Today’s post is a guest article from Angela Martin, a freelancer who writes about career topics. Angela’s article offers an interesting analysis of the human experience of “personal branding,” by looking at the experience of workers who were transitioning from life inside a socialist system, into a capitalist one. If you have any comments about Angela’s article , feel free to write to Angela, or post comments to this blog. Thank you Angela!

What We Talk About When We Talk About Personal Branding: The Polish Experience in Transitioning to a Market Economy

Here in America and the rest of the developed, Western world, personal branding as an individual marketing tool has become essentially commonplace. We don’t even question it anymore. We don’t think about its philosophical, psychological, or social ramifications, which is why I was pleasantly surprised to find this blog, one that actually offers an alternative method to successful job seeking.

So what happens when a society that does not even understand the concept of personal branding finds itself suddenly immersed in it? This, I think, is a fascinating question, and one that cultural anthropologist Elizabeth Dunn answers in her book “Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor.” The book chronicles Dunn’s field research in a Gerber baby food plant that was established in Poland shortly after its transition to a market economy from a socialist state.

From her experiences with talking to executives, managers, factory workers, middle men, and workers’ family members, Dunn takes an incredible nosedive straight into the tensions that exist between a capitalist and socialist society. While political ideology is a matter to be left to the politicians, and something I don’t care to discuss,  I find it most interesting that Polish employees who wished to achieve management positions in the company had to completely remake who they saw themselves as people, in order to conform to neoliberal, marketing ideas. They had to find ways to sell themselves, to exhibit what hiring managers called “flexibility.”

In one part of the book, Dunn investigates interviews that American recruiters conducted with Polish job candidates for middle management positions. Dunn explains how the buzzword “flexibility” figured heavily in recruiters’ criteria for hiring. The perfect manager, the Americans surmised, would have little job experience (since experience under the old statist system was a liability), and would demonstrate intangible qualities like “self-confidence,” “sophistication,” and “initiative.”

These qualities all seem like part of the typical, business-speak lexicon to us, but to the newly initiated Polish workforce, these words were a revelation. As a result, during the interview process, these Polish, according to Dunn, “used changes in dress, personal possessions, and personal space to display their supposed transformations from a socialist being…to a capitalist being…By signaling this inner transformation, managers hoped to demonstrate that they had the ‘right attitude’ and were ready and willing to learn new Western management ideas.” (Dunn 71).

More tellingly, sometimes Polish managers misunderstood the image they were supposed to portray, to an extent that is in some way hilarious, but also sad. One Polish manager, in an attempt to impress the higher-ups, hired strippers for a company party, accidentally wore striped ties with checkered suits, and constantly made inappropriate jokes. Eventually he hired a personal stylist from New York City to help him overcome his many faux pas (73).

The rest of Dunn’s book is definitely worth the read, even if only to get a deeper insight into how Western management practices, as well as consumer marketing strategies, had such a surprisingly wide-ranging effect in all aspects of a post-socialist society.

But in terms of current management practices in the Western world, how do we, as people (we are, after all, people before we are anything else, whether we are employees, employers, or consumers) reconcile the rather depersonalizing effects—most dramatically demonstrated in Dunn’s book—of business techniques that we ourselves created? And not only that, but how do we combat these techniques when they are so deeply entrenched in the way things are run?

For starters, Cathy Keates’ blog and book are promising forays into the different ways job seekers can overcome a system that is slightly absurd, while still working within the system. I, for one, believe that sincerity really will get you far, even though there is an expectation that job seekers must proffer some sort of quasi-phony sales pitch.

 And you know why? Hiring managers and recruiters are people, too, and even though they may have set criteria to look for when hiring, communicating your real self will be refreshing. It will establish a connection with a potential employer that no “technique” can. It is my most sincere hope that the future of job search is headed in this direction, if only to extract and expand what little humanity is left in the world of business.

 ——————————————————–

This guest post is contributed by Angela Martin, who writes on the topics of Career Salaries.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id:  angela.martin77@gmail.com. 

Branding, Criticisms/questions, Job search as sales & marketing Branding, job search

If you are looking for guidance about how to use social networking for your career, you’re sure to find lots of advice about branding yourself. For instance, Brand You, an article in jobpostings, a job search magazine for students and new graduates, is a good example.

While in the past I’ve referred to the pain of branding ourselves in our job searches (branding is for cows isn’t it? And honestly I hate to think of cows being branded! Ouch!),  I just saw a fantastic  new article called Brand You? (see pages 16-17) specifically about branding and social networking.

Interestingly, this recent article was published in the same magazine as the previous Brand You article, but note the new punctuation.

That question mark in the title is important. Brand You? isn’t more promotion for the branding approach, but instead it asks whether, regardless of all the hype about branding,  it is actually useful and healthy to be a brand.

