10 Steps to Employment Security - and Securing Your Employment
- Developing a Portfolio of Value
- Build a Relationship with a Specialty Recruiter
- Develop an Incisive Rsum
- Practice Good Skills in Your Verbal and Written Correspondence
- Develop a Personal Brand
- Know How To Present Yourself
- Take Advantage of Business and Social Networks
- Network Actively
- Reconsider Posting on Job Boards
- Keep Up Your Training and/or Certifications
- Put Your Thanks in Writing
- Summary
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It's not hard these days to find someone who has recently lost a job, or is concerned about losing a job. Perhaps that person is you. For many decades, professionals defined themselves by the employer that provided their paycheck. In the past, you may have proudly told someone that you work for AIG or Merrill Lynch or Citigroup. As we've recently seen, the size of a company doesn't guarantee that it will survive a troubled economy; the world's largest organizations can crumble as quickly as a startup that isn't properly managed or strategically guided. When that happens, disaster recovery and security professionals take their licks right along with the rest.
Whether you're a contingency planner with concerns for your future employment prospects, or you're trying to sharpen your skills "just in case," you should find some useful insights here. Put to work these suggestions on how to make and keep yourself a marketable commodity, no matter what happens in the economy.
Developing a Portfolio of Value
For nearly 20 years, Jeff Snyder, president of SecurityRecruiter.com has been reviewing hundreds of technology résumés on a monthly basis—first, with a focus on general IT, and more recently focusing on information security, disaster recovery, and business continuity. Jeff believes that the companies for which you've worked are far less important in your résumé than the personal "portfolio of value" that you can offer a potential employer.
What makes you stand out from the crowd? Many elements can distinguish one person from another in the horde of job seekers, marking the difference between success and failure. Jeff suggests these top 10 differentiators that he looks for in choosing candidates:
- Relationships with specialty recruiters
- Résumé
- Verbal and written correspondence
- Personal brand (knowing yourself)
- Knowing how to present yourself
- Business and social networks
- Networking
- Job boards
- Ongoing training/certification
- Saying "thanks"
In the following sections, we'll examine each of Jeff's differentiators and present a specific tip that you can use to help secure your own bottom line.