1.    Don’t tell your current colleagues that you are job hunting, even the ones that you think you can trust.  Even with your best interests at heart, it is so easy for others to let your secret slip, leaving you to face the bad feeling and loss of trust with your boss.

2.    Save your job hunting for outside office hours.  Nothing that you view on an office computer is private and e-mails can either have a nasty habit of going astray or may be monitored by your company.  However cryptic you might try to make your responses during an employment-related telephone conversation, you would be surprised how easily suspicions can be aroused.

3.    Whilst building online profiles and professional networking are activities that a great many people are involved in nowadays, many do so with an eye towards the future or simply to help them gain greater knowledge in their field or industry.  Never blatantly broadcast the fact that you are in the market for a new marketing job in an online environment.  Letting others know in a face-to-face situation that, like everyone else, you are open to other opportunities, is something quite different to shouting your job search from the roof tops.  Telling trusted confidantes in a personal setting that you are actively seeking another position allows you to stress the need for discretion in a way that you cannot do, for example, over the telephone or in an e-mail.  As far as your online activities are concerned, trust that the opportunities will come your way without you having to broadcast your intentions.

4.    Don’t attend job fairs whilst you are still employed – you never know who might turn up.  Clients, suppliers or co-workers who may already have resigned may have no compunction about spreading the news.

5.    As obvious as it may sound, don’t ask your current employer for references.  The time to supply these to a prospective employer is only after you have received and accepted a formal job offer.

6.    Only respond to job advertisements where the hiring company is clearly identified.  Applying unknowingly for a position within your own organisation is one of the most embarrassing ways to get caught out.

7.    Targeting your job hunt not only vastly increases your chances of success, but also has the benefit of being considerably more discreet.  The law of averages says that the wider you cast your net, the greater your chances of being discovered.

Job hunting when you are already employed simply requires a little caution and common sense, and conducting it via a well-established and trustworthy network is your safest approach and the one most likely to return results.

In years gone by, before the Internet became such a huge part of our daily lives, networking was something which took place mainly in face-to-face environments or through letters of introduction.  Nowadays, of course, face-to-face networking is still every bit as important, but of course our other options are now vastly increased and many choose to do the bulk of their networking online.  Recruiters, far from simply posting online marketing jobs, actively trawl the Internet in their efforts to seek out those with marketing skills and experience.  If you do not have an online presence, therefore, and a good one at that, you might just as well be invisible.

What should you do then if you are starting from scratch and Googling yourself brings up a big, fat zero?  Actually, there are a couple of really quick and easy places that you can start.  Google profile pages allow you to create your own professional profile in minutes.  With plenty of space in the ‘About me’ section, you can take the opportunity to showcase your marketing experience (using keywords to draw potential employers to your page of course), and as time goes on and you add to your online presence, you can link directly to your other profiles and sites.  The beauty of the Google profile page is that, being a Google product itself, the search engine of course loves it.  You can find the main page for Google profiles at http://www.google.com/profiles.

LookupPage, at http://www.lookuppage.com, is another great resource to get you started.  You can either opt for their free membership or their Basic or Pro packages.  The two latter will guarantee you a top Google ranking for your name, but even the free package will place you in the site’s directory so that others can find you easily.

Of course profile sites such as these are not designed to act as social or business networking tools where you can add contacts and network your way towards marketing jobs.  What they are, however, is a quick and easy way to ensure some level of online visibility and a great place to start.  Remember that having no online presence when a prospective employer Googles you in this day and age is tantamount to telling him that you have no friends and nothing worth telling the world.

Just one word of warning with regard to these sites and any others that you choose to join…make sure that the information you display across them all is consistent, especially your name.  The name by which you are known is an important part of your brand and if you vary it from site to site, employers’ searches will fail to find all the great information that will help to ‘sell’ you.

Networking is about creating new opportunities through real, long-term relationships.  It requires mutual trust and respect, patience and, above all, the willingness to give to others.  Its huge payoff comes in the fact that once these relationships are established, they do not just present a one-off opportunity such as if you were applying for an advertised vacancy, but have the potential to offer ongoing and often unexpected opportunities.