The article points out many interesting concerns about branding – the whiff of manipulation, the trace of insincerity and lack of honesty, and the hint of self-interest over interest in others.

Consider this thought from a digital literacy consultant who is quoted in the article “I think employers are less interested in your personal ‘brand’ … than what kinds of contributions you are making to your field, to others, to the world. What do you bring to an organization besides your carefully constructed self?”

What indeed. It is not our constructed brands that connect us with people and opportunities, it is ourselves – our interests, our questions, our curiosity, our real characters. The “constructed self” can actually get in the way of making a connection with an employer. If they can’t get to the real you behind the brand and access who you really are, it will be difficult for the two of you to form a real connection.

With the constant chatter about personal branding, it can be hard to not jump on the bandwagon and get branded. But some caution may be useful here. Will branding yourself help you to connect with people, or will it get in the way?

I love to see more dialogue and criticism of these sales and branding approaches starting to happen and spread. Brand me? No thanks.

Branding, Criticisms/questions, Job search as sales & marketing, Networking, social networking Branding, job search, social networking

Can job interviews be more “humane”?

I regularly hear from job seekers that they want to be genuine and authentic when they are job searching, but find that the ways in which some employers set up the interview process leaves them feeling like they have to put on perfectly polished persona and do their best salesperson routines.

So, when I saw a blog posting about “Humane Interviews” from Jessa Chupik, a career coach who is a former recruiter, I was really excited.

She describes an interview panel who, instead of intimidating candidates, or being distant or overly formal, were welcoming, warm, and genuine. By being genuine themselves, they let the candidates know that they were important, and that the interview was not a gruesome exam, but a pleasant conversation for learning more about them.

This “humane” approach seems to have created an environment that helped interview candidates be more genuine – and I can only guess that it must have been a pleasant and effective way for both parties to get to know each other better, and assess whether there was a good fit.

Humane Interviews – love that idea!

Have you had experiences with “humane” interviews? Did they allow you to feel more comfortable and authentic?

Authenticity, Interviews, Job search as sales & marketing Authenticity, humane, job interviews

Thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog this year. While there is a lot of job search information on the web, most of it seems to fit squarely in the Sales Mindset camp – believers that if you want to find a new job you need to get out there and “sell yourself.”

This blog is different – I believe selling yourself is demoralizing and dehumanizing and I’ve been critiquing that Sales Mindset approach to job search, and exploring alternative ways of thinking. In addition to the publication of my first book, Not for Sale! Why we need a new job search mindset, some of the things that I looked at in 2009 in the blog were:

• The energy of authenticity – a conversation between two people can be so energizing when you are both bringing “you” to the discussion.
• It’s not about the packaging – the huge success of Susan Boyle (first during the Britain’s Got Talent competition and now her CD that’s flying off shelves) is a great story about getting past how someone is “packaged” and looking for the talent and life within.
• Sizzle vs steak – too much job search time is spent polishing the sizzle, too little time is spent discussing the steak. We live in a time when people are desperate for meaning and connection – and that’s what we can be emphasizing not just in our broader lives, but in our job searches as well.
•  Inauthentic networking – too often networking is uncomfortable and disingenuous. It needn’t be that way. We can look for alternatives to a “one-size-fits-all” approach and try connecting with people based on genuine interest. 

It has been a pleasure to explore these topics. Thank you to everyone who has responded with their own thoughts (over email, phone, or in person). Let’s keep this discussion going!

On that note, I just realized recently that my blog was set to only allow comments if you are logged in. I figured out how to turn off this – so you can now more easily post your own thoughts. I look forward to hearing from you and getting your reactions and ideas. 

Happy Holidays to everyone! I’ll be back in 2010 with more thoughts on job searching with integrity

Job search as sales & marketing, Networking, Packaging, Uncategorized job search as sales and marketing, Networking

“With competition for good jobs at an all-time high, candidates who conduct their job search as a sales campaign consistently win out over those who don’t.”

So starts an article called “Win Your Next Job With Three Essential Interview Skills.”

Now, if you’ve been reading my blog or book, you can guess my reaction. I don’t agree at all. There is nothing noteworthy about that -  all over the internet there are thousands of articles with similar arguments and content that I disagree with. What makes this one worth notice is this fascinating opening line.

“[C]andidates who conduct their job search as a sales campaign consistently win out over those who don’t” is quite a claim. Bold, assertive – very sales-like?

The biggest problem with this is that this is opinion presented as fact. There is NO evidence that this claim is true. There is no evidence for this provided in the article, and as far I can tell from my research, there is no evidence anywhere. Perhaps anecdotally many people feel that this has been their experience. And certainly there are legions of people who believe this to be true. But to present this as fact should require far more than anecdotal stories and beliefs.

