Do you ever have different people address different Unique Value Propositions?

Friday, February 10, 2006

I personally have identified SEVEN different UVPs that I “offer”.

I have seven different resumes (actually 14 – 7 pairs of functional to hide my age and traditional chronological) to advance selling those UVPs.

Remember a search is about stages. You don’t go from “needing a new job” to “having a new job”. You start by “recognition”.

You have to progress to “this is what I can offer” or “this is what I want to do”. Here’s where the feedback loop begins.

You may be offering X and worst case there is no market for X. Or, the market for X doesn’t pay you what you want, want you where you want to be, or has other facets that you haven’t considered.

So, you HAVE to (imho and this is my pov and your mileage may vary) define what peanuts you want to peddle. You should ALSO define your geographic comfort zone and your financial comfort zone.

In my case, I said that my Geographic Comfort Zone was NYC/NJ because I have to be there for my mom. That was my number one constraint. And, because my my wife has the first dollar she ever earned and many of the ones after that, my money demands were secondary. So, I said my Financial Comfort Zone was: X$ for a 30 minute NJ drive, 150%ofX$ for more than 30 minutes, 200% for NYC (It’s basically a three hour round trip commute and you have no life but weekends), and would consider for the right Big Bucks oppty an intra area relo say to South Jersey, North Jersey, parts of upstate NY, CT,  or into NYC.

AND, then you have to look at every opportunity using that filter.

At times, I have been what I call an “interview slut”. I shamelessly was chasing opptys for the practice or desperation. As I got older and smarter, I just flat out didn’t want to waste my valuable time doing that.

Note well, my current job was geographically correct and the original job $ was below my target. I went on the interviews and they were impressed enough to up the ante to very close to my number. I felt good enough about the perks that I closed on it. It was about 6k off from my target.

So don’t be afraid to pursue something that appears not to fit. BUT don’t invest a lot into the obvious misfits.

Again free advice is worth what you pay for it. Your mileage may vary. 

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Posted by reinkefj

When some one asked me “Can you endorse me on LinkedIn?”, I replied … …

Friday, February 10, 2006

Sure. When I solicit endorsements, I usually prompt people with my “unique value proposition” and some thoughts about what I think they might think. Has to be done gently, but it helps people. And it gets what I am trying to accomplish across.

So for example, if you are trying to sell the value proposition “managing tech info into effective and efficient projects” then I’d talk about a technical project. If on the other hand, you are trying to sell the “ensuring that projects are achievable as well as effective and efficient”, I’d talk about “doing something hard for the business with the added global complications”.

So what are you trying to sell and what should we use as the example? It’s only 400 characters so we have to get it crisp as well as right.

 

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Posted by reinkefj