You do have a job search marketing campaign, don’t you? Even if you’re not actively job searching now, you should have a campaign either in mind or in the works. To paraphrase an old saying, “An ounce of job search preparation is worth more than a pound of after-the-fact damage control.”

What’s  a Job Search Marketing Campaign?

A campaign has been defined as work performed in an organized and active way toward a particular goal. More specifically, a marketing campaign could be “a specific, defined series of activities used in marketing a new or changed product or service.”  In the latter case, we’re talking about a campaign to bring you to the attention of prospective employers in a way that leads to job interviews and job offers.

To mount an effective job search marketing campaign, you need several things. For sure, you want to be considering these five:
 

1. A clearly defined sense of purpose: Where you want the job search to take you–“a job” isn’t a clearly defined goal.
2. A realistic grasp of the scope of the challenge: For instance, is your goal aggressively ambitious? That might require additional thought.
3. An inventory of your most valuable assets : This is something you should maintain on an ongoing basis, so you don’t have major work to do when the time comes.
4. Understanding of the probable needs, challenges, etc., of the organizations you want to work for: You need to be almost ruthless–for example, if you target companies that don’t have the kind of need you want to meet, you’re wasting time.
5. A campaign plan that assesses and organizes critical elements as accurately and realistically as possible: Make sure the plan includes timelines for key milestones. Otherwise you might get bogged down on something not worth the time and effort you’re investing.

However, there are some things you do not want to associate with your job search marketing campaign, because they could slow down your progress or force your job search to a grinding halt.

A Job Search Marketing Campaign is Not…

An over-the-top, “look-at-me” promotion that presents you to potential employers as self-centered and more focused on impressing them with flashy claims than demonstrating the value you can bring to them. For instance, you wouldn’t take out a full-page newspaper ad (or post one online) that trumpets an inflated sense of self-worth.

There’s a right way to get attention and a wrong way. Blaring out your message indiscriminately or inappropriately could turn off the people you want to attract attention from.

Say you send your resume out to 500+ potential employers with identical cover letters. I’ve heard of isolated instances where a bulk campaign has elicited positive results, but I haven’t seen it as a consistent trend of any size. You might end up pouring money and time into a deep hole with no return.

I’ve used the word plan as well as campaign in this post. There’s a good reason for that! Be mindful of the rationale for your job search campaign decisions and keep track of how well they work out in terms of your plan.

That’s more likely to take you in the direction you want to go and produce the result you’re aiming for: a new job that meets your critical requirements.