Marketing Strategies

Comprehensive job seeking and keeping strategy involves more than just filling out an application. It is a conscious and thorough process to understand who you are, what you want, and how to strategically make your desire happen with the employer of your choice. Unfortunately, this is a puzzle piece many people take for granted. Many assume think they know how to market themselves for a job, only to be disappointed repeatedly by no job offer. Job seeking requires extensive research, practice, and application to get the job you want.

Marketing yourself to an employer begins with focusing on the type of position you will be seeking. This means taking what you know about your interests, values, skills, personality, etc. and deciding on a job objective. A job objective defines in your mind, on your resume, and in your interview the type of work you desire, you're qualified to do, and what your experience and education show you can do.

On the employment side, an employer wants to know what you can bring to the organization. In other words, what types of personal qualities and skills do you possess that will assist the employer to become more productive in her workplace? The more certain you are, the more confident an employer will feel about hiring you. Without a job objective, you will appear "blurry" to an employer; in other words, BE CLEAR.

Defining a job objective requires evaluating your skills. This is critical to your job search. How can you promote yourself to an employer if you don't know what you have to offer? Taking the time to evaluate your skills and abilities is critical. Three types of skills you need to assess are:

Transferable Skills or Functional Skills-those skills that you take with you from job to job, i.e. planning, organizing, computational skills, etc.
Job-related Skills or Work-content Skills-those skills that are used for performing a type of job. They are specific and obtained through specialized training, education, or on-the-job training.
Self-management Skills or Adaptive Skills-those skills that are personal attributes or qualities you possess that make you a desirable employee, i.e. dependable, respectful, cooperative, etc.

Ultimately, marketing yourself involves gaining the knowledge and developing the tools necessary to obtain employment in the career field of your choice. This includes the development of marketing tools.

Marketing tools and activities that can assist you in obtaining work include: a polished resume (traditional and Scannable) and cover letter, learning and applying interviewing strategies, networking with employers in your major, participating in mentor/mentee relationships, getting on-the-job training in an internship in your major, and joining career affiliations or professional associations in your respective field.

Here are some links to help you with developing your marketing tools to prepare you for your job search.

Resume, Cover Letters, Interviewing, Job Search

Jobweb-Marketing Yourself-contains a series of articles that assist with job search process.
OSU-Cascades Career Marketing Strategies & Tools--Resumes, Cover Letters and More
iAgora.com-contains tips on writing CVs, cover letters, and interviews in countries around the world.
BeaverJobNet-is an online job posting system providing full-time positions, Co-ops, internships and other forms of working enviornments from OSU-Corvallis.
Resume and Cover Letter Tutorial-published by careeronestop, provides a step by step tutorial for constructing a resume and cover letter.
Career Journal from the Wall Street Journal-contains numerous articles covering job search and career management. Click on "Job Hunting Advice."
Businessweek /Business Schools-has current information that can assist business students with job hunting.
Job Hunters Bible-guide is from Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute. Contains many job search hints from his book.
The Riley Guide-one of the first on-line comprehensive career and job search guides.
Interviewing -College Grad.Com provides over fifty one minute videos on interviewing, job search and resume development.
Interviews-Contains several different types of interview articles.
InterviewStream-is an online video-based practice interviewing system specifically created for college students and alumni. It allows you to practice your interview skills anywhere, 24/7. It provides over 1500 common and major-based interview questions to choose from as well as videos from interview coaches. All it takes is a computer and a webcam. Just follow the steps.
Find Occupations-provides occupational descriptions for over 900 different occupations that can assist with resume development.
Skills Search-list helps to identify skills job seekers have to discuss in interview and/or use on resume.
Career TV-career advice videos on jobsearch, resume, interviewing, salary, professional development.

Employment and Job Banks

National links

StudentJobs.gov -provides part-time government jobs and internships by occupational category and state.
U.S. Department of State-contains information and jobs for becoming a Foreign Service Officer.
Career Builder-explores job openings nationally by state and job category.
Chronicle of Higher Education-provides job openings in educational institutions nationwide.
Cool Works-links to ranch, resort, national park jobs nationwide.
Deepsweep-is a free non-profit job board that includes entry-level, experienced, and senior level executive positions.
IMDiversity-is devoted to serving the cultural and career-related needs of minority group.
USA JOBS-is the official site of the United States Federal Government for jobs and employment information.