This article elaborates on a comment attributed to me in a column written by Eilene Zimmerman in the Business Section of the New York Times in March 2008.

Counting on a few hundred resumes you sent by mail to land job interviews is so old school. This kind of “push” strategy is like walking a well trodden path in the hope of finding a few remaining berries that haven’t already been picked by the hordes ahead of you; or like shooting buckshot in the air in the hopes of bagging a bear. Today it takes creativity to get off that well-trodden path and a more powerful weapon to bag a bear.

The simple fact is that the old-school approach results in infinitely more misses than hits and it leaves people frustrated and scared that they’ll never stand out in the crowd.

That’s a justifiable concern.

However, today there are so many creative ways to market yourself and the beauty is that these creative endeavors can live on and continue to help hone your reputation and visibility for years to come.

Social media tools give people the ability to vastly increase their visibility and credibility in ways that were unimaginable even five years ago. Thought leadership, forward thinking commentary, analysis, etc, allow you to connect with others in a powerful way. There is no telling what’s possible.

This really happens

I know a successful marketing executive who has been writing an insightful and entertaining blog for nearly two years. At a recent Facebook-themed conference, he met a social networking acquaintance who was working for a world-class marketing organization.

When his acquaintance forwarded the executive’s resume, an amazing thing happened. The hiring VP had already heard of the executive, and had been reading his blog for months. In that instant he turned from just another applicant to a rock star. It turned out several people in the organization had already been following the blog as well. His candidacy ended in a job offer and he now has the job of his dreams.

Think of the possibilities

This is reality today. An example of what’s possible in today’s world. Were it not for his blog he may never have gotten an interview. His blog gave him a competitive advantage over other candidates. It not only made them aware of him, but also gave them insight into his thinking and knowledge of marketing. It created both familiarity and credibility. How powerful is that?

Today there is no limit to how people can build their visibility and credibility and much of it is literally at our finger tips. The use of these marketing tools actually constitute a “pull” strategy that can draw company interest and develop a candidate’s credibility to such a degree that opportunities can come to the candidate without the candidate ever having to pound the pavement with a resume in hand.

So what can “you” do?

Start by thinking outside of the box. Your “pull” strategy is limited only by your imagination. Anything that draws people to seek you out can be considered part of a “pull” strategy. I recall a story Ann Rhoades tells about a highly motivated individual who wanted a marketing job with Southwest Airlines and sent the founder and CEO at the time, Herb Kelleher, a bottle of Wild Turkey which he was known to drink. It looked like a normal label, but if you looked closely the label was actually their resume.

Wow, talk about creative. There really are no limits.

I believe that developing thought leadership and forward thinking commentary and analysis is a good way to go. Why? Because it allows you to share how and what you think in a setting that is not in any way related to a job search. It’s you putting your thoughts out in the world to help and advise people. It gives people the opportunity to gain insights about you they otherwise would not have.

Find your voice

Wordpress, Twitter, Utterli, You Tube, are all ways to get your message out. And best of all - they’re FREE. But first you have to do something absolutely essential. You need to reflect on who you are. What you stand for. What you believe in. Because this kind of “pull” strategy relies on you creating a unique voice not just yada-yada-yada.

Yada-yada-yada will fall on deaf ears, but an original voice will not. It will create music for all the people who connect with your message and who are looking for the insights you have to share with the world. It’s important to realize that you do not have to connect with everyone. For that matter, not even with most people. You only need to connect with people who resonate with your message. After all, that’s what a good “fit” is all about.

Some simple and free social media tools

Wordpress.com

Wordpress is free and priceless, what a combination. This blogging tool is great. They have sharp, professional, looking templates and it’s simple to use and edit. When you write a new piece it’s online within seconds. If I can do it - so can you. This very blog is written with Wordpress.

But be cautious. Review your entries, check for typos, and be certain you stand by what you are writing, because once it’s out there - it’s really out there. Even if you decide to edit or redact the material later, good luck, anybody who has an RSS link to your material will have your original entry and there is nothing you can do to get it back.

