Invest in Yourself

I’ve been working on developing some training material for our campus ambassador program. One of the topics that I’m covering is “Communicating our value proposition”, which lead me to do research on employee value propositions.

Examples*:

General Mills: “a great place to start, a great place to stay. . . We are highly committed to an environment that supports the varying needs of all our employees inside and outside of work.”

Accenture: “some of the most creative, forward‐thinking people in the business world … from a wide range of cultural, educational and geographic backgrounds … able to work in a dynamic and professional environment that values each person's perspective

Google: “Into being challenged? Into having fun? Want to change the world? If the answer is yes, then you've come to the right place.”

Companies with successful value propositions are able to source from a much deeper pool of talent. The truth is that the better you brand your message and live the brand the more people want to work for you. And if the brand isn’t built from the inside, few may believe it on the outside.

I believe the same principal applies to candidates. There is buzz going around about branding yourself. There is a lot of merit in the discussion but it is actually very simple. The candidate that is able to present a complete package with a concise message is more likely to get job leads and further in the interview process. What I mean by the complete package is: quantifiable results from work and life experiences + tangible skills+ clear communication (written & verbal). You can have a great resume but if you aren’t able to successfully articulate the experiences on the resume or worse if there really aren’t solid experiences to back up the text on a resume then it’s not going to get you very far.

A job is in an investment. It is all the experiences and tangible skills acquired that piece together to create a career. Even if it’s not your ideal job you should be thinking about what skills you are going to develop in that job to help you obtain your next job. Invest in yourself so that others will invest in you. How are you developing the experiences to create your value proposition?

*Sartain, Libby: Brand for Talent (2009)