Too often job search “experts” tell us the right way to do things. But a lot of this (if not basically all) is  based on opinion. There is nothing wrong with opinion - we should just be up front about it being opinion and not fact.

I’ll use the same analogy as used in the article in question. When you go to buy a new car, you listen critically to the salesperson’s pitch (and you know it is a pitch, you know they are using “closing techniques” and looking for your “hot buttons”). You try to step back and evaluate if the offer is really as good as it is presented as being. You know the job of the salesperson is to get the sale – which may or may not be in your own best interest. So you question all claims.

Let’s do the same thing when being sold on the “correct” way to job search. Question all claims. Beware of opinion masquerading as fact. 

Thank you to Christine Fader for sending me the link to this article – you were right  Christine– I did enjoy reading it!

Choice, Criticisms/questions, Interviews, Job search as sales & marketing job interviews, job search, job search as sales and marketing, sales

I just heard about a new product in the world of sales and marketing – the “Super Sales tag”. Have you heard about these? Instead of just the standard “Hi my name is ….” nametags which may do the job, but apparently waste prime advertising potential, this new name tag is a wearable media player. According to the director of the company who produces them, they’re a “mini-TV that you wear on your chest.”   

Also according to said director, these chest TV’s will be the next big thing. As he argues, why waste valuable time when a customer is waiting for the cashier to check out their items? Instead this customer can be captivated by watching videos (ie advertisements) on the cashier’s nametag. No more boring static nametags with just names. Imagine the potential.

Since a lot of the new things that sweep the world of sales and marketing later end up in job search advice, I wonder, will this one? Imagine going to networking events, and instead of just wearing the apparently boring “Hi my name is…” tags, everyone has one of these flashy video name tags. Short on conversation topics? Just watch the video. Uncomfortable with eye contact and talking about yourself? Hit the play button.

Instead of just taking your elevator pitch and a strong handshake to networking events, you’ll also need an actual infomercial. And it better be flashy and eye-catching or your viewers will switch to another channel.

Instead of having conversations with people, why not just wander around the room watching videos? We could make job search even more impersonal, emphasize sizzle and sales over steak and substance even more than they are already, and just forget about old-fashioned talking.

Luckily we are not there yet, and I hope we never will be. While good old-fashioned talking has its ups and downs (downs like uncomfortable moments when you forget someone’s name and awkward pauses when you’re not sure where the conversation should go next), the ups (like meeting someone who is also fascinated by the same oddball things that fascinate you) outweigh the downs.

Let’s not let this sales gimmick creep into job search.

(Never mind it sounds like a lot of staring at people’s chests - usually frowned on in networking situations)

Job search as sales & marketing, Packaging, Uncategorized

I get a little nervous when I know a book review is coming, but also really curious and excited - what will it say? And each time my book’s been mentioned somewhere, it has given me pause for reflection, and for refining my own thoughts after reading someone else’s interpretation and perspective. My book Not for Sale! was just reviewed in Suite101 by Paym Bergson and I’d like to remark on one of her comments.

Re: we should all follow the RIGHT way to find a job:

“One size does not fit all … in her preface it is made clear this book is to get the reader to think and not just accept: to decide on a personal approach rather than go the route of sales - that in itself is worth the effort.”

I hadn’t really appreciated how much most job search advice advocates a “one size fits all” approach until I started receiving feedback about my book and talking with people after some recent presentations. Too much advice is given as if it is the yellow brick road – the one way to get what you want, and this is just not the case.

So many people comment about one size NOT fitting all – so some readers really like discovering this Not for Sale approach because they want to have an alternative to a Sales Mindset. Others have remarked that they think that a Sales Mindset works really well for some people so while it’s good to be aware of this Not for Sale alternative, they argue that we still need to recognize the Sales Mindset as an approach that some people might choose.

I myself am not comfortable advocating for anyone to “sell” themselves.  But I also recognize that if that is what someone has chosen for him/herself, it is their choice. I just worry that that has been presented as the ONLY choice. Instead, I want us all to make INFORMED choices - knowing that there are options and then picking the one(s) that appeal most to us. I hope each of us as individuals can take some time to sift through all the advice and discover what works for us.

Choice, Job search as sales & marketing

Every so often a new story about creative advertising in job search comes out. Recently in Toronto it was a woman who handed out business cards on a commuter train. This week it is someone in Dallas with “Hire Me” and his phone number written on his van (as covered in the Career Diva blog).

Creative these may be, but effective? Some considerations:

Too little information:

If you were (or are) an employer, would you be likely to find someone this way? I know I am impressed by their spunk and willingness to take risks and try something new. But if all I know about someone is what can fit on the window of their van, I don’t think I’d go out of my way to see if they were what I needed. Unless, and it could happen, if I was so very desperate for someone for a particular role that I then decided it was worth the phone call.

What does it communicate?

