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Being Brilliantly Visible
Personal marketability is not just about being visible, but being brilliantly visible to the audience that you wish to attract.
How do you do this? You add color to your black and white public image.
Though being vibrant doesn’t mean splashing your image across billboards and shining a spotlight on yourself everywhere you go, it also isn’t about muting your image until it fades away. Your job search is not the time to behave in a staid, conservative manner; this would be a disservice to your rich career.
Focus your message on your unique areas of value that meet very targeted hiring managers’ needs, and then apply smart language and richly-hued visual images to propel your job search to new heights.
Ideas to apply regarding resume language and visual images:
- No more soft shoeing with career statements such as, Accountable for market share growth. Instead, tap dance across the stage with language that says, I take charge, e.g., Powered double-digit market share growth, launch of new product and competitor-neutralizing market strategies.
- No more clichés such as, Highly successful, hard working people person. Instead, lead in with unique, value-focused language positioning YOU as a solution to a specific audience’s pain, e.g, Expert in understanding and improving cash flow. Adept at ensuring ideas and proposals are based on solid data and analysis to improve profitability and minimize risk.
- No more boring, rules-rigid formats devoid of color, contrast or graphics. Want to show how sales climbed in your territory? Include a chart, like this for example:
Ideas to spread your job search marketability message across social media:
- Complement the foundational resume by building pithy, targeted and meaningful profiles over at social marketing hubs such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google.
- Rather than creating mini-me resumes that you squeeze into the unique social media parameters, lift and mold the language, tailoring complementary spokes to the resume hub.
- Upload a professional photo, incorporating a consistent image across all social media accounts.
- Incorporate headlines, snapshots of your marquee results, taglines, and unique snippets that draw the reader in.
- Craft comments on Facebook, updates on LinkedIn and Tweets on Twitter that mirror your unique value and brand. Be positive, meaty and quality-centered in these communications.
Susan Joyce, in her article, “Activate and Manage Your Avatars” describes how vitally important it is to feed one’s Avatars (social media profiles) with new information, new tweets, new followers, etc. to nourish your career and job search needs.
As well, future job search marketability articles will flesh out the ingredients for a nourishing social media menu and provide distinctions between good, better and best on- and offline presences.
Bottom Line:
You know you are valuable. But sitting quietly in your office, hoping your reputation will precede you while tens of thousands of other forward-moving careerists are taking charge of their job search marketability portfolio is a slippery slope. Avoid the slide into oblivion: become brilliantly visible.
© Copyright Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, 2010. Used with permission.
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About This Author:
Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter is 1 of only 26 Master Resume Writers in the world and the owner of Career Trend, a boutique career strategy and writing firm serving a global market. Jacqui composes career positioning documents for forward thinking executives and professionals, unearthing and translating their 'value into words.' For more about Jacqui, visit her website at CareerTrend.net or her blog Career Trend's Blog or you may follow her on Twitter at @ValueIntoWords.