Market Yourself to Employers

From Milspose.com By: Joshua Hudson

When you are looking for employment, you are selling a product — yourself.
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Looking for a job is a full-time business. Like business, you need to understand your product, your potential clients and have a strategy to get those clients to buy. So remember the story of “the man and his mule.”
A very poor farmer was forced to sell his five mules for $20 each. An entrepreneurial young man took out a loan and bought all the mules for $100. He then put a sign, “Pack animals – $100 each” outside his barn. He sold all five of them within the week.

The poor farmer, clearly upset that he hadn’t earned the same profits, asked, “How did you sell those mules for $100 each? They weren’t worth more than the $20 I sold them to you for.”

The young man looked the farmer squarely in the eye and told him, “I don’t sell mules. I sell pack animals.”

The young man understood his clients. He knew what they wanted and developed a plan how to sell it to them. He rebranded the mules into pack animals, which was the key phrase his clients would respond to.

The same branding is true for you as a military job seeker. As you sell yourself to corporate America, you have to rebrand your “military experience” not only into terms the hiring manager understands but into the terms that address what hiring managers need.

Effective advertising delivers a promise: shinier floors, more supple hair, or a better car. If that message fails to connect the value of the product to the needs of the consumer, then the product doesn’t sell. When you write a résumé, you are your own product. You need to demonstrate to hiring managers that you have what they want: relatable, transferable, and intangible skills that will add value to the company.

Look at every aspect of your résumé and make sure that all of it sells what is best about you. Ensure that your résumé has civilianized wording. Be positive that your move valuable skills are followed up by tangible results. Don’t let valuable military experience get lost in military translation.