110 likes | 287 Views
Mastering Personal Marketing. Facilitated by Robert Bircher Lawyers Assistance program. Job Hunting and Marketing. Since about 80% of legal jobs are found through networking and informational interviews knowing how to market yourself is critical
E N D
Mastering Personal Marketing Facilitated by Robert Bircher Lawyers Assistance program
Job Hunting and Marketing • Since about 80% of legal jobs are found through networking and informational interviews knowing how to market yourself is critical • Many legal jobs are rarely/never advertised-you won’t see ads for articling students or junior lawyers in small firms very often-even with jobs that only hire through ads (gov’t) insider marketing is very useful • The harder the job market the more personal marketing you need to do
Resistance to Personal Marketing • Despite its obvious value most people resist personal marketing to some degree • For some it is because they believe self promotion is tacky or unethical, for others it reminds them of a sleazy used car salesperson-some have a secret prince/princess complex- “a star like me shouldn’t need to do this” • What negative story do you tell yourself about personal promotion? What are the benefits to these stories? • With lawyers two things will determine how many offers you get-how much effort you put into job hunting and how effective you are at it
Personal Marketing • Waiting for job ads that describe you is particularly useless-you will miss 90% of the opportunities yet believe you are looking for a job-also if there are no ads that describe you, you will falsely conclude there is no work out there and become disheartened • What works is to conclude you will have to market yourself anyway and job ads are just low hanging fruit-easy pickings
Being Proactive Works • Warm contact always trumps cold contact (see p.326) • Be aware of hit ratios-it might be 15-3-2 meaning you have to make 15 applications to be short listed 3 times for 1 offer • Take an attitude of being a resource person trying to match what you can offer to what the employer wants-not a job beggar
Loving Rejection • Job hunting is about being selected or rejected-you can hurt yourself with this reality or accept it • Everyone likes feeling safe, being right, feeling good, looking good, and avoiding pain-you can choose these rather than getting results-paradoxically-it will make job hunting harder • “I won’t do cold calls” is just saying I am afraid of rejection • When I am rejected I feel____
Loving Rejection • People tend to personalize rejection, buy their negative story and feel crappy about it • Another interpretation of this is it is just a selection process for fit or style-it is the same as selecting what clothes to wear –you are not rejecting the clothes you don’t pick • It is not “personal” at all-you are the one who chooses to make it personal • Have faith in the selection process and yourself-if you are not picked that is great!!-it is their judgment some other person may be better and they are probably right!!
Getting Results • The bottom line is that at the end of the day you will have your results or your reasons why not • Become an “insider” not a beggar at the door • A classic example in law is getting an articling job at the firm where you did a summer job-you may not have even got an interview at he same firm
Getting Results • People will hire who they know over who is best qualified almost every time • Read about the field, attend Bar seminars and CLE events in that field • Create a network in that field, volunteer in the area • Informational interviews are useful here-they are low risk and curiosity based
Networking • All super successful people are great networkers • This is about taking advantage of other people to help you out-every person you add to your list knows about 200 other people • If we wanted to talk to someone who has personally met President Obama we could probably find someone here in Vancouver who has or at least knows someone who has within a few hours • There is a method of managing your contacts on pages 328-345
Networking • Most people know how to create a network but don’t want to use it or are very timid about it • Most people you have a real relationship with will try to help you • You can make requests, if people say no make a smaller request-see page 342 • This depends on the relationship you have with the person-inappropriate requests will turn people off-being too timid wastes potential-many people err on the side of safety-it’s the call that gets results!!