Tackling Unemployment With The Art Of Personal Branding....

If you’ve ever conducted a job search, you’re probably familiar with a search strategy that's called “the lottery mentality.” it’s the idea that a lot of job seekers have that mentality similar to someone who buys three dozens of lotto tickets hoping to win the jackpot; as it is often believed that sending out dozens of job applications will increase the odds of landing a job.

While this approach seems logical at first glance (more applications = more chances), the bad news is that it’s a better strategy for wasting time than it is for job search success. that’s because instead of playing a job search like it’s a game of skill, the lottery mentality turns it into a game of chance. here’s why.. by applying for every job, you start sacrificing quality for quantity. the quality of your application - the time you take to highlight what sets you apart from everyone else and what makes you special - is what will ultimately land you a job.

So by giving away the quality, you’re giving away any advantage you may have had against your competition and relying purely on chance to get you noticed among what could be hundreds of other applicants.

If you’ve ever walked away from a casino $100 poorer than you walked in, you know that games of chance don’t always (or even usually) work out the way we want them to. if you’ve ever won a soccer game or a wrestling match, that means you’ve experienced the control you have over the outcome of a game of skill.

The easiest way to forever break the time-wasting cycle of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks, is to establish your personal brand, and to govern your job search by it.

What then is personal branding for professionals and job seekers..?

If you’re still new to the idea of personal branding, the overarching idea is this: in the highly competitive labor market, you need to hone what makes you special, what you’re good at and what you want to do, and then you need to let other people know about it. the narrower your focus and the better you can promote your expertise, the more success you will have.

How to start building your brand

••“To go about [discovering your brand], you first have to figure out who you are, how you want to position yourself in the market, and the types of jobs, career and companies you’re interested in. you’ve got to get all of that information down and be clear about them.

••Narrow Down Your Area Of Expertise

When it comes to defining your area of expertise, which will be at the core of your brand, the narrower the better. “if you brand yourself as just another marketing expert or operations specialist, you’re competing against millions of people worldwide because it’s a global economy, but if you narrow it down to, say, what specific audience you can best serve, then instead of becoming one out of a million [people with that expertise], you’re one in 10,000.

••Start Out With A Broader Focus

Not sure which niche you want to hold in your industry? that’s ok, too. Start out with a broader focus and tailor it as your career progresses. in choosing your focus, beyond being narrow, it should also be something that you’re good at, and something that will be desirable to potential employers.

••Repackage yourself to get the job you want.

Before, employers may have gotten 20-30 applications for each position, but these days they’re getting hundreds, so it’s essential to make yourself notable and noticeable, so that out of all of those applicants, you’re the one that stands out

••Create a Tagline

Once you’ve honed in on what sets you apart, create a quick tagline or mission statement around it, and let that tagline dictate the rest of your brand-promoting efforts.

CONCLUSION

Paying utmost attention to little details as a job seeker, can go a long way in giving you the edge over your fellow colleagues contending for the same spot.

This isn't a business advice, but rather tips you need to know, and which I feel when followed to the letter, might end u giving you the job you so desire, considering the fact that the rate of unemployment keeps increasing.

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Images:

• Cover Photo: Medium.com

• 2nd image: Difference between.net

• 3rd image: Small business.com

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