Twitter.com

Twitter is an “out of this world” kind of tool that is less about the tool than the community that uses it. I heard of a person who put a request for job opportunities on his Facebook profile and after two months had one opportunity come his way. He then made two “tweets” (messages) on Twitter and received seven or eight concrete opportunities in less than a week. What makes Twitter so different is that its community operates in real time. When a “tweet” is sent it’s read by people that very moment. While an entry in Facebook or LinkedIn requires members to check their account or email to actually get the message.

While I can’t speak to the Twitter “community” I can speak to a few interesting benefits of Twitter. One is that search engines love it. You can write the most inane thing like “Right now I’m eating a Pinkberry frozen yoghurt on Melrose Avenue.” And lo and behold I can actually find that entry with a Google or Yahoo search even months later. It’s amazing how such comments can stay alive online. So imagine the value of “thoughtful” messaging that can take on a life of it’s own.

Second, Twitter can be used to disseminate your messages to various locations without you having to enter them at each site. For instance, Twitter comments can be set up to publish directly to your Plaxo account, Facebook, and a host of other online sites. Additionally, people can subscribe to your posts using an RSS link and have them go directly to their browser or feedreader.

But again, be cautious. Even though it’s just a micro-blog with a maximum 140 words -once it’s out there, there is no telling where it’s going to end up.

I believe Twitter will become much more prominent in the coming years.

Utterli.com

Utterli (formerly Utterz) is my current favorite even though I do not yet use it. Utterli is an audio-blog. Instead of writing it, you can speak it over your cell phone or upload an MP3 to your account and the world can hear your thoughts and ideas. I would describe it as an audio version of Twitter. For a perfect example of how it can be used, check out David Petherick’s Ten Tips to Creating a Powerful Online Profile. When you hear it, you’ll get the idea. Imagine what you might be able to share about your area of expertise?

Utterli also allows you to disseminate your entries all over the web to Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress blogs, even your website, you name it. Additionally, just like with Twitter, people can subscribe to your entries so that whenever you post one it immediately goes to the subscribers’ email or feedreader.

Be creative, but be cautious

The power of these tools is that they can take on a life of their own. They can be picked up by all the search engines and be nearly impossible to get off-line. So be sure you stand by what you are posting. It should represent the real you and what you proudly stand for. Always think about what you are going to post and ensure it’s not anything you will regret.

Given all the benefits, I still urge people not to rely entirely on high-tech solutions, but rather to mix it up. There are non-technology opportunities to develop visibility and credibility as well. Get involved with public speaking. Participate at conferences, sit on discussion panels, etc. Engage a PR firm to introduce you to journalists looking for subject matter experts in your field. Again, you are limited only by your own creativity.

Be inspired

The purpose of this article is not to push you into anything. But rather to give you a sense of what’s possible. It should be exciting that you no longer have to rely entirely on a boring resume to make yourself known. The sky is the limit and the idea that there are all kinds of creative ways to become known and to share the “real” you with the world should be invigorating and most of all - liberating.

The benefits these alternative marketing tools have is cumulative and they take time to develop. So the greatest benefit goes to those individuals who realize that you can’t wait until you are out of a job to start using these tools. They should become part of what you do on an ongoing basis, regardless if you are actively looking or not. What you will find is that over time, opportunities will come to you.

Now go!

It use to be that “great” jobs were defined by their prestige, title, and compensation. No longer! In this age of constant corporate churn and instability, defining great jobs takes on a new dimension.

Don’t get me wrong - title and compensation are valid components, but just two of many that define a great job. Today a great job is defined by the overall “fit”and the degree to which a job is truly compatible with “you”. Compatible with your capabilities and experiences, developmental needs, personality, style, and values.

Many executives are fixated on short-term benefits to the detriment of their long-term interests. It seems the standard job cycle has turned into landing “whatever” job you can and then coming up with all the reasons it didn’t work out 18 to 24 months later. This approach makes no sense.

