How to Market Yourself

By Florence Stone

Most managers have had some involvement in their company's marketing efforts, so they are familiar with the importance of a creative brief, a tightly written document that outlines the objectives of the marketing program and describes the target, the product or service and the key messages that are most compelling and motivating for generating the desired results.

There is an equivalent document for when you are interviewing for a job either within or outside your current company. The finished creative brief, in this instance, is your market analysis of yourself as a product. It answers a question interviewers often ask, “Why should I hire you?”

Here are the questions you need to address in your personal creative brief:

1. What are the three words that best describe the strengths I bring to any job?
2. How have those strengths contributed to my career to date?
3. What evidence do I have that is demonstrative of those strengths?
4. What are the tasks or responsibilities I like best?
5. What skills, knowledge or achievements am I proudest of?
6. What results or accomplishments would I like to emphasize during the interview?
7. What do my supervisors and co-workers think I do well?
8. How should I best describe that task or skill set?
9. What kind of praise have I received for my work?
10. What accomplishments have been mentioned in past performance appraisals that will be relevant to the position I am seeking?

The answers to each of these questions should be considered in light of the position for which you are interviewing. Or you can complete a general personal creative brief based on the next major move you want to make in your career. For that purpose, you might want to add three more questions:

1. What is my next career goal?
2. What additional training will I need to be considered for the position?
3. How can I demonstrate my capability for that position based on my day-to-day work—for instance, should I volunteer to lead a cross-functional project to demonstrate my leadership capability?

Incidentally, this document is also helpful as you prepare for your next performance assessment. The same information you assemble for the personal creative brief can be adapted for your remarks on the form. And the information will better prepare you to reply to questions your manager asks—to make the session a real exchange of information.

In particular, the last three questions will help you to make the appraisal process both an assessment tool and a managerial development aid.

These AMA resources will help you advance in your career:

AMA Seminars:

• Improving Your Managerial Effectiveness
• Taking on Greater Responsibility—Step-up Skills for Nonmanagers
• Preparing for Leadership: What It Takes to Take the Lead
• Leadership Skills for Supervisors

AMACOM Books:

• Managing Up: 59 Ways How to Build a Career-advancing Relationship with Your Boss
• The Girls' Guide to Power and Success
• The Manager's Question and Answer Book
• The Portable Mentor

Self-Study Programs:

• Success Essentials
• Leadership Skills for Managers
• The Complete Training Course for Managers
• First Level Leadership

AMA On-site: Every one of AMA's 170+ public seminars can be delivered on-site. This flexible, money-saving option allows you to train ten or more people, when and where you choose, at a low cost per participant.

Author Bio: Florence Stone is editorial director of American Management Association and author of more than 15 management books, most recently The Mentoring Advantage and The Essential New Manager's Toolkit.