Are you tracking and/or analyzing your media coverage? Are you sharing your results? If you said “no” to one of these questions you could be in trouble – your existing employer may not understand the value you bring to the organization. Clearly, in this economy, it’s best to be proactive.
A friend who’s been looking for a Senior Communicator position for four months (he will face final “liberation” from his current position the end of next week) asked me to review his resume. His company was acquired and all administrative functions are being absorbed by the larger entity. He’s had his resume on job boards and with companies in his industry of expertise for more than three months with not so much as a nibble. I was shocked when I reviewed his resume and found no mention of the analysis program and the key results I know he’s gathered and correlated. When we discussed this omission, he expressed to me he planned to “cover that in the interview.” I advised him that he’d be hard pressed to get an interview if he’s not talking about how he can show value to an organization.
Begrudgingly, he deleted his “love of mountain biking and other interests” to make room for an overview of the program he manages and the impact on sales in his organization. Within 48 hours of the update, he received three inquiries on his resume. One resulted in an interview, with his second interview today. He let me know his second interview is almost solely due to the measurement program he implemented since the prospective company is interested in applying a similar program. Granted, there are some resume “optimization” factors at work in this example, but for his prospective new employer, measurement matters!
This situation reminded me of a session I attended by Smooch Reynolds, The Repovich Reynolds Group, at the PRSA Western District Conference, where she addressed the value of “A” players and how there will always be a demand for them. Well, my friend is an “A” player. He just needed to be reminded to wave his “measurement flag” and get noticed. For all the job seekers – and there are a lot of you out there – another interesting read is the Wall Street Journal article on organizations giving preferential treatment to candidates already employed. Perhaps, if you aren’t currently employed, showing solid results from previous positions with supporting metrics may be the next best thing.
The bottom line: Individuals fighting to be relevant must understand how their communication/public relations efforts affect the organization’s bottom-line results, because this ability will always be in demand. I challenge each of you to uncover your “A” game and identify how your efforts contribute to your organization’s success. Let your “measurement flag” wave!
*If you are faced with implementing your own program please contact me jburke@burrellesluce.com and I will send you a copy of the BurrellesLuce Quality Rating System (QRS) “scorecard” to help get you started.