Jobs are crucial, career building-blocks and as a result, broader career management issues are essential to defining great jobs. This is especially true in an era when companies no longer assume the responsibility for developing and managing the careers of its executives. That responsibility rests solely on the shoulders of each executive and it necessitates a different approach to your job search.

During the tech-boom in the late 90s I witnessed many high potential executives leapfrogging into high paying, big title jobs without any thought to their development. In a rush to ascend as quickly as possible, they failed to consider crucial developmental needs as they moved into positions they weren’t ready for. When the bubble burst there were many people holding lofty titles who really didn’t have the requisite skills.

“Great” job defined:

A great job leverages your strengths; offers opportunity for good growth and development in terms of learning new skills and improving on weaknesses, especially those skills essential to getting you closer to achieving your long-term goals; provides you with new and rich experiences; provides a degree of prestige in terms of the quality of the organization; and, is a job where the personalities, culture, values, interests and motivations are compatible with your own.

Finally, a great job is defined by the compatibility with organizational dynamics, in other words, the way an organization operates, in terms of making and executing decisions. It’s often overlooked, but a crucial component, that can determine success or failure based on how compatible or incompatible they are. Ultimately, it’s about the ability to succeed long-term, while growing and developing in an effort to achieve long-term goals.

Important questions

Here are some questions you must ask yourself:

1. Is this job compatible with my strengths and weaknesses?
2. Is this job compatible with my personality, my preferred way of operating, and my values?
3. Are any of my weaknesses in areas critical to performing this particular job?
4. Are any of of my key strengths critical to succeeding in this role?
5. What are the growth opportunities in terms of new experiences, skills, and capabilities? How do these align with my long-term aspirations?
6. What is the probability for success in this role?
7. Ask “Does this job stretch me? Will it help me grow?”

Of course a job should provide good compensation and benefits. But notice how these factors sound less important when stacked against some of these other points. Too often these important factors are ignored or touched on only briefly.

In order for any potential job to undergo proper scrutiny, these factors must be well established. And indeed, if a job is truly “great” it should stand up to thorough scrutiny.

In some ways, great jobs are like great cars…to make that determination you have to know what’s important and then look beyond the exterior and thoroughly under the hood. But you have to be willing to pull up the hood.

Don’t let fear sabotage your job search. Fear is either a “guide” or a “jailer” and it’s up to you to decide which one you would like it to be.

Fear is a natural, emotional response to being in an uncomfortable or stressful situation. And being on the job market any time, but especially in tough times, easily fits that bill. Fear itself, is neither good nor bad; it’s how you respond to fear that determines that.

The only way fear can be good is if you make it work for you. How? Fear has an amazing ability to guide you to the very things you need to understand and master. The key is to respond to fear intellectually, not emotionally. When you respond emotionally the most common result is paralysis.

Four Easy Steps

Analyze.

The first step is to probe your fears. Ask yourself why you feel a certain fear. Don’t settle for vague or emotional responses.

Why are you worried?

I’m worried about landing a job.

Why are you worried about landing a job?

Deep down I’m feeling lost and I’m not sure how to start or execute an effective job search.

What specifically don’t you know or understand?

I don’t know the specific steps I should be taking.

I don’t know how to sell myself effectively.

I don’t know how I compare to other candidates.

These answers provide insight and point us to the specific actions we must take to achieve our goals - in this case, landing a job. How?

Identify and take action.

Turn your fears into questions and develop an action plan to understand and master these points.

How do I conduct a strong job search? What specific steps should I be taking? What can I do to answer these questions?

• Contact colleagues who have conducted recent job searches and gain real life insights. What would they do again? What would they do differently?
• Read books that describe job search techniques.
• Speak with job search experts, including recruiters, human resource professionals, etc and get advice from them.
• Seek help from an outplacement service.

How do I sell myself effectively?

• Define your strengths. Understand what you have to offer.
• Contact close colleagues who can share their perceptions with you about what they consider to be your strengths and weaknesses.
• Put together a personal value proposition that encapsulates your strengths and shows how you can provide value to an organization or position.

How do I match up to other candidates? What do I have that they don’t?

