There’s always something promising about the thought of a new year. It’s a completely clean slate, and no matter what happened in the previous year, the final turn of your calendar means a fresh start. If you’re not where you want to be in your career, why not dedicate 2014 to marketing yourself? It can make your job search easier, not to mention you’ll build a great reputation in the meantime. Here’s how to get started:
Set a goal.
Why are you marketing yourself? Are you hoping for a new job? A raise? To be able to change careers and follow your passion? Knowing your exact goal can help you get better results with fewer changes in course. Visualizing yourself achieving a goal can also be a powerful motivator, so make sure you know what it is you want.
Assess yourself.
What are your strengths? You’ll want to play those up as much as possible, and prove each strength with examples from your past career successes. What are your weaknesses? Not only do you want to minimize those as much as possible, but you should also take the time to improve them. For example, are you afraid of public speaking? Vow to take steps in 2014 to improve this by volunteering to lead a meeting at work. Who knows, by the end of the year, your weaknesses may become new strengths.
Strengthen your online presence.
Many employers will Google you at some point. Does the thought of that make you nervous? If so, take some time to manage your online reputation. It’s not often possible to remove bad or embarrassing things from the Internet, so focus on creating great content that you can be proud of instead. Submit to blogs or start your own website to control what people find when they search for your name.
Need more help with making 2014 a great year for your career? Contact one of our staffing specialists at Contemporary Staffing and sit down with us. We can help you with all the steps of marketing yourself, and we’ll market you to companies as well. Call us today to get started.