Gaining Job Search Clarity

Several months after beginning my job search, I have made an important discovery that has changed my trajectory. I realized, after some thought provoking discussions, that I was not only unfocused, but actually moving in the wrong direction.  I was heading backwards to what I used to do, not forwards to what I want to do.  It was an "AHA" moment for me.

In fact, I have been moving in the right direction and the wrong direction simultaneously. I have a split-personality, so to speak. I failed to see that my personal persona and my professional persona should actually be integrated. My branding message is inconsistent across platforms. My Facebook profile and blog reflect my personal brand.  But, my professional persona does not clearly reflect who I am now. My Linkedin profile, resume, pitch, etc. are based on who I was and what I did in the past. 

Although I have done self-assessment and job planning in the past, I am in a different place now.  I need to stop and re-assess where I am going and what I am doing, again. In my personal life I have a clear brand, but it does not carry over into my professional life, and it should. 

My job search has been a journey of self-discovery on which I have had breakthroughs and gained clarity.  Before this epiphany, I was feeling frustrated and disappointed. Now, I feel re-focused and re-energized. I know I am heading in the right direction.  Following are the next steps I will take:

1. Review personal branding statement & adapt for professional use. 
2. Consistently communicate revised brand message across all marketing materials.
3. Find the right target market for my blog and grow my following.
4. Share my job search experiences with other struggling job seekers, especially parents transitioning back to work
5. Explore opportunities to gain experience in different areas of social media and digital marketing.  

Stay tuned for the continuing job search saga of Marketer Mom....

List of Prospective Employers Part 2

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

I've been following up on my research this week and I've confirmed that the following companies are my primary targets. With a few exceptions, I've kept it narrowed down to food - consumer packaged good (CPG) companies. This will make it easier to keep my job search and resume focused.

1. Leapfrog Enterprises (consumer electronics-child education)-Emeryville
2. Del Monte Foods- San Francisco
3. Ghiradelli Chocolates - San Leandro
4. Dreyers' Ice Cream/Haagen Daz - Nestle USA - Oakland
5. Clif Bar - Berkeley
6. Shaklee - direct sales/nutritional products - Pleasanton
7. Clorox Company -  Oakland
8. Jamba Juice - Emeryville
9. Safeway- Pleasanton 

 All of these companies have the types of jobs I am looking for, specifically, consumer product brand and product marketing jobs.  I know that the field is very competitive, but before I look into other types of jobs, I'd at least like to give these companies a shot. All I want to do, essentially, is to get in on the ground floor of the organization and work my way up.  The trick is to figure out how I can portray myself as attractive to them.

To that end, I will turn again to research. My first step will be to print some of the job descriptions available and fine-tune my resume according to what they are looking for. I will also begin to set-up informational interviews with people who work within these companies to find out both what it is like to work there, and what issues they are facing or problems they need solving.

I also need to pluck up my guts and find out about getting those references I talked about in an earlier blog.  So, there's lots of work to do. I'll keep you posted.

See you next Friday.... 

List of Prospective Companies to Work For

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

Well, it's back to work now that I finished my marketing metrics class and have a bit more time to dedicate to my job search. One of the first matters of business on my planning guide is to put together a list of prospective companies to work for.  This is not as easy as it seems. To make the list meaningful you have to sort through quite a bit of information. My approach is to spread a wide net and narrow in on specifics.

My objective is to target local companies (within a radius of 30 miles of where I live) that are large enough to have branding departments and are within my range of interest, ideally, consumer products. Since I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of the companies headquartered here are technology and/or internet focused.  Although it would be foolish to ignore this category of employers altogether, they will have second tier status in my targeting efforts. The kinds of companies that interest me most, aside from Leapfrog, are food related.

With that in mind, I googled 'Bay Area Companies', and came up with a few good lists. Wikipedia's List of companies headquartered in San Francisco was a good place to start.  From that I chose various categories.  Next, I will look at each company I'm interested in more closely to see if they have the kinds of jobs that I am looking for. Another good resource is SF Gates' Chron200 which lists the largest and most financially healthy companies in the Bay Area. 

