How to become the architect of your own future – Matching your mission with your vision

When managing their careers, be mindful that the biggest mistake many people make is letting others make decisions for them.

Make sure that you don’t put your future in someone else’s hands!

A Four-Step Process

A good approach for managing your career is to consider yourself as MD of your own company, in charge of your future success, growth and survival.

You're also the company's marketing director, responsible for managing your campaign, creatively packaging and creating a need for the company's flagship product – you!

The following marketing guidelines will help you take control of your career and become the ‘architect of your own future’. Like him or loathe him, David Beckham is the master of this.

Define your product (i.e. know yourself)

 

To create a desirable package for your product, you must determine why it's unique. What are your special skills and talents? What are you selling to potential employers? What makes you different or better from other products (candidates)? Is your product appropriately priced or do you need to make improvements (acquire more skills)?

With the market being fiercely competitive, creativity is the order of the day! How you package yourself, your skills, abilities and talents will ultimately determine the effectiveness of your ‘campaign’, whether in or out of work.

Be proactive and understand the benefit of marketing yourself on a regular basis, not just when it becomes necessity, because you are facing redundancy or unemployed.

Assessing and clearly defining your skills and attributes is not an easy task and you may need help. We have excellent tools and experience to help you with this key process, including the excellent DISC Personality Profiling, which can be done online with follow up review and coaching.

You can’t sell yourself effectively if you are unclear about your marketability. Are your skills right for the type of job or career you are seeking? Evaluate and establish any obvious gaps, to look at what training or development will be required to become competitive.

Determine your market.

 

Who are your target customers now and in the future and why would they buy your product? Without a clear understanding of your audience, you can't package yourself or create an effective marketing plan.

If you're employed, your target market can be internal, external or both. You don't have to leave a current employer to advance in your career. Marketing yourself internally is easier than external networking, which often means making "cold" calls to people you've never met.

Make a plan (your campaign strategy)

 

Good marketers create and follow a plan that includes a description of their target audience and how best to reach it. Create your own marketing plan and then follow through on the details.

All your efforts and activities should support your goal, whether it's to become better known in your present industry or a different field.

A key consideration, as with any plan, is to review and change course where necessary. Failure to do this is likely to end up with you veering way of course!

Most professionals know the basics of job hunting but may not understand how to continuously market themselves as a product.

Proactive marketing helps you to become known and visible to ‘buyers’. It requires making connections, maintaining a network of people and persistence. This way you are likely to be noticed when career opportunities arise.

When putting your plan into action, be positive about discussing your career goals. If contacts don't know what you need or want, they can't help. Experience shows that most people genuinely like to help.

Use effective marketing channels.

 

The most effective form of self marketing is ‘networking’, although the very name puts fear and panic into many job seekers!

Why is this?
As a nation, our ‘British reserve’ automatically put up barriers and our limiting beliefs get in the way.

Our 1:1 Career Coaching and workshops are aimed at helping you overcome these barriers and build your confidence to ensure networking becomes a natural and effective part of your everyday self marketing strategy.

Ongoing professional, industry, community and specific online and offline networking should all form part of your strategy. Your ‘insurance’ is knowing many people, from industry contacts and business acquaintances to friends at your gym or your kid’s school, who can all be helpful to unlocking your future.

If you are seriously considering a career change and finding it difficult to break into your chosen market, offering your services for a work placement either on a voluntary basis or ideally paid can be a useful strategy, as you then have something live on your CV and become instantly more marketable!

By taking these approaches and continually reviewing what's best for your career, you will become the architect of your own future and match your mission with your vision!