Job Search Tips
Job Search Workshop: Claimants may participate in a short seminar designed to gain knowledge, and enable their job-finding efforts. Subjects are not limited to, but would include: labor market information, application completion, resume writing, interviewing techniques, and job lead identification.
Because more employers are using Internet-based methods to post openings and correspond with job seekers, it is important that you begin using the Internet for your job search efforts. The Michigan Talent Bank is an excellent starting point.
Job seekers must:
- Go to www.michworks.org to access the Michigan Talent Bank
- Click on the Job Seeker main page and click on Sign Up to create your resume
- Create your User ID and PIN. Be sure the keep track of this information. Click on Submit
USING THE SEVEN Ps OF MARKETING IN YOUR JOB SEARCH STRATEGY
Portable equity includes a mix of experience, education, skills, networking, growth within an industry, and reputation. Portable equity is vital to understanding your value in the job market, and how to market that value to an employer. Understanding portable equity means answering the following questions:
- Experience – Do your skills meet or exceed requirements?
- Skills – Do your skills enhance the employer’s basic needs?
- Education – Does your education demonstrate your trainability?
- Network – Do you know people who can connect you with employment opportunity?
- Industry – Is your industry growing?
- Reputation – Will others speak highly of you?
After answering these questions you can think about communicating what you have to offer to potential employers by thinking of yourself as a product, and how your portable equity enhances of your product mix. Your product mix must be reevaluated for every new employment opportunity using the Seven Ps of Marketing, as follows:
- Product – your unique mix of experience, skills, education, network, industry, and reputation
- Place – the ability to be where the opportunities exist
- Price – your ability to negotiate a competitive salary
- Promotion – being able to speak, write and demonstrate the value of your skill set
- People – having and using your connections to get the job that you want
- Packaging – the way you and your application materials appear from the outside
- Positioning – gaining access people who have the power to hire you
If your experience does not exactly match the employer’s expectation, looking at other aspects of your portable equity might make it possible to compensate for shortcomings in experience. The pieces of your product mix that do not quite meet the employer’s expectations can be supplemented by those pieces that meet or exceed the employer’s expectation. For example, if you do not meet an education requirement, however you have more than enough experience and you have excellent references, and even better yet, you know people who work in that industry and can vouch for your skills and abilities, that may be the best way to market your skills for that particular position – by selling those attributes of your product mix that exceed the employer’s expectations.
Doing this level of self-analysis is not a simple task and it does take time, but it must be done as you update your skills to adjust to changes in the labor market. To be competitive, you must ask yourself the following questions:
- What makes me unique among my peers?
- What value do I offer employers?
- Why would I be the candidate that is ultimately selected?
- How can I help the employer to resolve a pressing business issue?
Having asked yourself these questions before responding to a job opportunity will enable you to express how and why you are the best person for the job, and decide if that organization is the best place for you.
