When the question comes to marketing themselves, the most common refrain is that their resume does not get any attention or responses from their targets where they have sent it for consideration. When I ask them how they have constructed their message, I get puzzled looks and many sheepishly admit that they have merely documented what they have done in their jobs that they held to create a chronology of their past. By doing so, they have resigned themselves to continuing their past, albeit perhaps in a new role.

Herein lies the problem!

When the job market gets tighter hiring managers are looking for someone who can bring a new set of eyes and skills to the open jobs. Sometimes, the jobs do not even have to be open for you to be considered for a position. How? Not all jobs are identified in any company and many do not even know how they could structure new positions in a dynamic and uncertain economy to position themselves better. Here, you can define something that a company may be interested in and present it as an opportunity that the company can pursue to its advantage!

To be able to get such attention you MUST craft a message that is more than merely documenting your past and compiling an inventory of your chronological assignments in the past jobs. In fact, sometimes what you have merely done in the past can get in the way of your advancing yourself in a beneficial way.

How?

Unless you can show that you are much more than your past assignments you are consigned to the fate of all those who treat their resumes as merely a vehicle to document your past. This means that you want your future to be an extension of your past.

If you are lucky!

Why not command your own future with a message that is forward looking and that excites the reader to consider you as someone who is positioned differently from everyone else?

How is this possible?

The most dramatic example of this possibility is what Barrack Obama has done in his campaign. Here is a person who has barely got into his first Senate term, with little or no political experience, someone who has never drafted any significant legislation, who is from a minority community, who has admitted to using drugs, who has never served in armed forces, whose name raises doubts in some people’s minds about his origins and loyalties, and who has never had any executive experience. He systematically starts his campaign to run for the highest office in the country. With his current momentum I would not be surprised if he becomes our next president.

How did he do it?

1. By focusing on the future and capturing people’s imagination. If he had relied merely on his resume (his past) he would not have got even to the first base!
2. He told his story through his books and speeches. You can do that, too! Instead of writing dry bullets on your resume about what you boss told you to do and how you did it, tell your reader why you did what you did and how well you did it (a story of your leadership)
3. Be persistent. Keep your message on target and do not waver from it. Capture the readers’ imagination by telling stories about your leadership and by showing what you can do that others cannot
4. Separate your resume from your message (Barrack is the best example of this) and separate what you did from who you are. The resume is not about what you did but it is about the message that you want to send as to who you are!
5. Be authentic in all that you convey and project. Without that authenticity all you have is a “campaign promise.”
6. Keep tinkering. Keep your message fresh and relevant. Keep trying to gather feedback and update your message.
7. Synchronize your message: your resume, your cover letter, your campaign, and your actions must all be in synch for others to believe in you!

No matter how tough the job market is there are always jobs and there are always opportunities that companies are trying to exploit. In fact, in tough times there are more opportunities than most realize!

Now go and conquer them!

“Your reach should be greater than your grasp.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson

You do not have to go far to realize that the job market today is really tough these days! What makes it even tougher for those who are already out and looking and for those who are on the verge of a layoff is that they see no hope for them to overcome their plight because there are fewer and fewer jobs of the kind that they did before. They are scared to try something else, either because they do not know how to create a message that allows them to launch a credible campaign in a new direction, or that they are simply out of ideas!

Traditional résumés are constructed using deductive reasoning. It is iron-clad by virtue of its logical power. It is also historical, so no one can doubt your veracity, unless you chose to overtly lie to get away with something just to claim what you do not deserve. In my experience with nearly 4,000 clients across the globe in a variety of situations is that most underestimate their worth and overestimate their value! This statement looks like a contradiction, but let me explain:

Our worth is what we are capable of doing (“reach” in the Emerson quote, above). Whereas our value is what we can transactionally extract when engaged in what we typically do (our “grasp.”). For example, working in our jobs we often believe (and feel) that we can do a much better job than what our boss is doing. We also believe that we deserve a much bigger raise for our contributions at work. This is our dented sense of proprioception about ourselves that prompts us to believe that our value is much greater than it is as perceived by others or than how it is rewarded. Emerson also wrote: We judge ourselves by what we are capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done! This is normal and many of us spend agonizing hours brooding over how undervalued we are because of this very fact! We go through all kinds of contortions to get a measly one percent higher raise than the next guy!

Worth, on the other hand is something that is intrinsic to us and it reflects what we can be if we reach out and apply ourselves in different and unusual ways. In the context of your transactional engagement (such as you current or previous job) it requires a different mindset for you to leap into a position that allows you to apply yourself in a new direction. Such a campaign requires a message that is different from what your typical résumé conveys.

How can one do this?

Well, you do not have to go far to see how this is done. Candidate Barack Obama successfully overcame his résumé to craft a message that got him the job he was after. To develop a message that is different from your résumé requires an inductive résumé (my phrase). An inductive résumé creates a forward looking message that takes you from the known to the unknown; quite a change from the linear, deductive résumé that everyone is used to and knows how to do well!

An inductive résumé is what can propel you in a new direction in this market. Despite its gloom and doom the current job market is rife with interesting, even exciting, possibilities. All you have to do is show a target employer (of your choosing) what is not happening for them in the realm that you have interest in and how you can make it happen for them. This requires some research, some fortitude and enormous self-confidence to pull it off. As a career coach I have done this myself five times (this is my fifth career) and have done this for my clients nearly 4,000 times across the globe. These are my proof points. If you do not believe these, go to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, DC and have a session with Barack himself!

Making an inductive leap requires the following elements:

A clear vision of what you want to do

Owning your genius that allows you to craft a verbal message that translates what you have done into what you can do

A few compelling stories that link your genius (Unique Skills) to your achievements in a direction that makes your claim of value creation in a new direction credible

A campaign that is highly targeted and moxy that is second to none!

Good luck!