M-Power

A Marketing Career Newsletter

M-Power is a newsletter for the Marketing Talent Network. This free service provides information relevant to career management in the marketing and related disciplines.

We email M-Power to a wide audience of individuals. It is not just for people who are actively in a job search. It is for all marketing professionals who like to be proactive in managing their career, for managers who are hiring people for their team, for HR and Talent Acquisition professionals who manage the process of identifying and attracting new talent to their organizations -- for anyone who is involved in marketing and career development.

If you are not receiving M-Power and would like to, just send an email letting us know that you would like to be added to the subscription list.

On the other hand, if once you start receiving M-Power, you would like it to go to a different email, or to stop coming altogether, let us know that as well and we will gladly fulfill your request.

In addition to sending M-Power out via email, selected articles from the newsletter will also be available here in a slightly different format.

This should be obvious. Except we have had candidates who have sent us resumes with a radically changed career track than the resume they sent us three years ago (yes, we keep them). And we have had candidates who have told us that another recruiter told them it was okay to just drop the short term job that they held for about eight months in between their last two jobs.

What's wrong with this? The point was driven home in an article at the top of the "Who's News" section on page B5 of the May 2nd Wall Street Journal. Quoting the first paragraph briefly:

". . .the President and Chief Operating Officer of Herbalife, Ltd., lost his job after acknowledging he claimed a fake Master's degree in corporate filings."

• Environmental Sensitivity: Lots of focus in environmental sustainability, ranging from products themselves (soy candles and use of renewable bamboo for kitchen products) to environmentally friendly packaging.
• Ergonomic Handles, etc.: This is certainly not new, but it is growing. More and more companies are introducing utensils with ergonomically designed handles. The perception is that as more people are active in the kitchen, and with an aging population, this becomes increasingly important. One company, for example, introduced a set of chef's knives where the handle is made of a special substance that molds itself to the user's personal grip.
• Internet Marketing and Electronic Retailing: This was very hot, and we see this as the next big growth area for marketing careers. Discussions ranged from setting up eCommerce sites as a low-overhead retail location, to search engine optimization, to "Social Marketing".
• Social Marketing: And speaking of "social marketing", watch for this to become one of the next big buzzwords -- an exploration of how personal networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, blogging, the advent of internet video, the proliferation of mobile internet devices, podcasting, etc. can be integrated into the total marketing and sales approach for a company.
• The Color Green: I have a sneaky suspicion that some of this had to do with complementing the environmental theme, but a bright Green color was definitely also hot, along with purples and mauves and earth tones. Thus the change in the background color of this website. (At least for now -- we'll see if it grows on us.)

• Listen Carefully – No, the number one rule isn’t something that you should say. It is listening. One trap is not listening because you are so intent on the next thing you want to say. You wouldn’t believe the number of times the client tells us that the candidate wasn’t really answering the questions being asked. If you listen carefully, the person interviewing you will basically tell you everything you need to know to get the job.
• Answer questions succinctly with the focus being on your accomplishments: This is a balancing act. You want your answers to be complete – but the interviewer doesn't want one individual answer to go on forever and eat up valuable interview time. Most important, focus on your accomplishments – not what you did, but how well you did it, and what impact your actions had on the entire organization.
• Never Ever Dwell on Negatives: Speaking of being to the point, this is the place to really follow that rule. While you can’t dodge an uncomfortable question, you must not dwell on it either. Anticipate questions that might point to limitations in your background, and practice a short answer to each of those questions. And never ever lie.
• Have some Well Though-out Questions of your Own: What are their goals for the company? What do they see as the most important things for the person in this position to accomplish in their first six months? These are just two examples. Consider ahead of time the questions you want to ask – questions that will not only give you information, but questions where the answers may help tell you what to emphasize in your experience and skills.
• Show Enthusiasm, Passion and Interest during the entire Interview: and if we have to explain what we mean by this, well then, never-mind.