Sell Yourself Into That New Position With a PowerPoint Presentation

Once you define your market plan, you need to take that professionally formatted resume and turn it into a flashy PowerPoint.

Craft a presentation that makes a "WOW" statement about you, your accomplishments and your goals. It has to be a presentation that, as the individual views it, will gain and keep their interest. But it must be short enough and to the point so interest is not lost, but in depth enough for them to see the value you can bring to the team.

Don't forget to include a few pages, allowing a tweak to a specific company. A little something that ties you directly to them, the industry and the job that you are targeting.

Upon completion, there are several ways to use your presentation. The greatest thing to remember, is that it can be used as an attachment to e-mail. Target the companies that you want to work for, tweak the company info segment in your presentation and send it to the email address of company executives and known hiring managers.

In many cases, you can send it along with your resume when applying for a position, but to be perfectly honest, I doubt that it will be viewed much this way. More often than not, your resume is printed out and anything other than possibly a cover letter, or T-chart, will remain unprinted. But, it can't hurt. It just might gain enough curiosity to be viewed and shown to many key people in the company.

Another use for the PowerPoint is to post it within Your LinkedIn profile utilizing the SlideShare presentations tool. (slide presentations also help your LinkedIn climb to top billing by Google, after you have your rating @ 100%)

I've also heard about an individual that loaded his PowerPoint presentation onto a laptop and used it during his interview. A salesperson is comfortable with doing this, but you should be as well. After all, as you search for your next career move, you have to sell yourself. The sooner that you are at rest with this concept, the sooner you will land that next position with confidence.

You can also post the PowerPoint on your career search website. You can either Google and get a free one (be careful that one like this doesn't add a lot of sexual or dating advertisement, which certainly wouldn't help you land that job). The safer way is to invest a small amount, like ten bucks for a year from someone like "GODADDY.COM" Then get someone as you network, to help you with setting it up. You can usually buy a domain with your name as the domain. Then, this info can be included in your resume header and in your LinkedIn.

One more thing to think about would be a resume video. This also can be e-mailed and included in your career search website.

Invest a little time, even if you need to get a few folks to help you. Maybe suggest a network group workshop to get this project under way.

I hope this helps. It just may be that one thing that stands you out above the other applicants, to land your next career position.

Using Social Media Tools to Enhance Your Job Search

I found this slide presentation on LinkedIn SlideShare Presentations. Tom Carbonaro does of pretty good job of defining the various online network media currently available. He outlines the importance of branding yourself to rise above the numbers and carrying that brand through all media. Then he explains the importance of tying it all together. I hope you find it as enlightening as I did. Have a little fun marketing yourself through the various media available to you. They're all just a few keyboard strokes away.

Market Yourself in a Tri-Fold ~The Latest Attention Getter

It's the one of the latest items that is being used to set yourself apart from your competition. The use of a tri-fold as a personal marketing piece is spreading like wildfire in the career search market.

Getting in front of the right person(s) at that company you'd love to work for, can be a seemingly impossible task. In as much as you attempt to network, whether it be face to face or through LinkedIn, to reach the key personnel at the firm, you still have a difficult time gaining the attention of your intended audience.

There is still no guarantee that you will reach beyond the HR department, but certainly an attention getter if you do. Your tri-fold puts a face to the targeted position. The tri-fold can include your strengths and skills, a narrative of your work history, your recent career high points and list your name and contact information in several places. I also included three of my LinkedIn recommendations, copied word for word, in quotations and with the individual and their title of the individual that provided the recommendation.

This tri-fold slide presentation provides a good idea of what I'm talking about. You can conduct a Google search for tri-fold templates that will provide you with a head start.

Don't forget to put your business card in the first flap of the tri-fold before mailing. When the flap is opened, your business card will fall out on the desk. You now have two pieces of contact information that must be handled. You increase your chance of being noticed and having your name hang around for awhile.

Research the companies that you want to work for, looking up key names of at least Vice Presidents of your targeted department or department heads and managers (hiring managers if they can be determined). Mail the tri-fold to these people at the company and the published company address. Also, mark on the front of the envelope; "personal" and/or "confidential". This should increase the chance of the intended individual to receive the tri-fold.

Give it a week or so, but don't wait too long. Call the individual(s) that you sent the tri-fold to. Ask if they've received the tri-fold. This will open the dialog for you both. You might not want to come out and ask for a job, but perhaps show an interest in the company, ask about their needs, or problem areas that they are willing to share with you. Ask for their opinion, people love to provide free advice. Ask if you could meet with them, preferably off site, perhaps over coffee early one morning before they go to work.

I wish you well in your search. Please come back and let us know how this worked for you and perhaps what you've done differently with the tri-fold.