I really enjoy Seth Godin's writings on branding and marketing. I'm now listening to Linchpin, a book he wrote on the job market and career search.
His basic premise is that you have a choice - you can be a factory worker or a linchpin. A factory worker focuses on doing repetitive tasks well. A linchpin applies unique skills, expertise or knowledge to add additional value and become indispensable.
If your focus is on those factory worker tasks, you will continually lose ground in your career. Your role becomes a commodity, and as soon as others are found who can do it cheaper or faster, your position is in danger. Your role can easily be outsourced or automated.
I was struck by how this concept applies to success in your career search. I see tons of job seekers who are doing the same things as everyone else, and when they get frustrated that they aren't landing quickly enough, assume the solution is to do more of those things, quicker.
The problem is that the vast majority of job seekers are not all that good at marketing. They signed up to be project managers, systems engineers, technical writers, controllers, etc., not to be marketing and sales people!
Marketing and sales are out of their comfort zones, and what they've learned about it they will often tend to approach by rote. They may understand what they are trying to accomplish at some level, but it's close to the surface. The mindset they need has generally not become deeply enough engrained for it to become natural.
So if you model your search on 'what everyone else is doing', how successful will you be?
The most successful are the Career Search Linchpins who figure out ways to distinguish themselves from everyone else and truly master niche marketing. Instead of worrying about their competition, they focus on what makes them unique to stand out in the crowd.
If you would like the complete article, just drop me a note at John@JHACareers.com, or you can visit my website to check out the contents of past issues and selected articles at:
www.JHACareers.com/Newsletter.htm
Other topics I covered in this most recent issue include:
John
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John West Hadley Career Search Counselor (908) 725-2437
"Land The Job And Pay You Deserve"
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