 From my initial research, I've come up with the following companies to check out more closely:

• Ghiradelli Chocolates
• Del Monte Foods
• Dreyer's Ice Cream
• Haagen Daaz
• Jamba Juice
• Williams Sonoma
• Safeway
• Shaklee

 Next week after I've checked out these picks more closely, I'll be able to present a more concise list to target.

See you next Friday...

Updating Your Skills - two sides of the coin

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

Since I've been out of work for quite awhile, especially in my chosen profession, I find I can gain a bit of confidence by taking professionally related classes. Most communities have local universities or colleges which offer continuing education courses. These days, of course, you can also do classes online.

Things are changing so fast in the world around us, sometimes it's challenging to keep up with the technological advances.  Between when I went to college and graduate school, computers became common use in the work place. When I worked at Avon China we used computers and Microsoft Office programs regularly, but there was no internet or even email at that time.

Now Social Media is all the rage. I recently took an online class through UC Berkeley Extension about using social media in marketing strategy. It was a great class, and I learned a great deal. Not all classes are created equal, however. I've taken 4 classes altogether. Two were really useful but two were not what I expected.  

When I take a great class, I feel challenged when I'm taking it and accomplished when I complete it. When I take a not so great class, I feel frustrated when I'm taking it and humbled when I complete it only to realize how much I don't know!  One day I feel like I can take on the world; the next I'm afraid I won't be able to compete. 

Such is the nature of the job search and just about every other challenge in life. We have our ups, we have our downs.  The important thing is to keep going. "Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it."  Fear has been a challenge I have faced my whole life. I am proud to say, it hasn't held me back.  You just have to learn to plow right through it with your blinders on. 

The class I am currently taking will be over in a little over a week. I just need to focus on what needs to be done and get through it. Then I will be able to sigh a breath of relief and get on with my life. Wish me luck.

See you next Friday...

Job Search References

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

This week I have been thinking about job references and the fact that I have not worked in my field for a long time (more than 10 years).  Neither have I followed the golden rule of keeping in touch with my job contacts.  So, as you can imagine, I'm slightly nervous about who to use as references. 

As usual, I've done some research and come up with some guidelines about how to go about lining up and pre-screening references, because afterall, you don't want any surprises.  One of the articles I liked was called "Resumes Win Interviews, But References Win Job Offers", which about sums it up.  References are very important and you absolutley must have a few people in your pipeline to sing your praises, it's a critical part of the process and should not be taken lightly.  

Randall Hansen lays out  a plan for developing a reference list in his article References: The Keys to Choosing and Using the Best...  The steps are as follows: (modified list)

• Think Strategically about who to choose as your references
• Consider different categories of references (3-5 people who can speak of your accomplishments)
• Get Permission to use your references
• Collect up to date reference contact details
• Keep references informed (and possibly coached)
• Thank them for their help

This is the process I will use going forward. I have a few people in mind to use. Fortunately, in the age of social media, it is easier to track down old colleagues than it used to be. Approaching them and asking for their help seems intimidating, but the worst that could happen is that they will say no. And hopefully, in the end, I will come up with a list of people who I am sure will recommend me and help me secure the job I want.

See you next Friday......

Setting Career Goals

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

Now that we have thought about our personal brand attributes and how to present them (personal branding will be an ongoing topic), it's time to set some goals. What are we trying to achieve? What is our mission?  Let's create our personal business plan to focus our marketing efforts.

Business Plan for Allison Lieber Prout  Second Half 2010

Career Vision 5 years:  Senior Brand Manager (International) - consumer products company

• Responsible for product/brand marketing vision, strategy and bottom line
• Strong branding, management and creative skills
• Solid track record and base for understanding business

Career Vision 10 years: Group Manager (International) - same or new consumer company

• Greater breadth of responsibility across brands
• Building strong team of empowered brand managers

Career Vision 15 years: Director of Marketing (International) -same or new consumer company

• Setting, communicating and overseeing corporate brand marketing strategy
• Mentor

Mission:

• To create & implement exciting and effective customer-focused marketing campaigns using the latest social media and marketing metrics tools in conjunction with traditional techniques.
• Maintain a competitive edge by continually developing my skills and keeping up with technological advancements and their inevitable impact on marketing and brand strategy.
• Round out my background by gaining direct experience in product development, new product launches, advertising and public relations aspects of marketing.
• Maintain work/life balance.
• Strive for integrity in all I do.