• Contact colleagues you trust to get their insights about how you fair against similar professionals.
• Ask “How can I improve myself?”
• Ask people who interview you. “How to I match up against the other candidates? In which ways to I stand out and in which ways might I not?”

This simple example shows how probing your fears can guide you to the very actions you need to take.

The process is to analyze, identify, take action, and master. Using this technique turns fear into a powerful tool. And you will find fear diminishes as you take action and stop feeling paralyzed.

The final step: Prioritize.

People tend to fixate on whatever problem is top of mind. Your primary concern will take precedence over all other fears. For this reason it’s important to evaluate and prioritize your worries to ensure the most important concern is front and center.

The best example is of the two fears that rack most job seekers – the overriding concern about landing “any” job at all and the secondary concern of landing in the “wrong” job.

Statistically, these fears should be switched. Why? Because the likelihood anyone with a modicum of experience and talent won’t land any job at all is extremely slim, but the likelihood of landing a job that is a poor fit is extremely high. Statistics show that 35% of all new hires fail within 18 months. There are many reasons why new hires might fail, but with such a high failure rate, there’s no doubt, many jobs weren’t right for the people from the very start.

One reason so many people end up in jobs that aren’t right for them, is that they allow their fear of not landing a job to hijack their job search. As a result, landing any job becomes the priority and landing the right job becomes just a secondary concern. Make certain this doesn’t happen to you.

Many good, decent people come to me and ask what they must do to land a particular job.  What must they say? What should they do? How should they act?  Creating a facade that meets the expectations of an employer are far more likely to lead to a job that is a poor fit.  If their primary concern turned instead to landing in the wrong job, then these very questions about what to say, what do do, and how to act would become moot because creating a false facade would work against one’s own interest.

When people’s greatest fear is landing in the wrong job there is typically no facade, because a facade will only hide the real you and make it more difficult to determine if a fit exists or not.  The best way to proceed is to just be yourself.  If you are truly right for the job and you are just being yourself, you will almost always resonate more powerfully with the company and its representatives.

Don’t fear fear.  Instead turn it into a job search ally.

When it comes to selling yourself on the job market, the idea of doing what everybody else is doing no longer makes sense. It’s the Lemming Approach: “I’m following everyone else, just in case they’re on to something.” They’re not. They’re heading off a cliff. But even if they were on the right track, you would never stand out in the crowd.

How do you get on the right track? Change your thinking.

To really improve your odds of landing the right job requires a fundamental shift in the way you think about your job search.

1. You are managing a career, not just looking for a job. It’s about a long-term perspective and realizing what you need in a job to be successful. You have to be focused on the experiences you need to gain and the personal & professional development opportunities you require to achieve your long-term goals.
2. You are looking for the “right” job. Merely landing a job is no longer a sign of success, it’s landing the “right” job that is emblematic of true success. Here is what you must ask in order to find the “right” job:

• Does it leverage your strengths?
• Does it provide necessary developmental opportunities?
• Does it stimulate you and provide happiness?
• Is it an environment and situation where you can succeed?
• Is it an environment that is compatible with your interests, values, motivations, and style of operating?

There is a better way to sell yourself than creating a facade. The more you realize how the standard job search approach uses a facade to sell a candidate it should become clear that this approach has no future and is counter-productive.

5 Steps to landing the perfect job:

1.) Develop self-awareness. Take the time to reflect and understand who you really are, in terms of your:

· Strengths and weaknesses.
· Values, motivations, and interests.
· The environments you thrive in.
· The personality styles you work with best.
· The operational dynamics that suit you best.

What you learn about yourself will give you greater clarity, confidence, and a strong sense of the kind of job that will suit you best. It’s amazing how clear your path appears when you develop self-awareness. Indecisiveness is often due to not having clear idea of who you really are and only a fuzzy idea of where you are headed in life.

