In Career Focus: A Personal Job Search Guide , Martucci Lamarre (2006) suggests
ID: 408678 • Letter: I
Question
In Career Focus: A Personal Job Search Guide, Martucci Lamarre (2006) suggests that if we want to realize our job dreams, we need to think about ourselves as products to be marketed, and in order to do this, we need to contextualize ourselves within the five Ps of marketing: product, price, place, presentation, and promotion. Please reflect and respond to the following questions taken from our textbook.
What exactly is your product and how is it different from (or better than) other similar products?
Where will you sell your product?
Who are the potential buyers of the product and how does that price compare to similar products being offered?
How will you let others know about your product, and how will you develop its presentation to appropriate markets?
Explanation / Answer
Personal marketing like any product marketing can be studied through the 5 Ps – product, price, place, presentation and promotion. This requires personal assessment of one’s own knowledge and potential; strengths and weaknesses; zone of interest and behavioral aspects; career expectations etc.
Product-A jobseeker is trying to sell his skills, knowledge and expertise in the job market. Before he can start looking for a job, he should develop a personal selling strategy. This is almost like making a game plan and the most obvious selling strategy, given the intense competition in the job market, is to prove thatour skills are better than that of the other potential candidates. This can be done through an understanding of what a potential buyer (the recruiter) is looking for, and correlating his expectations with our own soft skills. The other candidates are like substitute goods. We need to differentiate our product from that of the others by identifying our strengths and working on them. It is also important to identify our career goals and take decisions which will support the same.
Place- The job market of a jobseeker will comprise of the industries which have a demand for the knowledge and skills offered by him. A market research will help him to identify the various current as well future job opportunities. Some sources which he can use are classifieds in newspapers or Employment news, websites like monster.com, employment exchanges, private placement agencies, carrier counselors etc.
Price-When a person gets a job offer, salary is usually one of the first things on his mind when he decides whether to accept the offer or not. What price (pay) is appropriate, this is a tricky question. The candidate would generally try to compare an offer with what the others are offering him. This is a kind of opportunity cost analysis. Besides the monetary returns, there can be other factors which will help him decide whether he is satisfied by a job or not. These factors can be working environment, designation, travelling and accommodation facilities, future growth prospects, recruiter’s position in the industry etc.
Presentation-Approaching the potential recruiter has to be done in a well-organized manner following the industry practice. Generally a resume with a covering letter is to be mailed to the HR executives. Using LORs (letter of recommendation) generally helps. But the approach has to be modified as per the requirements of the recruiter. Some organizations explicitly lay down the rules regarding applications for a job. It will also vary on the basis of the positional level at which the person is applying. For example, casual workers are not generally required to follow such formal procedures while applying.