Guest Post by Ryan Stephens. Ryan is a twenty something attending graduate school in Texas. He fancies himself an entrepreneur and writes about relationship marketing, social media, eCommerce, and other elements of business as it relates to Generation Y, on his blog, Ryan Stephens Marketing. He is also the co-founder of the Top 10 Gen Y Blogs featured on Squidoo. Like out past guest-poster, Jess, Ryan is one of Seth Godin’s interns for this summer.
Maybe you’re about to graduate and you’re desperate to lock down your first job. Maybe you’re just tired of the one you have and you are exploring every connection on LinkedIn and your Rolodex searching for an opportunity to latch on to. No matter what the reason, in the midst of your search, always remember to stay true to your personal brand and what separates you, and sets you apart from other job seekers.
By now you know that it is important to maintain a consistent message with respect to your personal brand, but some job seekers forget this notion when the possibility of a new (possibly higher paying) job presents itself. You would be surprised at how many people abandon their value proposition in job interviews out of desperation to obtain the job. This is silly for a number of reasons:
1) Passion drives success
You should already know, or at least have a really good indication, of what you are passionate about and what you are good at. For example, I like to think that I am pretty good at networking, building intimate business relationships, relationship marketing and utilizing social media to facilitate all those things. I am passionate about Generation-Y and how they fit into our current society. Just because Hewlett-Packard might pay me $75K right out of college to sit in a cubicle and scour through countless spreadsheets crunching numbers for market research does not mean that I want my career heading that direction.
More than half of today’s working American’s don’t like their jobs. Sure, some of them are relatively good at them, but if you are not passionate about what you’re doing, what difference does it make?
[Disclaimer: If you –NEED- a job to provide for your family I respect that situation. I am not preaching Generation Y entitlement here.]
If a job interview isn’t what you anticipated or it doesn’t seem to be the job description you signed up for, do not compromise your personal brand and exclaim that you are very methodical, exceptionally attentive and – love – working with spreadsheets all day. If you hold out for something that you are passionate about you will be happier in the long run.
2) Stay true to the “real you inc.”
Sometimes staying true to your personal brand enables you to sometimes create your own job. So maybe you go into the interview, and about half-way through you can tell that it just is not going to be a fit, but you have done your research on the company and there is another area that is particularly interesting to you. It’s okay to be honest and upfront with an interviewer. Explain that while you are very gracious for the interview it does not seem to be a potential fit.
If you have used the interview time to showcase your personal brand effectively, chances are you can make a great case for yourself in another department, or even creating your own job. Perhaps the company still tries to succeed with traditional advertising and you have a portfolio consisting of some freelance work you have done with small companies and social media that you suspect could translate into a profitable approach for that company. Utilize your personal brand to market yourself, all the while staying true to your unique value proposition.
3) Transparency and authenticity are key
Finally, a lot of marketers talk about being transparent and authentic and it is something I whole-heartily believe in. So let’s say that you negotiate your personal brand in such a way that is conducive to receiving the job; however, you have altered your personal brand and a few months down the road you despise the job. Now, you want out and your personal brand isn’t consistent anymore.
It’s possible that you could offer it up as a valuable experience, but the next company you approach might take into account that that particular experience just doesn’t seem to align with the rest of your personal brand. At this point are you still authentic? Maybe. Maybe not. The point is you never have to encounter this particular situation if you always stay true to your personal brand regardless of the interviewing and/or job description circumstances.
