There are three reports (Values, Challenge and Potential) and each one asks a series of multiple-choice questions, which takes approximately an hour to complete. Don’t be put off by the duration, though, because the time really does fly. It’s funny, isn’t it, that when the subject is about you, your interest is significantly heightened. It is a bit like shopping with your girlfriend: zero interest in yet another pair of shoes she’s trying on, but when it’s your turn…

Anyway, because it’s online you can pick it and put down to suit your commitments. Perhaps squeeze it in either side of Eastenders on a Monday night?

Originally created to inspire rapid career development in the face of enforced change, Hogan Career Coaching has been instrumental in launching individuals all over the UK into a brand new lifestyle; everything from formulating a new career from the ashes of redundancy to starting your own business. Make no mistake, this is the real deal.

Hogan profiles produce scoring percentiles, which determine your typical traits and measure them on a balanced scale. There are no wrong or right answers but the information extracted from these scores will be a wholly accurate interpretation of you as a person. You cannot cheat this system and the results are a truly fascinating insight into ‘brand you’.

Here’s a snippet of what I learned:

The Challenge Report

This signifies risk factors and largely determines your day-to-day character. Measurable scales include: Excitable, Bold, Imaginative, Diligent and Sceptical. But I’ve chosen to highlight Mischievous, the scale that concerns charm (yes, charm!), risk-taking and excitement-seeking. From a score of 100 I managed a fantabulous, 99. This is what it means (Hogan’s words, not mine!):

Behaviourally I seem interesting, daring and fun, energetic and adventurous; I enjoy testing the limits and due to a low tolerance for boredom I need variety and excitement; and an in a generally spontaneous, flexible and impulsive manner, I prefer to make quick decisions then move on.

I am action-oriented and unafraid of risks, though possibly not considering, in advance, the impact of decisions on others. I am an engaging person who, were I to have one, would be well-liked by the boss, but the limit-testing may jeopardise good long-term results. More negatively, though, I tend to ignore mistakes and failures, due to a propensity to move on.

The Values Report

This recognises a person’s core values and goals. It includes scales such as Recognition, Power, Altruistic, Tradition, Science and Aesthetics. The scales also includes Hedonism, which is the desire for fun, excitement, variety and a lifestyle organised around good food, good drinks and entertainment. For this I scored 90 from 100.

Here’s what it means:

As a leader keeping things interesting is important to me, preferring to work where there are opportunities to have a good time. I will choose a team and staff members who are entertaining and fun-loving so will dislike working with people who do not know how to have a good time.

I am naturally drawn to people and expect to like them and for they, in turn, to find me lively and interesting. I am, apparently, primarily challenged to stay focused on career goals and put business before pleasure. Any team of mine could expect a relaxed and easy-going workplace and I prefer to promote a spontaneous environment that mixes business with pleasure, encouraging expression, spontaneity, and good will.

So there are some great traits to accentuate and a couple of challenges to overcome but the main take-away from this information is, that without this knowledge it is likely I would have marched on for the remainder of my life (socially and professionally) unaware, for example, that my predilection for spontaneity – whilst useful and, presumably commendable in part – is also quite a distracting influence to some of my peers and, worse, potential bosses.

So you can see, in one brief paradigm, how understanding traits that remain hidden to your everyday conscious can be a very powerful way to control the way you conduct your life and the impact it has on others. Harnessing such knowledge will allow you to form better relationships, thus aiding both your social and professional development.

Change the way you are able to control your life and develop your career through Career Coaching with Hogan Assessments.

Hogan Career Coaching – Report Introduction

Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs

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