Today on (Oct 15, 2022) in the presence of the  head of departments and lecturer a symposium entitled (How do you market yourself in the labor market), was presented by (Dr. Nawar Al-Saadi) from the business administration department , Where it has been explained about Do you hate your job? Maybe you accepted a role only to find it was nothing like you’d envisioned it would be when you started six months ago. Or worse, you took a job that you didn’t want out of sheer panic.
I don’t blame you. Unemployment is stressful, and right now, the need to get paid is very real for many people. It is this mindset that leaves most candidates scrambling to get hired without spending a lot of time thinking about what will really make them happy.
There is a better way to go about your job search, one that will save you time, years even, stuck in a soul-sucking role at a company you don’t care about or believe in. To find a job that aligns with your values and goals, a job that you may actually enjoy, you need a roadmap — or what I call a “marketing campaign” for your career.
Think of it this way: When an organization is launching a new product or service, they begin by creating a marketing plan. A marketing plan outlines, step by step, the actions and promotional activities a company will take to deliver that product or service to its target audience, as well as the results they hope to achieve as a result of their efforts.
If you think of your job search as a marketing plan with yourself as the product and the hiring manager as your target audience, you will approach the application process in a more organized way and be less likely to take your successes (and failures) personally. As a result, you will be a more resilient and persistent candidate and the more persistent you are, the more likely you are to land the role you want.
In the following sections, I’ll break down each step of a traditional marketing campaign and explain how you can apply it to your job search. Before releasing a product, marketing teams “test the waters” by doing a little market research. This kind of research involves examining the viability of a product usually by testing it out with a group of people representative of their target audience and soliciting opinions and feedback from that group.
Some questions that market research aims to answer are: Is there a need for this product? Will there be takers? What’s lacking?
Take the same approach with your job search. Once you know what kind of a job you see yourself doing, reach out to a mentor, career counselor, friends, family members, or friends of friends anyone who may be in a role similar to the one you’re seeking. Talk to them to gain a solid understanding of what their day-to-day is like, as well as which skills you need to learn and which jobs you should be applying for.
When speaking with these people, you can say something like: “With the experience and expertise I have, would you hire me for the [name of position] role? Why, or why not? And if not, what would you say I’d be better suited for?” If possible, talk to multiple people in multiple companies to get a good perspective of how roles compare across organizations and industries.
These conversations will help you figure out which jobs you will enjoy versus those that seem like a good fit in theory, but in reality, will make you miserable. Their feedback will also help you understand how to strengthen your profile for the role you want and identify skill gaps before you apply.
You may receive contradictory advice from different people. That’s normal. If you are seeking feedback from people you trust, share what you’ve heard and ask for clarification. , At the end of the symposium a set of questions and answers were raised on this subject