This morning I was asked to come down the Santa Clarita Worksource Center and speak to their Job Networking Group.  I gave them a 2-hour training course called “Plugging Into the Power of Your Network,” which helped them apply some basic marketing skills to their job search.  The group learned about condensing and adapting their elevator speech, marketing their personal brand, tapping into online social networks, writing a marketing plan to organize their job search, and feeding their network according to the Law of Karma.

That may seem to some like a wildly obscure agenda.  When you are hunting for the next step in your career, you truly are embarking on a new business – the business of landing a solid job – and how better to plan for success than by writing an effective marketing plan. (If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.)  At the same time, I believe a job search is powered by your spiritual connections as much as your personal ones, and that the only way to receive opportunities from your network is to generate them for others.  Kind of a “pay it forward” mentality.  If you’d like to debate this point, please comment below.

Earlier this week, I came across a great blog entry by Sonja Jefferson, and afterwards I was struck at how similar the Web User experience is to the Meet-and-Greet User experience.  We formulate our first and lasting opinions in the smallest time frame, whether 30 seconds on a home page or merely a handshake in a mixer.  The emotional reaction either happens or it doesn’t, and then we move on downstream.

So first thing this morning, I asked the group these four questions:

• What Do You Do?
• How Long Have You Done It?
• What Have You Done?
• Why Do You Do It?

After hearing some mixed results, we spent a good deal of time re-engineering the critical elements of their person-to-person messaging:

• VALUE: “What Do You Do” is not “Be unemployed” or even “Look for work.”  What you do is “Project management,” “Group sales,” or “Financial analysis.” Better yet, what you do is “Solve problems.” Every company has problems that need resolution (or quality planning to avoid them in the first place), and depending on the type of problems they have, they will pay someone (maybe even you) a salary to keep those problems as small as possible.  To best convey your worth, talk in terms of the problems you solve.
• TRUST: “How Long Have You Done It” is a good measure of whether someone can trust you to get the job done.  Hiring managers want to know three things before they will trust you to solve their problems: A) you CAN DO the job, B) you WILL DO the job, and C) you FIT IN.  Past experience is a great indicator of future performance, so if you’ve been at it for a long time, say so and satisfy that point A.
• UTILITY: “What Have You Done” is the perfect opening for you to convey a success story, followed (if time allows) by a testimonial.  Success stories are another indicator of past performance (for point A above) and a fantastic opportunity for you to shine on.  Meanwhile, testimonials convey the quality of your user experience for potential users.  Wouldn’t you like them to envision themselves receiving the same quality experience from you?
• MISSION: “Why Do You Do It” is critical for a potential employer or hiring manager to know.  Why?  Because it explains the level of passion you will have for a job, which will go a long way toward satisfying point B.  While exploring your higher purpose, you can provide some insight into your character that may perhaps even satisfy point C.  (I feel this is also the most interesting aspect to explore in people – what makes them tick, what are their hot buttons, and how far are they willing to go.  It’s a great question to throw out to the person on the other end of the handshake.)
• PRESENTATION: This is all about how and when you deliver the messaging.  Are you dressed for the part?  Are you exercising professional etiquette?  Do you have your business cards on you?  And do you know when to shut up?  Sometimes we forget that the purpose of the meet-and-greet is merely to score the other person’s business card.  The card is what opens the door and allows us to send the follow-up email with resume attached.  The resume gets us the first interview.  The first interview gets us the second interview.  The second interview gets us the offer.  Going after the offer at the handshake is a guaranteed fail.

The surprise that tied it all together came at the end of the group session.  I was packing up my things when one member asked if I knew how to start a Web business.  Luckily, I do.    As a reference, I pulled out a great white paper by Daniel Meyerov.  Two other members asked for copies as well, so I’ll take that as a sign that the group is thinking big.

I just received an email with some feedback: “The group clearly enjoyed the presentation.  I especially appreciated the four key questions you used to help participants assess their value and develop direction for their job searches.  I plan to share those questions with one of my clients tomorrow.”  So I made a difference in someone’s life today and maybe someone else’s tomorrow.  Pretty damn cool, huh?