Those who approach networking with an extended hand and a ‘What can you do for me?’ attitude are doomed to certain failure.  The brand image that they create for themselves is that of a ‘taker’, rather than of somebody with whom a mutually beneficial relationship can be built.  It is important, therefore, that you always give first to your contacts and that your prime consideration remains their needs.  If that sounds somewhat counter-intuitive and you are left wondering what is the point, then rest assured that anything you give will come back to you many times over.

Knowing what to give to their contacts is a challenge to many who are new to networking, and it helps to consider what you yourself would want from others, as well as to remember that what you give does not have to be something immense.  Advice and support are, of course, always valuable to other job hunters and your own professional and life experiences are things which could benefit others enormously.  How did you achieve a particular goal?  Where did you go for certain information?  How did you get round a specific problem?  Your insights could save them much time and wasted effort.

Information is of course a huge gift to others.  Listen carefully to what your contacts are trying to achieve and actively seek out news reports or articles which might help them, as well as passing on any reliable information which comes to you through the grapevine.  Offering your own contacts and introductions to relevant others could help to provide your fellow networkers with faster routes towards their objectives, and of course direct referrals for known vacancies are the holy grail.  Just remember that whatever is done in the spirit of giving will come back to you.

One extremely important aspect of entering networking relationships with the right attitude is ensuring that your networking activities begin before you need them.  If you wait until you need a new job in marketing, there is a much greater chance that you will approach your activities and your contacts with a sense of desperation, which many will find off-putting.  If you haven’t already done so, start building your network now so that it is already in place when you are looking to move on.

Actually, personal branding has much in common with branding in terms of products, services or companies and we can start by looking at the 4 Ps – product, place, price and promotion to see how these relate.

Product

Whilst in the more conventional sense, products are of course the ‘things’ or the services that we are trying to market, in terms of personal branding the product is you.  It might be tempting to think of yourself rather as the services that you have to offer, but this would not, in fact, take into account everything that you comprise.

You, the product, are made up of many things, including all of the following:

•    Your background
•    Your education and qualifications
•    Your experience
•    Your skills and knowledge
•    Your personal qualities
•    Your personal values

This isn’t the end of it, however, because like a conventional product you also have your own packaging and your own accessories.  Your packaging is mainly in the form of your personal appearance, how you dress and your personal grooming.  Your accessories, meanwhile, can be considered to be your portfolio, including your CV, your cover letters, your work samples, testimonials and references.

Of course, another important aspect of a product when it comes to marketing is its warranty and, in terms of your personal brand, this is equally vital.  What do we mean by your warranty?  Your reputation.  Your reputation is what acts as your guarantee to a current or prospective employer that they can have faith in you and what you have to offer.

Price

Price is quite self-explanatory in that it, of course, relates to the value that you or an employer places on your education, skills, experience and so on.  It is not solely limited to salary, however, but to any additional forms of remuneration such as pension schemes, numbers of days paid annual leave and sick leave, private health insurance, free club memberships, subsidised education schemes or anything else which might form part of your benefits package.

Place

Place, in relation to personal branding refers both to the geographical location where you wish to work and to the specific companies that you wish to target.

Promotion

Your promotion tactics are what answer the question as to how you are going to let prospective employers know that you are out there in order to get the position that you desire.  What are you going to put into, or leave out of your CVs and cover letters to ensure that you get that all-important interview?  What job hunting techniques are you going to use?  Are you going to focus on responding to job advertisements and signing up with online job boards (NOT a good idea!) or concentrate on building your networks?  Are you going to create your own personal blog or website and set yourself up as an expert in your field?  Are you going to do your networking face-to-face, online or both?  What are you going to tell prospective employers about yourself?  How are you going to conduct yourself in job interviews?

Just as when the 4 Ps are applied to marketing products and services, working on them in terms of creating our personal brands is not a two minute job and consideration needs to go into each individual aspect.  In future articles, we will therefore explore a wide range of job hunting issues, including everything from career planning to interview tips and questions, and from how to put together a CV which will make you look like the perfect match for your desired marketing job to how to make networking work for you.

A marketing career can take you in many different directions and into many different specialisms and in this, the first of a series of spotlights on marketing jobs, we are going to take a look at the job of a brand manager.  Brand management is, of course, an area to which increasing numbers of companies have turned their attentions in their attempts to increase their credibility, differentiate themselves from the competition and increase their profits, and consequently a good brand manager can be worth his weight in gold.

