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Becoming irresistible in the workplace and
job market
As a job seeker in a competitive job market,
it is important to distinguish and showcase
your candidacy above your competitors by
optimising your marketability. Likewise, as
an employee within the workplace, it is
important that you consistently position
yourself above your colleagues in order to
enhance your credibility and ensure you
remain valuable and marketable within a
constantly changing workplace, particularly
if restructuring and redundancies are on the
horizon.
Whether you are a job seeker or existing
employee, one way that you can elevate your
profile and status is by harnessing the
latest advances that technology offers to
position yourself as an expert, thus making
you irresistible to a potential or
invaluable to an existing employer.
The term “expert” can often put people off,
however according to Wikipedia.org, an
expert is “someone who is widely recognised
as a reliable source of knowledge, technique
or skill and whose judgement is accorded
authority and status by the public or their
peers.” For someone to have reached the
so-called status of expert they would have
accumulated extensive experience, skill
and/or knowledge within a specific field or
industry.
Another aspect of “expert” that can
typically occur is the “perceived” expert –
someone that has risen above their peers to
stand out in a specialised area, being
thought of as a leader in their field. How
these people have risen to this status is
not by accident, but rather through having
contributed significant time and dedication
in their fields while continually investing
their energies into marketing their
expertise.
Strive for expert status by discovering your
motivated interests and natural abilities.
While you may demonstrate general abilities
across a number of areas, to truly shine and
gain expertise across diverse areas may be
difficult. Initially, it may be wise to
pinpoint your focus around where your
interests and natural abilities lie and
continue to build up your profile in this
area. Once you have mastered this area you
can continue to expand your profile in other
areas as well. To uncover your motivated
interests consider the following questions:
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What are you truly passionate about?
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What topics of conversation do you typically
become involved in?
-
What motivates you to action and whilst
doing that activity, time just seems to fly
by?
-
What type of work would you do even if you
weren’t getting paid for it?
-
What areas have you contributed to that
others necessarily are not able to do?
Another exercise would be to question those
around you (including colleagues or friends)
to see what characteristics and talents they
believe you have and have seen you utilise.
Quite often those around us can recognise
things that we don’t necessarily identify
ourselves as we can often take some of our
skills for granted because they come
naturally.
Enhance your profile: become visible in the
market and within your existing workplace.
One way to strengthen your credibility and
recognition as an expert is to establish an
online identity. This could include the
following strategies:
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Developing an online
Career Web Portfolio that can highlight
your knowledge, achievements and
contributions
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Creating a personal/professional Blog. Each
blog entry will have your signature (being
the author) thus also elevating your search
engine ranking if a recruiter were to search
for you on the internet. [Web logs (other
wise known as ‘blogs’) have been around for
some time, however, lately there seems to
have been a sudden surge of people (young
and not-so-young) setting up personal blogs.]
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Establishing a professional profile using
tools such as
Ziggs,
LinkedIn, or
LinkMe
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Becoming active on other people’s blogs or
forums of experts in your field
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Writing articles or stories of interest in
your corporate newsletter
Branding specialists
worldwide advocate the use of blogs as
another medium and potential opportunity to
communicate your personal brand and the
overall value you offer. In fact, many
recruiters and potential employers are
opting to perform an internet search on
suitable applicants to see what they can
uncover, so you can see how a professional
blog and/or
career web portfolio
could certainly support you in getting known
and elevating your overall professionalism
and credibility.
Be aware that this can have disadvantages,
particularly if your blog posts or forum
comments are less than professional. While
it may be tempting to post about your ‘bad
day in the office’ experience, or ‘what you
really think about your boss’ or about ‘what
really went on behind the scenes at your
last Christmas office party’, you need to
remember that this is an online medium that
allows access to anyone and everyone on a
global scale, and what you post, may just
come back to haunt you and dash any hopes of
securing a new role.
Remember to keep your comments and topics on
a professional level. Before you begin
writing, ask yourself:
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Would I want my boss (or future boss) to read
this?
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Does this post continue to support me on a
professional level?
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How can this post continue to build upon my
personal brand and unique promise of
value?
Here are some strategies to enhance your
visibility within the company:
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Become involved in cutting-edge projects
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Put your hand up for more difficult
assignments, particularly where colleagues
can see your strengths in action
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Become a mentor for less experienced
colleagues
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Gain a reputation as a problem solver and
solution seeker rather than a problem maker
Maintain your expert status.
Once you have achieved credibility and
expert status it’s important to keep up with
what’s happening in your field. Consider the
following:
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Regularly read printed publications to keep
at the forefront of the industry
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Subscribe to newsletters on the internet
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Subscribe to RSS feeds and industry blogs
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Expand your knowledge by continuing your
education
Why you should continue being a proactive
career activist.
It has often been commented that people
experience dissatisfaction in their jobs due
to not feeling in control of their lives or
careers, so becoming proactive in your
career, continuing to position yourself as
knowledgeable in your field, and offering
strong skills and expertise will support you
in regaining a sense of control of your
destiny. Here are some other benefits:
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You retain control of your career
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Become a valuable player with the
organisation
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Expert status can support you
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Be headhunted by recruiters and
organisations
Avid achievers in the workplace have a high
sense of self-awareness, understand their
strengths and weaknesses while being able to
pinpoint and strategically pursue
opportunities that can support them and
their career development.
So what can you do starting from today to
take control of your career advancement
enabling you to become known as an expert in
your field, either in the job market or your
workplace?
IIf
you would like additional support in
establishing your expert status at your
current place of employment, or would like
to enhance your profile as you take the next
step in your career I hope that you
would consider working with me.
It would be
an honour to work with you. Drop me a line
at:
annemarie@annemariecross.com.
To your success!
Annemarie
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A personal note from Annemarie...
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