Is This Your “Hire” Moment?

Whether you’re currently in job transition or think you might be soon, your survival instincts have likely kicked into gear.

“How do I hold on to the job I have… or find a new one fast?” 

Take a deep breath. Our societal “time out” is actually an ideal time to reflect on your career journey before taking the next step. What attracted you to associations in the first place? And more importantly, how can you be a positive force for change in our disrupted world?

Now wait… you’re thinking: “I’m scared of losing my job (or have already) and you’re telling me to think about lofty ideals? I just need practical advice.”

As my old professor used to say, “There’s nothing so practical as a good theory.” So, let’s take a pitstop and explore a few concepts that will hopefully rev up your career engine.

Discover Your “Hire” Purpose

First, let’s start with the basics.

Why do you work? It’s likely not just for a paycheck or for a successful C-suite career. Is it to make an impact? To advance a mission? Likely. But the only way to make your dent in the world is by leveraging your gifts (your innate abilities) and your talents (those abilities developed) in a way that can intentionally move that mission forward. 

Try this short exercise: 

What do you really love doing?

Think about your rock star skills that really make your heart sing. It’s the type of work (strategic or tactical) that others value and that you would do even if you were independently wealthy. This is where the music happens. It’s where you give discretionary effort and where you make your biggest impact.

What do you tolerate doing?

This is the work you’d rather delegate off your desk. You’re perfectly competent but not particularly excited to do it. While you may not complain about it, this work doesn’t energize you. Consider WHY you feel that way, then start imagining what it would be like to step away from that type of work and towards the work you love.

What work do you aspire doing?

These are areas of professional development. It’s those skills that you either WANT to learn (aka “get to”) or NEED to learn (aka “should.) Consider what type of learning – from a mentor, short course or certification – would round out your skill portfolio and increase your impact.

What type of work drains you?

Yep, this is the stuff that makes you go “Ugh.” You’ve never been competent at it, and for good reason. It likely doesn’t align with your personality or your natural gifts. Any time this work shows up on your desk it goes in the procrastination pile. 

Showcase Your “Hire” Value

Your professional value – aka your career brand – is why people come to you when they’re in a jam. It’s your secret sauce that others need in their life. You can easily identify those areas by considering the type of challenges you naturally run after. The ones you excitedly think about when you’re off the clock. The ones which inspire the most creativity from you.

While your internal colleagues already appreciate your superpowers, how can the rest of the world know the ways you can ease their pain?

Brand your resume

Contrary to popular belief, your resume should NOT be just a laundry list of your skills, job duties, and accomplishments. Curate only those elements that reflect the types the problems you want to continuing solving in the future. Then apply for jobs that will use those superpowers. 

And because employers only take about 6 seconds to screen your resume, make sure your brand – in alignment with the job posting – stands out fast. 

First, craft a career headline (under your contact info) that accurately describes your career goals and superpowers. For example: Data-driven Marketing Leader or Revenue-Focused Operations Executive.

Next, highlight your core competencies in a text box or table that focus on the skills you love doing and will be demonstrated in your accomplishments below.

Now create results-oriented accomplishments stories (not job duties!) that demonstrate the times when you knocked it out of the park and loved every minute of it. Then label each story with a bold competency that best reflects the skill you want to highlight. 

Here are two examples: 

Market Segmentation. Designed outreach campaign to target early career professionals. Developed special educational programs, networking opportunities, and peer outreach initiative, which resulted in 8200 new members and uptick in corporate partnerships.

New Value Creation. Spearheaded production of documentary promoting nursing profession by leveraging in-kind partnership with health care video producer. Documentary has generated thousands of YouTube hits and is used as a training tool by members. 

Leverage your brand on LinkedIn

Believe it or not, your LinkedIn profile IS your professional website. Much like when a potential customer reviews a corporate website before deciding whether to contact a vendor, your future employers and colleagues will likely scan your LinkedIn profile to decide whether to reach out to you. 

So, does your profile say about your brand value?

If you’re like most people, not much. Most of us were told that we *should* have a profile, but no one told us what to say. The brilliance of LinkedIn is that we can design our brand any way we like. Our picture, headline, About, and Experience sections tell the world what we want them to know

So, let’s use this valuable real estate wisely!

First things first. Professionalize your URL. The one LinkedIn gives you is cluttered with extraneous letters and numbers at the end. Here’s how to fix it:

From the page where you edit your profile, click on Edit Public Profile and URL in the upper right corner. 

Then click on Edit Your Custom URL, also in the upper right. 

Click on the blue pencil and try to keep only your name. If it’s already taken, add a hyphen between your name and/or your middle initial. The idea is to have a professional URL as close to your name as possible.

Make sure your picture is the best representation of your professionalism and personality. Nix that Facebook pic and replace it with an image that makes people say, “I want to work with you!” While a professional photographer is ideal, a friend-and-a-smartphone can be effective too. And remember to flash those pearly whites! Your warmth exudes trust.  

