Marketing Yourself to Potential Employers (Part One of a Two-Part Series)
You may believe that your career is all about accounting; therefore, you aren’t expected to perform any marketing tasks. That’s simply not true. If you want to advance your career you must continually market yourself. This is often a difficult task for accountants who are typically described as introverted and numerically driven. But even it is uncomfortable, the success of your career depends on your ability to promote yourself to current and potential employers.
In order to help you accomplish this, we’re devoting two newsletters to this topic. This week we’ll touch on the first five of ten tips on marketing yourself:
1. Focus on your soft skills
In order to make an impression on people, you must develop your soft skills, specifically the way you communicate with others. You need to practice being yourself, interacting in an inviting and personable manner that says you would be easy to work with. This may not be easy at first. Consider topics of conversation that draw people in. Just about everyone likes to talk about themselves. Ask about their families, what they do for a living, what they do for fun, where they live, where they’re from. It’s important that you show interest in what they share; often this encourages people to keep talking and helps them feel more comfortable with you.
2. Develop an elevator speech
An elevator speech is like a quick infomercial about you and your skills that can be delivered in the time it takes an elevator to carry its occupants to their floor. It’s something you hone and practice so that at opportune moments you can network effectively, explaining what you do and why you do it so well that everyone deserves to hear about it. A good elevator speech should be under 30 seconds long and should accompany your business card, which you must carry with you at all times. You want to provide your listener with just the right amount of information without overloading them or appearing overbearing.
3. Leave your comfort zone
Sometimes you must leave your comfort zone in order to truly excel and meet those individuals that will strengthen your professional network. Get in-the-know regarding professional community events which might expose you to different businesses and opportunities. And often the most rewarding events are those that are completely unrelated to business. Sometimes you meet the most valuable individuals on a flight, at the gym, or in the line at the grocery store. Always be willing to step from your comfort zone in order to take advantage of these chance meetings.
4. Keep your resume current
You never know when or where opportunities might present themselves. You are best prepared with a current resume. It’s important that you continually note your achievements and add them to your resume; you don’t want to be caught unprepared without having noted the specifics of your career accomplishments. You may think that you would never forget, but put enough time and experience between you and those achievements and they’ll be difficult to recall. Record them now before you forget.
5. Develop a 5-year career plan
You don’t know what the future will bring, but a 5-year career plan will give you something to shoot for, enabling you to make wise choices that will bring you closer to your goals. Many accountants would like to someday own their own accounting practices, where they call the shots and determine just how high their own salaries are. If you’re one of these individuals, now is a good time to think beyond marketing yourself to consider what it would take to market your own business.
Universal Accounting Center, with over 25 years training individuals in small business accounting, knows just what it takes to effectively market those skills. For less than ten dollars you can learn more about the Art and Science of Getting Clients! This will expose you to proven marketing techniques that will not only teach you how to better market yourself, but prepare your to market your own accounting practice. If this is something you’ve included in your 5 or 10-year career plan, learning more about this now will only help you reach that goal. Order your copy today!
Join us next week when we’ll talk about the final five tips in developing an effective marketing campaign, for YOU!