So, what does brand management actually involve?  Lucy Evans, brand manager for Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, describes her role as ‘the interface between consumers and retailers, and the marketing director who holds the brand budget.’  Whilst her role involves the management of the brand for a single product, brand management could in fact involve the application of various marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, service or to an entire company brand.  Ultimately, it is the brand manager’s job to ensure that the brand stands out from the competition, reflects the values of the company and increases the perceived value to the customer.

The role of a brand manager usually involves a good deal of interaction with a wide range of other marketing professionals in order to bring together the whole ‘brand package’ and fulfil the requirements to:

•    Conduct market research to establish to what degree the brand is in touch with its target customers

•    Develop the brand’s identity

•    Ensure that the product or service fits with the image and values of the company

•    Oversee production

•    Ensure that any relevant advertising or online marketing or presence fits with the brand image

•    Monitor sales and the impact of advertising

•    Track and analyse competitor and market trends

•    Handle budgeting and forecasting

As a brand manager is often responsible for co-ordinating aspects of sales, production, advertising and promotion, research and development, market research, purchasing, distribution, packaging development and finance, strong all-round marketing skills and knowledge are key to moving into this area, as is the ability to see the bigger picture.  Because the role is concerned with creating and implementing a brand strategy, and this is contingent upon understanding practical implementation, previous experience in direct or relationship marketing and/or advertising, market research, product development or some other relevant specialism is normally a requirement.  Having said this, however, some large multi-national organisations do have opportunities for graduates who possess the necessary academic qualifications to move into this field.

Many brand managers start in this specialised area by becoming assistants on a well-known brand before taking over a (usually less well-known) brand of their own.  Because levels of competition in this area tend to be high, a good marketing degree or HND, or a Chartered Institute of Marketing qualification, are the most useful qualifications to hold.

As well as focusing your CV on your relevant experience and achievements, securing a position in brand management also requires you to demonstrate the possession of qualities, skills and abilities such as:

•    Analytical skills
•    Excellent listening skills
•    Good communications and interpersonal skills
•    Creativity and vision
•    Entrepreneurial and strategic thinking
•    Strong financial skills

The rewards for roles in brand management range broadly from around £25,000 for a junior position to around £60,000 for an experienced brand manager.  The median salary in the USA, meanwhile, is just over $90,000, making it a very attractive option for those who wish to specialise in a particular branch of marketing.

The move from Assistant Brand Manager to Brand Manager would normally be expected to take 3-5 years and the experience gained at this level has the potential to open up opportunities as a Marketing Director, and then on to Group or Division Director and Senior Company Executive.

Promotion is not, of course, a God-given right, and before putting yourself forward for a higher level job within your existing company, the first thing that you need to ask yourself (and answer honestly) is whether you really deserve it.  Remember, turning up for work on time, meeting deadlines and fulfilling the requirements of your job description are all a given…they are what you get paid for but they are not, in themselves, sufficient to earn you that all-important next step up the ladder.  In such a competitive job market as we are faced with today, it takes much more than doing the basics to really stand out from the crowd, and do not forget that ‘the crowd’ could include external as well as internal candidates.

Whilst it might be natural to think that you, as an internal applicant, should stand a much better chance of achieving a promotion than a ‘newbie’ has of walking into the position, this should never be assumed.  You will still need to demonstrate that you are the best match for the role and this, of course, requires that you properly understand what that role entails.  All too often there is a tendency to think that we could do the job at the next level up with our eyes closed, but how often do we really stop to consider just what the position actually involves and what skills are needed to carry it out?

Another important thing to consider is whether you really want the job at the next level.  This might sound like a strange thing to say, but again, people often accept higher level positions simply because they are higher level positions, or because they pay more.  Sometimes, however, what they fail to take into consideration is whether their skills are suited to the role or whether they would even enjoy it.  Many, for example, move from more ‘hands on’ or creative roles into management positions, only to find that management is not where their hearts truly lie.  Not only do they find themselves unhappy as a result, but because their skills or personalities do not fit, they do not succeed at the job.