Similar to the resume headline you created, your LinkedIn headline should tell the world WHAT you do and HOW you do it using the keywords that employers might use to find you. Here are a couple of examples:

Association CEO: Harnessing the power of people and ideas to do great things

Empowering Operations Leader: Trusted Advisor | Systems Analyst | Innovative Strategist

The About section in your LinkedIn profile can be one of your best branding elements, if you use it wisely. LinkedIn gives you ~2000 characters (about 300 words) to write a compelling narrative that expresses your professional passions, the problems you solve, your thought leadership, and what it’s like to work with you. Here are some questions that can help you craft your story:

What are the urgent problems (in my profession and/or my sector) that I love solving?

What do I believe are the best ways to solve those problems?

Which skills do I enjoy using most and what is my secret sauce for each one?

What are the behavioral attributes that colleagues appreciate most about me?  

Your Experience section should directly correlate with your resume. While your resume should be customized for each job posting (yep, each one!), your LinkedIn Experience should only contain the elements that are likely not to change including a brief overview of your responsibilities and a few of your standard, key accomplishments. 

Your recommendations are an excellent way to validate your brand by asking others to showcase your value. Here are some tips for soliciting recommendations:

Only ask for a recommendation from someone who really knows your work: a supervisor, colleague, member or vendor (not a personal friend.)

Before reaching out to them through the LinkedIn portal (more on that in a sec), email or call them to ask their permission and to customize their comments around the brand you crafted in your shiny new About section.

Once they’ve agreed, use the LinkedIn portal to formally request the recommendation. Open up their contact page, click on the More button, then select Request a Recommendation. When you get to the box with the message request, tailor it by gently reminding and thanking the person for agreeing to craft a customized recommendation.

Once you receive the recommendation (and they make after any edits), you’ll need to Accept the recommendation and Show it, so that it doesn’t hide in your archives.

Consider boosting your impact with video. Did you know you can add media to your profile under your Featured section? It can be a great way to personalize your brand by sharing a 1-2 minute verbal summary of your About section. Think of it like a quick answer to that famous interview question: “Tell me about yourself.” It helps create congruency with you who say you are on paper. Need help? (Ask video image consultant KiKi L’Italien!)

Create “Hire” Connections

Have you ever heard of the The Go Giver? It’s a little book that turned into a movement. The premise: Give Exceptional Value. Enjoy Extraordinary Results. The cool thing is that the extraordinary results are a by-product of genuine giving … not the reason for giving.

One of their Five Laws of Stratospheric Success harnesses this principle particularly well:

  • Touch Lives. Touch lots of lives with the exceptional value you provide. Your income is determined by how many people you serve, as well as how well you serve them.
  • How can you provide exceptional value?
  • Offer free advice to your network. Schedule regular coffee chats (live or virtual) with your colleagues simply to learn what’s keeping them up at night. Be a listening ear and offer helpful tips if they need to brainstorm solutions. (Remember: only offer advice if asked… some people just need to talk things through.) Who knows, maybe they’ll return the favor and help you too!
  • Be a master connector. As you listen to your colleague’s challenges, offer to connect them with others who might be able to help them better than you can. Search through your LinkedIn contacts by entering keywords in the search bar to find experts who can solve their pain. Then right there during your coffee chat, either make the e-intro directly or email your contact to get permission, if you think they would appreciate the courtesy.
  • Give the gift of thought leadership. If you’ve been in your profession for a solid length of time, chances are you have a unique perspective on the needs of the stakeholders you serve and how to address the challenges they face. If you do, LinkedIn is an excellent place to share your ideas and/ or pass along the ideas of others. Want to create a blog? Click on the Write an Article feature on your LinkedIn home page (top of the middle section.) Want to share someone else’s post? Click on the Share button. Especially if you’re not a natural writer, this is an easy way to promote ideas by leveraging someone else’s thought leadership.

It’s easier than you think to shift your mindset from “getting hired” to creating a “hire moment.” By adopting a go-giver mindset, you can tap into your divine superpowers and deliver authentic value to those who need it most. Help other people solve their challenges and you become a fountain of encouragement to them… and to yourself. 

 


About the Author

Shira Lotzar is Chief Engagement Officer of Purposeful Hire, Inc. An association search consultant and career coach, she is passionate about helping employees discover their career passions and employers create highly engaged workplaces. A DEI trainer, she is also keen on bridging gaps between diverse cohorts, especially between early career and seasoned professionals. To this end, she launched a nonprofit program, BoomerWorks.org, to help professionals age 50+ re-career into self-employment. She was honored to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florence Belsky Foundation for this groundbreaking work. Shira’s passion for helping job seekers and employers fulfill their mutual mission is stated in the tagline of her business: For every hire, there is a higher purpose. Reach her at shira@purposefulhire.com and linkedin.com/in/shiralotzar.

 

Get daily Association Chat updates

Get the latest news, videos, podcasts, and more in your inbox every morning.