When you are in a position where your skills under utilized, it is important that you make yourself more marketable. If you are under utilized, it is because others don’t know how to fully utilize your talents. In this post, I will explain some steps you can take to make yourself more marketable.
Why You Should Make Yourself More Marketable
Before getting into how to make yourself more marketable, it is important to understand why it is important to be marketable. I read a very interesting article about leadership transitions that occur within organizations. The article Firms Recruit Sitting CFOs by Maxwell Murphy and Vipal Monga explained some of the trends that happen in leadership during the spring.
Each year in the spring there is turn over in leadership within companies. During that time, a lot of transition happens. The transitions are more prevalent during the spring because many companies give out their leadership bonuses to senior management. Once senior management receive their bonuses, they begin receiving many requests from outside companies as a result of their success.
When a company loses their senior executives, they need another person to fill their shoes. So where do they go to find those people? In many cases, there aren’t any qualified employees or leaders within the organization to fill the shoes of the departing leader. When that occurs they begin to look elsewhere.
Hearing about this made me ask some questions. Why aren’t there any qualified employees to take over as the leader? Are there qualified employees that just aren’t getting noticed? If there aren’t any qualified people within the organization, why is that?
Steps To Make Yourself More Marketable
In a world of high unemployment, poor economic conditions, and many underemployed people, you can make yourself more marketable to stand out more than ever! What can you do to be noticed by those above you, the great company you want to work for, or your potential clients? I recommend three things you can do to help get your leadership skills noticed.
In an environment of extreme competition, you must do all you can to make yourself more marketable. One way to be more marketable is to increase your knowledge. If you started a degree but never finished, go back and finish your degree. Or, if there is an advanced degree in your field, get enrolled in a program to start your progress towards that degree today. Don’t wait until tomorrow because tomorrow will never come if you continue to put it off.
There are a number of benefits that will come as you increase your education. Others will see your courage and determination to improve. They will see that you are serious about advancement in your career. Additional education will also give you new skills to perform better in your current position.
Build Up Your Resume In Your Current Position
Do all you can in your current position to learn as much as you can. This will make yourself more marketable. If you have a particular weakness, find ways to strengthen your skills. In addition, focus on your strengths and figure out how to leverage them to make them stronger. By working as hard as you can in your current position, you will stand out amongst the other employees.
Put Yourself Out There To Network
In addition to getting educated and building up your resume, you should do all you can to network. Network with others within your company, as well as those outside your company. Some people think of networking as going to a particular social event to meet others, but there is much more you can do to network. The following list shows some things you can do:
- Say hi to those people you don’t know within your company
- Take time to get to know other people you work with
- Use social media to meet people in your industry
- Find networks you can join where there are people with similar interests
- Join a club or service group to provide charity
- Post your resume to as many job boards as possible
By following the points mentioned above, you will put yourself in a situation where you can meet new people that could help you reach your goals.
Conclusion
As you increase your education, build up your resume, and put yourself out there, you will make yourself more marketable to use your leadership skills that will open doors. You will increase your exposure to people and your network will grow. I have seen this work in my own life as I have expanded my network. Opportunities come into my life at the least expected times in the least expected ways after I did all I could to put myself out there.
In addition to the things I mentioned, there are many other ways to get noticed. What are some things you have done to get noticed? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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