Assuming that the position is one that you want though, how do you go about making sure that you and nobody else gets the job?  The first thing to say here is that making a last-minute impression, albeit a good one, on your boss just will not cut it.  You should be striving at all times to make a consistently good impression on him.  From Day 1, you should be seeking to learn everything you possibly can, not just about your immediate role, but about your company, your field and your industry.  You should be thinking at a strategic level, rather than merely about the minutiae of your day-to-day tasks, developing solutions and never presenting your boss with problems.  You should be seeking to become the expert in your area that everybody turns to, and your credibility and your reputation should be impeccable.  Only will this kind of commitment make you stand out as the natural choice for the position.

So, how do you find out if an opportunity for promotion is available?  As we have mentioned, some executive marketing roles may be advertised internally through staff notices or other means, whilst others may, in addition, be advertised externally.  Others still, however, may never be advertised at all.  Many firms use headhunters as a means of bringing in new staff and this is why it is all the more important that you work consistently to make yourself the natural choice by creating a superb personal brand and genuinely adding value to your role.  It is also why you need to use your networking skills and develop connections with the influencers within your organisation.

The recruitment process for internal candidates in most organisations requires the applicant to complete an internal application form, which generally needs to be signed or approved by the individual’s line manager.  Thereafter, the process follows the same route as it would for an external candidate, with suitable applicants being identified through a preliminary sift and being offered an interview.  Notwithstanding that yours is an internal application, your aim should still be demonstrate that you are the best match for whichever marketing jobs you apply for.

Read on to find out more about how DISC personal profiles can help your marketing career.

Let’s start by giving you a little history about DISC. The DISC personal profile is a psychometric test. A psychometric test can measure one of two things - your ability and aptitude or your behaviour and personal style.

The DISC personal profile measures the latter and provides an insight into your preferred behavioural style, your strengths and limitations and what motivates you. You may have come across this personal profile before as it is often used as part of the recruitment process, appraisals, career development and to develop teams.

So what does it all mean?

DISC is an acronym and stands for:

D = Dominance
I = Influence
S = Steadiness
C = Compliance

Upon completion of a short questionnaire, you will receive a report which will help you to understand:

• Your strengths and limitations
• How you like to communicate with others
• How you cope with stress
• How you manage situations that may cause conflict
• How you make decisions
• How you are motivated and what may cause you fear
• How you like to manage others.

What style do you think you are?

Everyone is a combination of one or more styles as a working strength. Let me tell you about the different styles you may recognise in yourself or in other people.

If you are a dominant person, you will come across as direct, assertive and forceful. People who are high in this area are results driven and thrive in a challenging and competitive environment. They are great in a crisis, will make quick decisions and take action. On the downside they dislike routine situations and easily lose interest once a challenge has gone.

If you are an influencer, you will be a people-person. You will be positive, persuasive and like to build relationships with others. Motivated by recognition, you will be very communicative and will manage people by selling your ideas to them to get them on board to your ideas. On the downside, you won’t enjoy making decisions that put you in an unfavourable light, such as disciplining others, and may find it difficult to see things through to conclusion.

If you are a steady person, you will crave pace and security. You will come across as kind, patient and amiable, and will be a great listener. A persistent person, you will manage by organising and will communicate by listening to others. You will be great in a specialist or administrative role and will organise yourself and others well. On the downside, you don’t particularly like change unless you’ve been involved every step of the way.

If you are compliant, you will be motivated by rules and procedures. You will come across as careful, systematic, logical and precise and may be seen as a perfectionist. You will want facts to support everything that you can do, which may frustrate your colleagues who prefer an overview of a situation, and you will come across as cautious and considered in your approach.

Do you recognise your preferred style?

Although you have the generic characteristics of each profile above, people are generally a combination of different profiles with a preferred style often in combination with one or two other factors. Then the way someone behaves will depend on the strengths of the different characteristics. For example:

• Someone who is a DI profile is going to dominate through the force of their personality.
• On the other hand, someone with a DC profile will dominate through their knowledge and expertise.

An awareness of your own personal profile can help you to understand yourself better and what makes you tick. You will increase yourself awareness and also understand better the behaviours of other people.

You may have been in situations where you have been in conflict with someone else; maybe you have struggled to see someone’s point of view or not been on the same wavelength. If you understand your own profile, it can help you to understand yourself better and know how you can communicate more effectively with others.

You can also learn how to:

• Make the right career choices by understanding your key skills and how you can use them more effectively
• Identify what you might find difficult and how you can deal with this
• Understand how you relate to others and improve your relationships in different situations.

