For anyone considering a career change or change of marketing job, there are three key stages which need to be considered.

• Career Assessment
• Self Marketing
• The Job Search

Discover how to make that effective move by reading the information below.

Career Assessment

The first part of any job search is to identify the skills and qualities you have to offer any potential employer.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Are you a team player?
• Do you like working with technology?
• Are you an "ideas" person?
• Do you like working with material and equipment?

By starting to think about the above questions you are already identifying and analysing some of your skills.

As part of your self assessment, it is necessary to identify the achievements that you have made in previous marketing or sales jobs. These achievements should enlarge upon the tasks of any position you have held so far with the intention of stating:

• A problem or situation you have encountered
• What action you took
• What was the result of the action?

Your Objective

It is important to set yourself an objective before you start your job search. Careful planning is the key to success in any situation, and this is equally applicable to your job search. Your objective will incorporate your skills, interests and experience, identified in the previous exercises, and you will now develop a realistic and understandable objective.

Consider your skills, interests, experience and personal characteristics and base your objective on them.

Self Marketing

For marketing jobs, your success depends on your ability to sell yourself in the first instance. The first stage in this process is your CV. Your CV needs to reflect your objective and must be supported by effective covering letters. You should also develop a marketing plan which looks at:

• How to source opportunities
• Newspapers
• Journals in your industry
• Direct and indirect approaches
• Network contacts
• Recruitment and employment agencies

For more information on how to write an effective CV, check out our CV services section on our useful links page.

The Job Search

There are five sources of opportunities you must look at and then put together a plan of how to attack these opportunities and use them to your advantage. Just mailing your CV and covering letters to random companies and agencies will be a waste of time, money and energy. The same way in which you arrived at your career objective must be applied to setting a comprehensive organised marketing plan - the strategy for your job search campaign.

Three things to remember:

• Be prepared to work hard - serious job hunters should allow at least 15 hours per week.
• Be well organised - maintain diaries, records and lists of all your job search activities.
• Adopt a positive mental attitude.

You are now at a stage where you can launch into the job market. You have assessed the sources of opportunities open to you and have developed a plan to work from. Remember that a positive mental attitude is a key part of your job search and do not allow yourself to be discouraged by negative responses.

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