2.) Be an equal. Parity creates clarity. Your ability to accurately evaluate a job is dependent on seeing yourself as an equal. You and the company are a partnership, representing two sides trying to determine if a particular situation is right for one another. Allow them to evaluate you and you evaluate them. The reason it’s so important to consider yourself an equal is that it allows you to remain objective and better able to critically evaluate a situation. When you feel inferior, it’s natural to defend yourself and try and prove yourself worthy. Instead of evaluating a position you’re focused on proving yourself worthy of a position that may not even be right.

3.) Be genuine. Being genuine is like a beacon. It draws the right jobs to you and repels the wrong ones. It’s much more effective than building a facade and trying to sell someone something you’re not. It will connect with the right job on many levels. The right job fits your personality, your style, your interests, and your values. Being genuine is also an effective way to create trust with other people. In our critical world, this ability to instill trust and confidence provides a very real competitive advantage over the many other candidates who are doing their best to act the part.

4.) Communicate who you are, what you believe, and what you know. If you ever suffer regret it should be that you didn’t effectively communicate who you really are and therefore the company was not able to evaluate the real you. Other than that, let the chips fall where they may. It’s about fit – and a fit happens naturally, not by putting on an act.

5.) No regrets. It’s about making sure the position you accept is right for you. It’s not about landing a job every time out. If the company decides it’s not right or you decide it’s not right is immaterial. Two perspectives are better than one. Use the company’s insight about its environment, challenges, and limitations and how they see you fitting in their organization as an added means of evaluating a job. You may think the job’s right for you, but if the company, knowing what it knows about their internal operation, doesn’t think it’s a fit…be grateful. Because they’re your partner in helping you determine if it’s a good fit or not. That’s exactly how a good search works.

The standard job search approach is similar to that of a used-car salesman. Polish your shoes, slick back your hair, and go out and tell them whatever you must to make the sale. But there’s a big difference between you and used-car salesmen? Used car salesmen sell products they don’t give a damn about. They just want it off the lot. You on the other hand are selling yourself. And with such a precious product, it matters to whom you sell yourself.

The standard job search approach was never meant to land the right job, just any job. It’s about doing what’s necessary to get yourself off the “job lot”. This approach relies on creating a facade that you believe makes you look stronger. Think again! In our hyper-critical, modern society, this no longer works.

As a society, we just don’t believe people anymore. We’ve heard it all before. Today such actions often achieve the opposite of what we intend. Instead of appearing stronger, we are creating doubt and suspicion about who we are. The only effective counter measure is to be “genuine”. Today it’s all about being “real”. Why? Because being genuine and real slices through cynicism and creates trust and believability.

How do I know if I’m using a “standard” job search approach?

See if you recognize any of these aspects in your own job search efforts:

1. HIDE AND EMBELLISH. Where you hide weaknesses and embellish good attributes.

2. ONE SIZE FITS ALL. Where you use canned answers to common interview questions. This is based on false belief that employers are looking for specific responses and you have to oblige them in order to land the job.

3. ACT THE PART. Where you focus on “acting” your best, not “being” best. It’s about how to act, how to dress, how firmly to shake hands, etc.

If you recognize any of these approaches as part of your job search effort, you’re pursuing a standard job search approach.

The standard job search approach fails on several fronts, but perhaps the most important one is that it’s not focused on the right fit nor on long-term success. It’s simply an effort to land any job you can. Long term success requires intermediate steps that string together essential experiences and developmental opportunities. To find and land such jobs requires a serious job evaluation, but it’s difficult to conduct such an evaluation when one is busy acting a part.

Beware! As the standard used-car sales approach becomes ever more ineffective, the pundits who advocate this technique will blame the competitive landscape and stress that the solution lies in polishing your act even more. This is a smoke screen. The real culprit is the approach itself. It’s time to separate your self from this approach. And in doing so, will lead to a more effective way to land the right job for you.

This is so important, because it’s the most desirable companies that are most critical of people who hide behind facades. As a result, the standard search approach fares best with less desirable companies that are less critical in recruiting employees. Is that the kind of company you want to work for? And how long will it be before even mediocre companies won’t go for this approach?

So if you realize your job search approach is like that of a used-car salesman, today’s the day to start doing something much more powerful - be “yourself”.