For more information about DISC personal profiles and how they can help you to be more successful in your career, download your free report ‘Understanding the Secrets of DISC’ today at http://www.selfdiscoverycoaching.co.uk/personal_profiles.html.

Many people work in a job they dislike or just find it difficult to stay focused at work.  The days seem long and they can’t wait to get home and go out or see their family.

To motivate means “to provide with an incentive”, or “move to action”. It is a desire to achieve a particular outcome with the energy and enthusiasm to achieve that goal.

When you are motivated it strengthens your ambitions; it increases your initiative and it gives you the energy to focus on your goals.  If that desire, energy or energy is absent, it can be difficult to get motivated to achieve something. This can lead to a feeling of failure, despondency or lack of success. But there are steps you can take to re-gain your motivation at work. Read on for my top 10 tips.

1. Plan your day – it can be hard to be motivated when you see the clock going around slowly and it feels an eternity until 5pm.  So plan activities into your day, such as the tasks you need to achieve, and also make time to stretch your legs, or make a drink.  Then you will be amazed how fast time will pass and what you will achieve.
2. Remain positive – office politics or negative colleagues can often reduce morale and make people feel demoralised and demotivated.  So do what can to remain positive – remember the good things, the thank-yous, the positive comments and thoughtful appreciation.  Then share your positivity with others.
3. Manage your projects – if you are working on a project which feels daunting or overwhelming, take some time to break it down into manageable chunks.  What can you do today to move the project forward?  Setting and achieving mini-goals will motivate further and help you to achieve the project.
4. Consider what you enjoy about your job – even those people who are really unhappy at work enjoy one or more aspects of their work.  Remember what attracted you to the job in the first place, what do you enjoy and appreciate, and how it benefits other parts of your life.
5. Have something to look forward to – whether you are planning your next holiday or a night out with friends, schedule activities and events that you love.  Or if you are working hard to afford a new car or other big expense, remind yourself of what you are doing to achieve that goal.
6. Remember that you don’t have to work flat out all of the time - make sure you take a break every so often, whether you make the tea, have a chat with your colleagues or do a different task.
7. Take a lunch break away from your desk or working area - fresh air and exercise is a great motivator and it is good to give you time away from your work.  It has the added advantage of making you feel more refreshed and more productive.
8. Delegate some work to others – delegation of the right tasks will help you to reduce your workload and will also give a new challenge to another person.  Show them what to do, give them a timeframe and then let them get on with the task.
9. Set goals for your working future – if you don’t want to be in the same job in one year’s time, do something about it.  Set a goal of where you want to be, and then start to work on it today.  What can you do within the next two weeks to move you closer to that objective?
10. Call for help - if you are having trouble staying motivated in your job, find someone to help you.  Whether you choose a colleague, friend, partner or a coach, talking about it will help you to overcome this slump and clarify what needs to change.

Be clear on what is expected of you

As a new manager you need to get absolute clarity on what is expected of you and how your performance in the job will be measured. The last thing you want is to get to your appraisal and find out that you have been aiming for the wrong target.

Set aside time for managing

If you do a 40 hour week and you know that management will take up about 40% of your time, block out 16 hours in your calendar each week and set up a schedule of things that you will work on. It might be appraisals, work planning, recruiting, staff training, customer surveys, management meetings to name a few.

Let go of the jobs you do not need to do

You might love doing that piece of analysis work on excel that you have always done but you know deep down that someone else can do it. Train them and let go of it.

Be accessible but manage interruptions

Managers love to talk about having an open door policy but make sure that people understand that this does not mean they can interrupt you whenever it suits them. Have slots when your team can come to you to discuss issues and make sure people know when they are. With e-mails, set aside times in you day to deal with them. If it a real emergency someone will call you. You may also need quiet time to focus on a report or presentation. Divert your phone to someone else if you can or to voicemail.

Build in some space in your schedule

Things crop up that you did not expect or anticipate, so make provision for these in your schedule so that you can be flexible and responsive.

Ask for help if you are getting overloaded

We all have blind spots. If you are finding that you are getting overloaded and cannot seem to find a way through, ask for help. Merely sitting down with someone else and asking them to take a look at the challenges with you and help find solutions can get you back on track and delivering great results.

At the end of the day there is no magic solution but taking control is a powerful first step.