Objectives:

1. Gear up to secure a position that meets my goals as stated in my mission, in 1Q 2011.  
2. Only accept position where pay is in line with responsibilities.
3. Work in a company which treats employees with respect and focuses on career development.
4. Join a company whose values and products I feel comfortable promoting. 
5. Enjoy my work.
6. Maintain work/life balance.

Strategies:

1. Strengthen my social and professional networks using social media.
2. Network in person as well as online.
3. Update my skills by taking classes at UC Berkeley Extension.
4. Put together portfolio of my work and/or marketing presentation highlighting my skills.
5. Use Internet to research companies.

Plans:

1. Develop list of local companies with strong product marketing/branding departments.
2. Update resume.
3. Set up informational interviews to get inside scoop on company internal environment.
4. Target companies to approach with marketing presentation.
5. Start putting together multimedia marketing presentation/portfolio of work.

Updated Elevator Pitch - Feedback Please

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

It has been a challenging week for me trying to update my elevator pitch. I got some great suggestions from Kathy McAffee whose website is motivatednetworker.com.  Specifically, these two pieces of advice guided my revision.

1. Position yourself in how you want to be going forward, not what you've been in the past. Focus on intention, not history.
2. You will need different versions of your elevator pitch. It is a dynamic piece of communication that changes depending on the situation and opportunity at hand.

With that in mind, I began revising my original "I am, I can, I want" statement:

I am an international marketing specialist with 5 years of consumer product experience setting up Avon's $50 million new market niche in China.

I can develop strategic marketing plans, and have extensive experience planning, implementing and analyzing research projects and sales promotion campaigns as well as forecasting sales. I have a Masters in International Management and speak fluent Chinese.

I want a product marketing position with a company that has the vision and resources to create exciting and effective marketing campaigns.

Updated Version:

I am a marketing professional with a global mind-set and 8 years of international experience. I also have 5 years of customer service experience and understand the importance of customer-centric strategy.

I can research, strategize, present, and implement customer-focused marketing campaigns using the newest social media and marketing metrics tools as well as more traditional techniques.

I want a product marketing/branding position with a company that has a winning product vision and the resources to create exciting and effective customer-focused marketing campaigns.

 Using Kathy Mcafee's guidelines, I also came up with condensed versions...

10 seconds:  My name is Allison Prout and I help companies create exciting and effective customer-focused marketing campaigns.

30 seconds:  My name is Allison Prout and I'm a marketing professional who understands the importance of customer-centric strategy.

I help companies with winning product visions create exciting and effective customer-focused marketing campaigns by using the newest social media and marketing metrics tools along with traditional marketing strategies.

I am interested in meeting someone who can discuss your companies marketing challenges with me, Allison Prout.

As you can see, I have been hard at work. Please let me know what you think of my updates, are they better than the original? I would appreciate some objective input.  Thanks.

See you next Friday...

Your Elevator Pitch

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

When job seeking, it is important to be able to describe who you are and what you can do confidently and succinctly.  This way, when an opportunity arises you are able to impress prospective employers. In entrepreneurial circles this is called your elevator pitch. The idea is to have a prepared 2 minute introduction (the amount of time it takes to ride up an elevator) which will create interest in you and what you have to offer. You must keep it short, sweet, and to the point. It does not have to be exactly 2 minutes, but the idea is to create just enough interest to take it to the next step. The next step might be an introduction or an interview.

I did an exercise at a career center in San Francisco in which I had to prepare a statement describing myself in less than 100 words.  It's called the "I am, I can, I want" statement.  Here is what I wrote 13 years ago.

I am an international marketing specialist with five years of consumer product experience setting up Avon's $50 million new market niche in China.

I can develop strategic marketing plans, and have extensive experience planning, implementing and analyzing research projects, sales promotion campaigns and forecasting sales. I have a Masters in International Management and speak fluent Mandarin Chinese.

I want a product marketing position with a firm that has the vision and resources to create exciting and effective marketing campaigns.

The question is, does this description still fit me now? How can I update and improve it?  This will be my challenge for next week. Will you join me? You can find tips on how to develop a good elevator pitch by checking out the following links - The Job Seeker Elevator Pitch  and http://motivatednetworker.com/your-elevator-pitch/

See you next Friday...

