Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
Whether you’re an active member of the great resignation or are just thinking about it, the current job market is tempting. If you’re looking for a better culture, a more flexible schedule, or higher income, now is the time to build a marketing package around your skills and launch your search. This can also be an excellent time to strike out and build your own business based on your brand.
Determine Your Objective
What do you really want out of your job? Are you trying to build a job you can do from anywhere, or do you want the chance to live and work in a new city? Do you really need to be making more money for your family, or can you dial back your income to focus more on job satisfaction and a feeling of purpose?
A good marketing campaign is built around a fully defined objective. If you know exactly what it is that you want, you can build skills and gather up the gear you need based on your objective.
Personal Skills
If you are even remotely interested in building an income around freelancing work that you can do from anywhere instead of focusing on one employer, make sure you have strong budgeting skills. For those who really want a DIY income or for those who love having a lot of different income streams, the ability to save and to budget consistently is critical.
Additionally, if you want to work from home, you will need to define your workspace and block out hours that your employer expects you to be available. While many companies that went remote during the pandemic are happy to stay out of the office, there are employers who noticed a drop in productivity.
Build Your Brand
Whether or not you have a self-employed income stream, you will want to have an embossed or printed logo that you can use on your
- cover letter / resume
- thank you note
- business cards
Once you have your logo idea laid out, you may want to get it checked out by multiple folks. A proofreader is always a good choice, especially if you mean to affix your logo to your resume. Additionally, it’s a very good idea to have your logo checked out by people who are not native speakers of English if you are interested in working for any international platforms.
One of the interesting challenges for freelancers and job hunters today is that the world of online work means that your co-workers and your competitors may be working from a different nation and culture. If your logo features colors and you are interested in working from South or Central America, getting your logo checked out to make sure you’re not making a political statement you don’t intend is a good idea.
Keep Building Your Skills
Your hunt for a job can quickly turn into a „for now“ job to keep income churning while you search for something better. Use your non-work time to boost your skills as you look for something better.
If you’re good at Word but not at Excel, get on Excel and break a few spreadsheets. Build calendars and key in an old check registry to learn how to create formulas. If you’re great at Photoshop but not videos, practice shooting videos on your phone. If you’re a skilled videographer but not a great editor, edit your own videos and compare them to your favorite YouTube producers.
When you take the time to build skills that relate to what you already know how to do, you serve an apprenticeship to yourself. Until you really understand what it is that you can’t do, you can’t search for tutorials to increase your skills. Try it, break it, learn what you did wrong, and learn how to fix it so you can turn that skill into a future job.
The basic skills you had when you left school can serve as a great springboard for your next job. If you can stay flexible and demonstrate great problem-solving skills for potential employers, you can justify your salary requests, your need to work from home, and any other expectations. For many of us, now is the time to define exactly what we want from our employers.