Start Your Career Off on the Right Foot This Year

{Click here to read the original article on Careerrocketeer.}

The holiday season euphoria is over. Now it is time to get your job search and/or career back on track. Now for 2012 my first bit of advice is this: “If the tools and game plan you used last year yielded limited or no results at all, don’t expect to see a dramatic change in results in 2012 using them this year.

What I suggest for the first week of the year is to reevaluate your resume, social media profile, job search strategy and your elevator speech to see if they need a tune-up or a major overhaul.

Resume:
Is your resume a marketing document or a fact sheet? If it is the latter change it. Look at a few jobs you desire and build a profile of the perfect person the companies want to hire. Then look at your resume and see if it clearly and easily highlights all of the specifications the companies are seeking. If it does not you need to start over from scratch.

Social Media:
Does your social media image establish a unique personal brand and get across a specific message or does it make you a clone of your peers? Are the Skills and Specialties sections filled out comprehensively so employers looking for someone like you will find you? If not update your profile and establish a personal brand this week.

Job Search Strategy:
Some types of positions such as IT and many entry level jobs can be obtained through job boards. On the other hand most professional, managerial and executive level positions can’t. Determine which category you fit into and if you’re placing too much emphasis on job boards and not enough in networking and establishing a network adjust your strategy.

Your Elevator Speech:
The goal here is the same as with your social media. Are you getting across the right message? Most often I find that people’s elevator speech is developed by determining what they do best. This is okay except what you do best may not be what people are most interested in hearing. Your elevator speech should focus on what people are buying rather than what you have to offer.