What Do You Want to Do?

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

Once we understand our strengths, weaknesses, skills and interests, the next step is to decide where we want to go. I saw a great quote from Alice in Wonderland in the Careerbright Blog .

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don't much care where.
Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go. 

Knowing where you want to go is an important first step in getting there. So, how do we know? Basically, I want to continue on the career path that I was previously on, so I don't have much decision making to do. But, if you are unclear, then you must come up with some choices. According to Norman J. Meshriy, M.S., N.C.C., a career counselor based in San Francisco, CA, a good starting place is brainstorming alternatives. Next, consider the wants and needs you came up with in the values exercise and rate your career alternatives against these. For a good match, you want a career or occupation that meets most of your criteria.  Following are some resources to give you some ideas if you are truly at a loss or at this for the first time.

• Occupational Outlook Handbook or other reference books that list careers in your area of interest
• www.sigi3.org - online career software
• www.eureka.org - online career service

My example: I want a product marketing or branding position with a firm that has similar values to mine, and the vision and resources to create exciting and effective marketing campaigns.

See you next Friday...

Skills and Interests

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

Last week I talked about values, strengths and weakness in the career self-assessment process. This week I will cover skills and interests. On my MBTI post I mentioned CISS - Campbell Interest and Skills Survey and Skillscan as tools I have used that you can find online to help you target your interests and skills.

 According to CISS individual profile results report, your vocational interests and skills are important components of your personal characteristics. What you like to do, and what you are confident that you can do, can play an important role in your future careeer satisfaction and success.  The CISS profile analyzes your self-reported interests and your self-reported skills and shows how you compare with people in general and with happily employed people in a variety of occupations.

Your CISS profile is organized into seven Orientation Scales covering important areas of the world of work.

• Influencing
• Organizing
• Helping
• Creating
• Analyzing
• Producing
• Adventuring

I scored highest in Creating  and Influencing Orientations which is in sync with my values.  Recommended occupations to pursue include Advertising/Marketing and International Activities.

Influencers like to make things happen. They are often visible because they tend to take charge of activities that interest them. They typically work in organizations where they are responsible for directing activities, setting policies and motivating people.

From the Skillscan exercise I came up with the following summary of action verbs which describe my skills.

• Communication - motivate, promote, facilitate, consult
• Mental Creative - conceptualize, brainstorm, intuit
• Leadership - initiate, plan, decide, influence

Now that we have a good list of wants, needs, interests and skills under our belt, the next step will be using them to begin defining and setting some goals for ourselves.

See you next Friday...

Refocus on Career Self-Assessment

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

The first step in deciding what kind of career or job you want is figuring out what your values, strengths, skills and interests are. We have already looked at the Myers Briggs Type Indicator which offers some valuable insights.   

My Type:  INFP    

• Is driven by values
• Is a good leader
• Is a team player
• Is a visionary
• Is idealistic and a perfectionist (possible negatives)

 These are some of my strengths and weaknesses. For my type, it is especially important to know what my values are.  Following is a list of my top values based on an exercise I did to define them:
   
My Values:

1. Mental Creativity -Need to do work that is creative like marketing.
2. Intellectual Stimulation - Need to be developing mentally, if not, I feel bored. 
3. Humor - Want to have fun at work, being happy is important, want to like the people I work with.
4. Location - Want to stay in one place, do not want to travel more than 25%.
5. Leadership - Want to motivate others to achieve excellence through team work.
6. Work with Others - Want to be part of a team working together towards a common goal.
7. Decison Making - Want the power to make decisions and have them carried out. 
8. Excellence - Want what I do to be good, quality and integrity are important to me.

 No clue what your values are?  If I seem organized, it's because I spent six to nine months working with a career counselor to come up with all this "understanding".  If you can afford it, a career counselor can help get you organized. If not, try this exercise to help you define your values.

Write down ten or more things that are important to you. Rank them from 1 to 10. For each of your top 8 values, answer the following questions. (1)

1. What does the value mean to you? 
2. Describe a situation in which you experienced the value.
3. What does this value tell you that you want or need? 

Sit down and do this exercise and you will have a solid list of what you want and need to be happy at work.

