One of the most useful lessons that I learnt in the past two years or so has something to do with marketing. Here are the few thoughts that I came up with:
1. Target marketing. Always. It is quality, not quantity.
2. Good marketing is like a good piece of art. It gets the audience emotional (excited, sad, shocked); captures imaginations; or as Ash wrote, “makes the intangible, tangible” – couldn’t agree with her more.
3. Depends on the subject to market, do allow space for input. It means being flexible, for opportunities might just seep into that intentional gap that was left open.
Recently I have been in the midst of job search (for myself as well as for Tyas). Job hunt, as everyone knows, involves a lot of marketing oneself: CV, LinkedIn and introductory emails that worked as cover letter…
Lots of effort were needed for each application (target marketing!), but secretly I wished recruiters experience something like this:
See a “me” – in 3D, perhaps; imagine hologram projection – on the two pieces of paper known as my CV
or this:
Hear me talking to them directly – with emotions, possibly hand gestures and facial expressions – by reading black words against white background, also known as my CV
In an era where humans are represented by numbers and IDs, if words alone provide an experience to the reader without any gimicky bold, underline or italics, I mean, it is kind of cool, isn’t it? Also the fact that you, as a candidate, are crafting an experience for your recruiter – what’s the word, empowered? 🙂
PS: This was the second time I went on a job hunt since university graduation. It was not unlike the first time, and the process and outcome was pretty interesting!