Marketing Yourself

As a Military Spouse it is critical that you identify and market your personal brand, and that you tailor this brand for the type of opportunities in your target area. One of the challenges we face as Military Spouses is transferring our skills between major career fields in order to seek fulfilling work and advance our careers in any location. As you evaluate your current job search or prepare to start one in a new location, research and consider the likely employment opportunities and make sure that you are favorably marketing yourself for those companies and positions. While you may have extensive latitude in choosing how to brand yourself in Washington D.C., you may have to research and refocus your brand to effectively market yourself for the more limited opportunities in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

In order to develop your brand you need identify your talents and accomplishments, and quantify what value you can offer to a potential employer or clients. To be most effective, you should identify how you are more valuable than a similarly qualified job seeker. While developing your brand, you should consider what your target employer is looking for. If your brand focuses on your ability to aggressively restructure company staffing and processes for operational efficiency and financial gain, you may not be targeting yourself well for smaller family-run businesses or the nonprofit sector. To identify a brand and then market it effectively, use the Three P Approach: Preparation, Packaging and Presentation.

Preparation

• Research the key skills and experience that your target employers are seeking. Read the “About Us” and the “Mission, Vision, and Values” portions of company websites. Identify the core skills they seek and then develop accomplishment statements to highlight your experience in these areas.
• Identify your “value-adds.” What sets you apart from a similarly qualified applicant? What unique experiences and accomplishments do you have? One Military Spouse seeking a sales consultant position in new geographic territory showcased her ability to move into a new region and succeed by listing her accomplishments and previous sales figures in a table under geographic region—Hawaii, Virginia and California—to highlight her ability to succeed wherever she was located.

Packaging

• Articulate your brand. Develop a 30-Second Commercial—an articulate speech that highlights your key skills and accomplishments and then finishes with a description of how you want to use those skills to benefit an employer. Become comfortable talking about yourself and what you can offer. Think about the most impressive colleague you have ever worked with. How would you describe them? Learn to talk about yourself in that same energetic and complimentary way.
• Identify your core traits, strengths, and values. A useful exercise can be asking each of your friends, family members, and colleagues to provide you with five words that describe you. You will get a great picture of how others see you, and it may make you realize that you have skills and strengths you had never thought of.
• Brand your documentation. Identify a font, a layout and perhaps an icon that encapsulates your industry. Develop a business card that focuses on you and your skills rather than your current or previous company. Brand your business card, LinkedIn profile, resume, cover letter, portfolio, list of references, and thank you documents by using the same key wording, format, and font.
• Obtain evidence of your brand. Seek testimonials and references. Use quotes on your resume and seek and display references on your LinkedIn profile.
• Seek out professional associations and engage with your professional community. Join associations in your field or In Gear Career Local Chapters in your area. Use LinkedIn Groups to contribute information and communicate ideas and developments with others in your field. Stay abreast of current developments by reading articles and attending conferences and symposiums to continue your professional development and present yourself as a serious player in your given field.

Presentation

• Deliver your message. Network and practice giving your 30-Second Commercial whenever you are asked about yourself. Use the interview as if you are selling a product: yourself. “I know from your website that you are seeking employees who want to make a difference to their communities, and that is why I am so excited to be here today. I have been involved with Habitat for Humanity for the past three years, and know firsthand how rewarding it is to be able to change someone’s life…” If you are asked, “Why should we hire you?” be ready with three core skills and accomplishments in each of those areas that target exactly what the employer is looking for.
• Develop your profile. Be proactive about building your visibility. Reach out to contacts. Present yourself as you want others to see you.
• BE CONFIDENT IN YOURSELF AND WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER!!

Always remember that marketing is about a product. If your potential employer does not need a supervisory HR specialist, then your HR marketing message will not be effective—regardless of how impressive your skills and accomplishments are. Identify the core skills an employer is looking for and then think about the value add-ons you may bring from your expertise in a slightly different field, company or location. As a Military Spouse, embrace the diversity of your experience with different work teams and work cultures and sell this to an employer as a gain for them.

For further reading on Marketing Yourself, see the following articles.

The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand by Megan Marrs

Personal Branding 101: How to Discover and Create Your Brand by Dan Schawbel

5 Tips On How To Market Yourself As Your Main Product by Coree Silvera