You say grads need to “understand their unique contribution” to a work environment. How does somebody who has no professional experience know what their “unique contribution” is going to be?
A unique contribution is a natural ability rather than a specific skill set. For example, a person could learn from their assessment that they are creative, but also see practical aspects. If that person were to apply for a position as a customer service representative at a financial company, he or she might say, “I have the ability to find creative solutions that are balanced with what is practical, given the processes that are in place.”
People wanting to get hired, you advise, have to brand themselves to get noticed by hiring managers. Aren’t hiring managers on to people trying to brand themselves. Does this really work?
Branding in the job search arena seems to have gotten a bad rap over the years. We’re not talking about anything gimmicky like the scented pink résumé Elle Woods uses in the movie Legally Blonde, but about understanding and communicating what value job candidates can bring to a business or organization. In our preparation, we use Unique Value Proposition (UVP) as synonymous with “branding.” It is one of the four elements that answer the question, “Why should we hire you?”
You quote an author who says 85 percent of entry-level employees lose their first job in six months or less. How does this apply to college graduates? They’re not typically entering the work force in entry-level jobs.
Greg Borton, co-founder of Primary Matters, is the one who has offered that statistic and he uses the term “entry level” in a corporate sense, referring to someone landing a first job out of college and beginning a professional career. Unless they have been working in a corporate internship, recent college grads are considered entry level. Often, these employees have three months of training after which they are either let go, resign, or receive a three-month extension. We arm our recent college graduates with checklists, tips and articles regarding common threats to job success and growth and offers advice for talking to management about how they can bring the most value to the company (and thereby manage their career identities). For example, I’ve been coaching a young man in San Francisco for eight years. He has a philosophy degree and wants to write. After five years with a literacy company, he had worked various assignments and consistently produced excellent work. The whole time, he kept reinforcing that he is a writer and, finally, he asked for a trial appointment in the company’s curriculum development division. After three months, the company confirmed that this is clearly his niche and greatest value-add to the company.
How do you teach graduates to establish their career identities? Do veteran workers need to identify their career identities, too? Seems reminiscent of people who say, “I’m 40 and I still don’t want to know what I want to be when I grow up.”
Whether they want one or not, everyone has a career identity. My goal in working with recent college graduates is to help them begin their many years in the work force with jobs that fit and through which they can cultivate fulfilling careers. I don’t want them waking up on their 40th birthdays saying, “How did I get here? I don’t even like what I do and now I’m stuck!” Out of necessity, companies today are changing faster and more often than ever before and typically move employees around to fit the business’ shifting needs. It then becomes the employees’ responsibility to clearly and professionally communicate how they can best deliver value to the companies. Employees can set themselves up for success by closely guarding the skills they use and develop as well as identifying the kind of work environment that allows them to thrive.
