How Do I Market Myself?

In todays market you will have to know how to market yourself from the inside out. "As a recruiter, the first thing I notice in a "star" candidate is his/her confidence. It shows up early on paper and later in person. When talking to Nicole Spicer this past weekend she agreed that “A trained eye can spot them with the first email, phone call and as they walk through the door." She is a Fortune 500 recruitment expert!

So first you have to ask yourself: am I aware of my power and will it show up for me throughout the job search and interview process?

This is not about your ego or telling someone how good you are, it is about knowing your personal power and being confident in your abilities. It is authentic; you cannot fake it (or at least not sustain it for long if you do.) If you hesitate on this concept you probably are not there - yet. I cover this topic in depth in my book Funky To Fabulous if you feel this is something you would like to brush up on.

Expert Advice On Interview Skills

As an executive coach here in Santa Monica California I find myself talking to a lot of people day in and day out. This weekend I was talking with recruitment expert Nicole Spicer and she has superb advice to help you amp up your interview skills and I wanted to share this advice!

"Make sure you ask for all the basics: copy of the job description, interview location, parking details, several internal phone numbers in case there is a last minute problem and if there is an online application you can fill out ahead of time," says Spicer.

She also suggests that you find out who you who you will be interviewing with and what his or her title is. If you are being interviewed by multiple people, it's often helpful to know in what order these interviews will occur. Ask who they are in the process, i.e. decision maker or influencer. (This is key.) I love this advice and highly suggest it as well! You can find more advice on Interview skills at my blog at the Huffington Post.

Job Interview...Visualize Success

I really feel the next important step before that big interview is to visualize success!!

Olympic athletes visualize themselves winning their competition. You can use that same technique. (I do.) See, feel, and hear that you already have the job. Yesterday, I had an interview for a TV show. To be honest I was intimidated since several of the folks involved are big honking stars. On the drive to the interview I visualized that I was simply driving to work since I already had the job. It worked. Before the first interview was over the executives asked me to come back for a second one. Srinivasan Pillay writes a good article on The Science Of Visualization if you need to brush up on that!

Don't forget to get prepared mentally!