See you next Friday....

1. Weisblatt, Sheila E., M.S. 1994   Defining your Values.

Career self-assessment - Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Reposition yourself to re-enter the workforce; join me on my personal branding journey.

Last week we touched upon the MBTI as an assessment tool that is often used for assisting in career choice and professional development.  In their interpretive guide (1), Hirsh and Kummerow describe how the MBTI functions as an organizational tool in a genereal sense - helping people in organizations to:

• understand themselves and their behaviors.
• appreciate others so as to make constructive use of individual differences.
• see that approaching problems in different ways can be healthy and productive for an org.

Specifically, organizations use the MBTI for:

• communicating more effectively
• solving problems
• improving teamwork
• understanding and adapting to differences in management style.
• understanding contributions to the organization.
• conflict resolution.

Again, I will use my type, INFP, as an example of what you can learn by doing this assessment.

INFP - Inroverted Feeling with Intuition (the questor)-

• Focuses on what might be, not on what is.
• is sympathetic and makes decisions based on values.

Leads by:

• promoting group effort through creation of a positive atmosphere and affirmation of individual members.
• eliciting group consensus to facilitate goals and closure.
• providing vision by speaking about ideals and values.

Irritates team members by:

• being overly perfectionistic or idealistic.
• appearing out of touch.
• becoming fiercely attached to a value not held by others.

Influences team members by:

• challenging, stimulating, provoking, and convincing.
• encouraging others to look at new possibilities.
• focusing on common ideals and underlying issues.

Contributes to team by:

• presenting provocative ideas with "big picture" possibilities.
• creating unity and harmony within the team by listening w/sensitivity.
• motivating and inspiring others to go beyond norm.
• supporting team members and team goals with quiet good humor.

Can Maximize effectiveness by:

• realizing others may value quick results, even if less than ideal.
• cultivating a logical and active orientation to use when needed.
• acknowledging the merit in others' viewpoints.

Is irritated by team members who:

• take themselves too seriously.
• require too much detail or technical logic gets in the way of understanding.
• won't admit when they don't understand an idea.
• won't pay attention to the overall goal and consider all opinions.

I feel this description really describes who I am and gets to the essence of  why I do things. If you do not feel your type description resonates with you, look around and see which type does. 

Next week I will examine several other assessment tools available, specifically Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS) and Skillscan. 

1.  Hirsh, Sandra, K. and Kummerow, Jean. Introduction to Type In Organizations, 2nd edition., Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc., Palo Alto, CA.  1990.

See you next Friday...

Career Decision-Making

Who am I? What Can I do? What are my options? How do I get there?  These are the questions I posed last week to use as a framework for our career decision-making process.  In Susan Geifman's model, she further breaks down these questions into four areas as follows:

1. Self - What are my skills, abilities, accomplishments, interests values, preferred work setting?
2. World of Work- What are possible careers, job markets, employers, work environments?
3. Goal Setting- clarify, define, set clear objectives, make decisions, test reality.
4. Job Search- make action plan, network contacts, write resume, learn to interview and negotiate.  

It would make sense to approach this model in a linear fashion i.e. answering each question before going onto the next, but in the real world, the various quadrants overlap.  Still, it is better to assess yourself and research the market before writing your resume and going on interviews.  Preparation and organization will lead to a more focused and confident job candidate, you.

So, let's start at the beginning....Who are you?

One of the most respected and often used tests for determining personality type and how each type fits into an organization is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI.    If you have been around as long as I have, or if you have done any career counseling at all, you will have come across this assessment. Based on your preferences you are grouped into one of 16 types. Each type has different interests and values.

For example, I am an INFP. Here is a brief description of my type-

Full of enthusiasms and loyalties, but seldom talk of these until they know you well.  Care about learning, ideas, language, and independent projects of their own. Tend to undertake too much, then somehow get it done.  Friendly, but often too absorbed in what they are doing to be sociable. Little concerned with possessions or physical surroundings.

 What is your type?  This is a good place to start your self assessment.  If you want to know more about MBTI check out Myers Briggs .  If you want to take the assessment online go to Take MBTI.

 Next week we will look more closely at MBTI types, I have an interpretive guide if you know your type.

See you next Friday....