The 3 steps you should follow when preparing a job search
Looking for a job can become a long journey. In order for this job search to be successful, we like to compare it to a sales process where you are the product and your future employer is your client. How to make this client purchase your product?
You will find below a video of a conference given by Guillaume Stollsteiner in French in October this year on this topic.
1st step: Know your product (yourself)
In order to be able to sell your product, you need to know perfectly the strengths and the weaknesses of your product. It means that you need to compare it to other similar products and identify your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). In a job search, we personally call it your UPAD - Unique Professional Added Value - which is a mix of your technical skills, your industry knowledge, your professional history and your soft skills.
To achieve that you can use different tools, here are some of them:
Soft skills assessment tools
Linkedin Search Engine for profile comparison,
Word Cloud generators to identify the key technical skills which are asked for your kind of position and to check if your profile matches the requirements
...
Once this step is completed, you can start with the second step.
2nd step: Know your market
Knowing your product will also help you to identify which market can be the best fit for your product. A good market assessment will help you make sure that your product can and will fit the right market.
Companies' size (depending on your previous jobs and aspirations, corporate cultures, management styles, skills needed, salary or international exposure might be different)
Industries where your skills can be easily transferable (depending on the typology of your previous roles, from the banking industry to the asset management industry for example or from the cosmetics industry to the pharmaceutical OTC industry)
Stay tuned about your targets' news (Business news, key people changes, communication or marketing campaigns). Configure Google alerts for your target's news
The more precise you will be in your market assessment the more pertinent you will be in your approach with this market and in personalizing your introductions and value proposition. You will also be able to better proactively prepare your answers to potential objections related to your industry knowledge, your technical skills or your previous career path.
3rd step: Sell your product
The 2 previous steps had one goal: prepare you to sell your product to the right audience with the right value proposition.
Now you need to:
Identify and connect with the right decision makers.
Enter a win / win relationship with these key contacts.
Understand their needs and show them that you have an added value on these needs.
Prepare your pitch and adapt it to every specific situations.
Following these steps will help you to be as prepared as possible to your job search journey.
Feel free to connect with Grégoire and Guillaume on LinkedIn and ask us questions about our process . You can also react on LinkedIn or on this blog.