Using Key Marketing Tools to Position Yourself on the Job Market

Students are consistently conducting various job searches. However, many of them are not aware of the tools available for successful job search. The author of this article is Dr. Randall Hansen and he gave detailed tips of how students can be more marketable in today’s competitive job market. In addition to that, marketing is a tool that defines the distinctive features and benefits communicating to specific audiences and employers.

Dr. Hansen begins the article by discussing the present job-hunting environment and incorporates the value of marketing. He gives a better understanding of how to use and apply key marketing techniques and concepts to obtain a position within the job market. Sales are one of the first misconceptions for marketing. Sales is merely one of the mere aspects of marketing. Marketing has a broader meaning to understand and has four keys. The four keys for marketing are product, promotion, place and price. These keys help students to fully understand themselves to be marketable and to get the job that they desire and deserve.

Through job search and strategic planning, the first aspect of planning is to answer questions in relation to their job history and career. The author addressed five questions:

Where have I been, where am I now, and where will my career be if I do nothing Where do I want to go with my career?

How do I get to where I want to go?

How do I convert my plan into action steps?

How do I make changes to my plan if I am not observing success?

These questions are part of uncovering career goals and fields as well as detailed information about themselves to market themselves. It is essential to know to answer these questions to become successful in your job search.

The author focuses on the four P’s of the marketing mix. He goes into much detail regarding ways to market work experience, skills, and features that makes them unique. No matter how attractive a product looks, the employer may not be interested for several reasons. First, the product has to clearly be recognized as value by employers and there are some questions that you need to ask yourself. For instance, what is the one thing that makes you different from any other jobseeker applying for the same job? What are your accomplishments (not just job titles)? These questions are an essential part of the job search process because presenting you to be a better product to promote.

In some ways, the next step of the marketing mix may be the most vital piece of career marketing and this next step is promotion. Promotion is basically includes cover letters, resumes, cold calling, and interviewing. These tools can assist towards getting a job interview and ultimately the job offer. Revising your resume and mock interviews are one of the first places that you should start to strengthen this step during your job search.

The third step to the marketing mix is place which is also known as networking. Having a place where individuals to network will be crucial in a successful job search. Networking means developing a broad list of contacts and connecting with people that can assist you in your job search. For instance, current or former coworkers, colleagues, professional meetings, alumni, social or business functions. These people and places can be the ultimate link that will make your search much stronger and have better results.

The final step of this marketing mix is price. Price is often linked to salary since all aspects of the benefits/compensation plans. Dr. Hansen concludes this article by focusing on salary. Fringe benefits should be carefully looked at and include benefits such as medical, dental, tuition reimbursement, 401k plans, stock options, parking or expense reimbursement, bonuses, life insurance, vacation, paid holidays, and personal/sick days. If you take advantage of these tools, you will be more marketable and prepared for this competitive job market.