Build Your Brand for Better Opportunities

Our partnership with Jobing.com has started out strong.  Last week, Julie Armstrong with Jobing.com spoke to a group of our CPAs and recent accounting graduates.  In case you missed the program, here are the handouts.  It’s a tough job market, even for our talented CPAs, so this program provided strategies to be successful in your job search.

Julie spoke about the importance of having a supporter or biggest fan who would be honest with you and provide real insight in areas you need to improve on.  Too often job seekers are unrealistic regarding their abilities and don’t address areas of need that may come up in a job interview.  The fan can be your spouse, best friend, dad or grandma.  Use this person to provide you with feedback to help you grow professionally and personally.  Julie also stressed the importance of being your own biggest fan and having faith in yourself to be successful.  But again, even as your own fan, you have to be truthful and honest with yourself and about your abilities.

Being your own biggest supporter will open doors of opportunity for you and allow people to discover who you really are.  Let your strengths shine. Remember, the first moment a potential employer hears from you, whether it’s by phone, mail, e-mail or face-to-face, you’re displaying your brand out in the open, so be in tune with everything you’re doing.

One of the simplest things you can begin doing to improve your job search is to remove the objective in your résumé.  Your cover letter is your objective, so build your brand through your cover letter.  

Nothing should be a shock to you in a job interview, so it’s important to know what you wrote down.  If your résumé states that you graduated from Harvard with a 4.0 GPA, then don’t be surprised if your potential employer asks you about your degree from Harvard, because it will happen.  And most importantly, know the position you’re applying for and the company you’re applying to.

 Here are some other tidbits:

•  Have a 30-second commercial to promote yourself; be willing to talk about yourself, who you are and what you are about and where you want to go.
• If you want to work for a specific company or really want the job, be bold and stand out from the crowd.
• Use your biggest fan to offer you critique and take the critique to heart. Use it to uncover who you are and what kind of a person you are; don’t be afraid to ask people how you’re able to serve them better or get ideas on how to give a better impression.
• Be honest in presenting yourself.

When building your résumé, make sure you have a reason why any piece of information is on there.  Think of your résumé as prime real estate—Manhattan—and you don’t want to build or set-up a shack in your property in Manhattan.  It’s just not a good idea. 

Even if you’re unemployed, be active, get off the couch and network.  Stay current on the issues affecting the community, your profession and the world.  Best of luck and let us know how we can help you.