Just as the blogger, CareerDiva, thought that the man with the van was feeling very desperate (he wasn’t) might not a lot of people assume this when they see someone trying (or do they think “stooping”) to use a strategy like this? Whether or not that is true.

Untargeted:

Both a roaming van and handing out business cards on a commuter train are very unfocused – who knows who is sitting on that train or who might see that van. Of course there is also the chance that there could be just the someone you need to meet. According to the article in the Toronto Star, the job seeker did get 8 contacts – who either took her resume or set up an interview. But when looking at how to best spend your time, targeted conversations with people is probably #1, this type of untargeted activity lower on the priority list.

Publicity

Both job seekers got a lot of publicity – which might be a good thing. But now this kind of thing is no longer news – been there, done that. If more people do this, will it still get press?

Sales-y?

The ad on the van seems sales-y. The conversations on the commuter train may or may not have been. Really depends on how they were done. It is certainly possible to have a real, authentic, and interesting conversation while commuting. Interestingly, in the online comments to the Toronto Star article, someone has complained about being approached on the train by other people job searching - that writer must see it as selling as they believe it violates a no-soliciting policy which they say the commuter train has. Another compares it to being regularly bothered by telemarketers and door-to-door sales. Interesting!

Results:

In the end, the job seeker in Toronto found a position through reconnecting with a former colleague, not through a connection established on the train. The gentleman in Dallas is still looking.

These kinds of out-of-the-box techniques garner a lot of attention, but I’d hate anyone to feel like you have to be this out-there to find something. Most success is not about billboards and doing something that gets blogged about, but is about connecting with people through good old fashioned conversations (on or off line), shared projects, outings etc, and keeping going until the right opportunity opens up.

Choice, Job search as sales & marketing

“Aren’t your criticisms of the sales mindset for job search really just semantics?” I got this question during a webinar presentation I did last week. And it’s not the first time I’ve been asked this. The rest of the argument is that “it’s really just words - you can change the words but what job seekers need to do doesn’t change - they still need to sell themselves.”

I appreciate the question, because I think it is one that comes up in many people’s minds when trying to decide if we really need to tranform job search from a sales mindset to something more aligned with our integrity and authenticity - is it really worth changing this? Or is it “just semantics“?

My response:

1. There’s no “just semantics.” This phrase “it’s just semantics” is meant to dismiss concerns about language and suggests that words are just words - changing them doesn’t make a big difference. But words are not just words - words communicate meaning and paint a particular picture. The words we choose dictate the concepts, values, and images that we experience. And then those direct our behaviours. When we choose to tell job seekers to “sell themselves” we are placing all the images, concepts and values that are attached in our minds to sales, to those job seekers. And this is problematic (see my previous post about the Used Car Salesman Syndrome for one example of the negative impact of the sales language).

2. I want to change not just our language for job search, but also our behaviours. I do believe it starts with the language - first we replace words such as sales, with other words such as integrity and authenticity. Then, with this different mindset, we feel, think, and act differently. Some of those differences may be subtle, others quite dramatically different. But overall, our entire approach has a different attitude and orientation. There is a detectable difference in how things feel and look.

3. And to respond to the final part of the criticism, that “job seekers do need to sell themselves” I would say - what evidence do we have of that? Over a decade spent with job seekers, I’ve seen an awful lot of evidence that selling gets in the way of success for many a dedicated and otherwise skilled job seeker.

Really, is there any “just semantics“? Language is so important - when we start by changing our language we can open up a whole new way of thinking and behaving - and of creating a life (and a job search approach) more in line with how we want to live.

Authenticity, Criticisms/questions, Integrity, Job search as sales & marketing

Sizzle, sizzle, and more sizzle – that’s what our world seems to have become. Shiny, new, “the latest,” “the greatest,” the “don’t miss this special offer, only available for a limited time!!!”. (And of course always followed by multiple exclamation marks.) And job search has become the same. It’s all about marketing and sizzle.

Problem is, we live in a world of sizzle, but we long for a world of steak.

The steak is the good stuff. The satisfying stuff. Sizzle doesn’t satisfy – it may tempt, tease, intrigue – but not satisfy. The things that really hit the spot – that’s the steak. Meaning, connection, authenticity, integrity – these are the things that make us feel on track. The things we crave in a deep and very human way.

A satisfying job search is not about the sizzle; it’s not about having the snazziest looking resume and the  catchiest brand identity. Finding a job with steak requires a job search with steak – a job search that emphasizes authenticity over advertising, and connection over catch phrases.

We may live in a big world of sizzle, but we can make our own little worlds about steak.

Note to counsellors, coaches, and librarians:

Interested in this concept? You might enjoy Job Search Advising: All Sizzle, No Steak?, the keynote I’m presenting at the Canadian Career Information Association AGM on Thursday May 27^th.

Job search as sales & marketing