Unless you’ve won the genetic or monetary lottery, it’s safe to say you need employment in order to cover the costs of the basic necessities required to live. While working is a must and I do enjoy working, I don’t believe this life is about living just to work. I love going to work with a purpose and the sense of accomplishment that comes with achieving that purpose. I enjoy working with my clients to help them create the life of their dreams as well. With all this in mind, I do understand what it’s like to NEED to work. After college, I found myself unemployed for the first time since I was 15 years old. It was terrifying but luckily, my basic living expenses were quite low at the time. So I took this times to really figure out my personal brand and how it can affect my employment search.

When in search of new employment, a health check on your personal brand is most helpful. If I send you to the grocery store to buy ingredients for dinner but I don’t tell you what dinner is, what ingredients you need to buy or what your budget is, how can I expect you to come home with what we need?  Your employment search is the exact same way. If you don’t know what your core values are, what hours you need to work, or what your monetary needs are, how do you expect to find the job that meets your needs?

How can you expect your needs to be met, if you don’t know exactly what your needs even are? 

The best way to discover your immediate needs is to start by writing down the things that are most important to you including your core values. Put a checkmark beside any items that are affected by your employment. You’ll use these checked items to create a list of needs for your employment.  For example, if you value living a cruelty-free lifestyle a company that is involved in animal testing or the use of animal ingredients or products, likely won’t be a good fit for you.

While making your list, I encourage you to also prioritize your discovered employment needs. Let’s say on your list, you record that you need weekends off and to make an annual salary of $60,000. You come across a position that offers $60,000 but requires you to work every other weekend. Now you need to decide which is more important, making that specific salary or having weekends off. By creating a prioritized list of needs, you’re giving yourself a good indication of the jobs you should focus on and perhaps what to negotiate during the hiring process. This list takes the guesswork out of if the job is right for you or not. It either meets your criteria or it doesn’t. Plain and simple.

Continue by reviewing your resume, portfolio and social media to see if your personal brand is reflected consistently.  If you’re not seeing a consistent message of who you are, then it’s time to revise your documents. Employment tools such as portfolios and LinkedIn are only beneficial to you if they truly reflect who you are and what you want to achieve. Otherwise, you’re setting an expectation that will simply not be met.

Take a snapshot of your list and use the #AmandaMarieBiz tag to share them with me!

Chat soon,