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Marketing Yourself

Up to Essential Skills


Your Personal Marketing Campaign, part 1
Dave Jensen, ScienceCareers. "Many scientists and engineers have a certain disdain for the word sales. Visions of used car lots, coupled with fresh memories of an obnoxious supplies rep, make it difficult for them to imagine any scenario in which sales might actually play an important role in scientific career development. Yet here are the facts: If you can't sit down and plan a marketing campaign for yourself -- one that includes a bit of personal salesmanship -- you may miss out on opportunities that could propel your career forward dramatically. You could be standing still while your colleagues take strides that make a positive impact on their business and personal lives for years to come."
Guerrilla Marketing Yourself
Dave Jensen, Tooling Up, ScienceCareers.org "One of the major concepts in the Guerrilla series is that you need to avoid doing what everyone else is doing.... Make no mistake: Levinson and Perry don't believe that you need to walk away from all the usual elements of the job search, such as writing applications and sending CVs. But if you want to catch the really big fish, they argue, you need to play in a smaller pond."
Guerrilla Self-Promotion
Dave Jensen, Science's Next Wave. "First, I want to talk about the fear of self-promotion, and then we can discuss why the old adage that 'good science will always sell itself' doesn't really work in practice."
Your Personal Marketing Campaign, part 2
Dave Jensen, ScienceCareers. "A massive resume mailing campaign is probably the wrong decision for most biotechnologists. After all, the industry is still in its infancy, and there are ample sources of information on who's doing what in various companies. That makes it easy to target specific companies. Mass mailing can be compared to a shotgun approach; a mailing to the right contacts works more like a rifle. A rifle shot goes a lot further and produces much better results in a job search."
The Importance of Charisma
by Search Masters International Recruiter Dave Jensen. "Charisma is derived from the ancient Greek word kharis, meaning 'to cause to strive or desire.' The ability to motivate others to strive and succeed is a major building block of successful management, whether in a QC lab or in a corner office. Charismatic people describe goals by painting word pictures, thereby motivating others to a particular end. They have an exceptional ability to win the devotion and support of others. They have no fear of presenting their ideas to anyone who may be able to help them. And they have excellent persuasion and negotiation skills."
Marketability Is Key to a Career Beyond the Bench
by Randy Krauss, The Scientist, April 13, 1998. "The good news is that there are indeed jobs out there. But to get them, you have to search for them and know how to sell yourself."