Never show a resume to anyone

In the New York Times today, Eric Dash writes under the headline:

American Express Plans to Trim 7,000 Jobs to Save $1.8 Billion

In addition, a hiring freeze has been imposed, and the company said that it was suspending management-level raises next year.

This led me to think about the most common mistake made by those transitioning from one job to another.
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Never show a resume to anyone

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Realize it or not, the positioning statement of a resume is that something has gone wrong and now you need a job. Whether or not it is true, that is what the document proclaims. The trick is not to advertise your need, but rather, to resonate the need of a potential employer. The resume also reduces you to generic compensation--probably about half what you are worth at competitive market rates--but more on that later.

Conventional advice says that anyone wanting for a job, a new job, a career transition, a come-back or a "return from hiatus" needs to update their resume and circulate it where job openings have been announced. This advice, if followed diligently, will result in a 14-20 month job search--remember that Baby-Boomers are extending their careers at an age when our parents were withdrawing from the job market--that will likely result in a decision to retire or the acceptance of a position that is beneath one's station with a de-valued compensation.

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The Internet has changed the dynamics of the game. Whereas the announcement of a job opening used to represent a need, today it no longer does. The same day a job announcement is posted, they receive some 300 thousand resumes off the Internet, the need evaporates and what begins immediately is a process of elimination that does not benefit an executive of standing--a job candidate, if you will--to take part in.

Almost all of the expert advice on how to get your next job was designed to keep you away from where you need to be

Almost all of the expert advice on how to get your next job was designed to keep you away from where you need to be. None of the advice put you across from a CEO--or the board if a CEO position was being sought. All of it put you in front of a lower echelon functionary whose job it was to get rid of you, fulfilling his or her role as a filtering agent reducing the numbers to a workable level. Why do they give you this kind of advice? It was given to you for their convenience and not to advance your agenda. They deal in the so-called Law of Large numbers and, from their perspective, crowd control is a must. The Internet has impacted the dynamics of our lives in many ways. This is one of them. Don't get caught out adhering to an old paradigm.

The strategy for the new paradigm is to understand that visibility and value are inextricably linked. Stop seeing yourself as an employee hoping to get hired and realize that you are a personal brand with deliverables that can impact on the bottom line of any company your move into. The only statistic that will indicate your viability and forecast the speed with which you obtain your next job under enhanced terms and conditions is this: The number CEOs in the sector you want to operate in who are aware of your signature skills and deliverables. Simple, right?

Personal Branding

What are its signature deliverables?..

What are its signature deliverables?

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When one assesses the need for an application of brand management strategies, it requires the existence of a brand and a contemplation of its characteristics. What does the brand stand for? What are its signature deliverables? Most importantly, what can it offer to the marketplace that cannot be acquired elsewhere and which imbues the brand with exclusivity?

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As one asks these questions of an executive who is wanting to aggrandize his or her personal brand, the perspective he or she offers based on years of accomplishment is usually the prime characteristic of the brand. That an executive’s wisdom might apply to a broad range of interest and act as a magnet for interesting offers from a wide horizon of companies, organizations and even governments is to be expected.

It is incumbent upon a brand to author and issue its own definition

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Every one of us has been branded to some degree by friends, associates and even people with only a passing acquaintance of us. It is incumbent upon a brand to author and issue its own definition. Otherwise, it may suffer from a seventieth percentile perception of it. At the seventieth percentile one sees a canvas and spilled paint; at the ninetieth one sees a Jackson Pollack rendering of a seasonal upstate New York. Both perceptions are accurate as far as they go. Through which filter do you want your brand perceived?

The strategic management of a personal brand can accomplish many things. The most notable is that it places control of its future in the hands of the brand.

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As always, the media wants to hear from individuals who are affected by the decisions and actions of incumbents and candidates alike. The media is especially keen on hearing from articulate executive leaders who are able to express the concerns of business or industry sectors, whether he or she can argue in support of or against the implementation of an agenda. An executive's most powerful asset is his or her perspective born of experience and intellect and the ability to communicate extraordinary ideas to others.

The goal of personal branding is to maximize the yield from an individual’s signature skills

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The goal of personal branding is to maximize the yield from an individual’s signature skills. In the same manner that the large talent agencies of Hollywood create demand for their clients to make them independent of the hiring process and, further, too make of them a franchise, the strategy should be to make the client immune to the vicissitudes of any one corporate environment or the problems facing any particular sector of business.

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Some will want to accelerate the process of their next engagement with enhanced terms and conditions. Others will look at how best to expand their personal franchise--to build out the brand, so to speak. Either is the very legitimate concern of personal branding.