Getting your player ready...
Are you in a hurry to find your next job or consulting gig? Perhaps you were recently laid off, or the company you worked for these past 10 years closed its doors. After a lengthy and successful tenure, you find yourself in the position of having to tell friends and strangers about your value to future employers.
Before you dust off your resume and engage in an all-out networking tour, take a step back and ask yourself if you have your career story straight. After all, you have probably been working heads-down these past years, concentrating on one major project after another, with little or no time to stop and savor your successes. If you are to accelerate your search and land a great opportunity, you’ll need to update your grasp of your strengths, organize your successes into a compelling story. It is nearly impossible to correct a first impression. Save yourself costly career missteps by resisting the urge to get out there fast, where your story may miss the mark because you don’t know what’s next. A lack of clarity about where you are headed can lead to dead-end conversations and a frustratingly long search. Gather your career assets. Taking a metrics-based inventory of your accomplishments, awards, and accolades is not only a great confidence booster, but also clarifies your direction. Most individuals are pleasantly surprised when they take the time to review and recount the measurable impact of their work. Review your history through the dual lens of the work you enjoyed and the monetary impact. For instance, count the clients retained, efficiencies implemented, or the new business you helped win. Look for all of the ways to measure the scope and impact of your work. How did you increase revenue or profitability? Before you launch your networking efforts, review all of your career assets. Be careful that you are not overlooking past contributions, and thus, selling yourself short. Identify your personal brand. This is your opportunity to define what is next for you. Identify the strengths you want to leverage next, and craft your story accordingly. What are you good at and passionate about? What is unique, better, or different about how you get the job done? These are the ingredients to tell about in your personal branding efforts. Articulate a compelling vision. Focus your story on where you want to head next, rather than focusing on your history as though all of your upside is in the past. Condense your message to tell about your value in a way that is authentic, compelling, and relevant to the listener. Consider the listener and tailor the message to each audience, whether you are at an industry event, in an interview, or talking to your neighbor. Practice your message and get feedback. Refine your message, while keeping it fresh and conversational.website, and resume should target the same types of positions or opportunities. Your job is to get your best message out into the business community, but not until you have your story straight. – Kathleen Winsor-Games is the principal of The Winsor Group, a Denver-based boutique firm offering career counseling and career transition coaching for professionals and executives.
www.thewinsorgroup.com.
