Brand Your Job Search with a Tagline

Brand Your Job Search with a Tagline TweetGetting a job is a matter of marketing communications. You have a product to sell your skills but you have a lot of competition. You need to be able to very quickly, clearly and memorably communicate what differentiates you. Thats your brand. A tagline is a one-liner that instantly conveys your professional brand. How would I use a tagline in my job search? Use it in your resume as a headline or in the summary, at the top of your social media profiles, on your business cards and in your email signature so people get it about you, right from the start. You can even adapt it for use as an elevator pitch in networking situations, and as your answer to Tell me about yourself in job interviews. Here are some good taglines people have used: PMP-certified Project Manager Known for successfully leading multi-million dollar projects in developing countries. Great! This communicates a job title, a key credential, and a couple of specialties, all in less than 120 characters so it will fit as a LinkedIn headline, among other uses. Or lets say youre the head of a recruiting firm and you want to emphasize your great interpersonal skills, including humor and communication. Heres what recruiter Michael Bense has on LinkedIn: Head honcho, headhunter, sometime head-shrinker and living proof that the only good recruiter is NOT a dead recruiter! Heres a more conservative tagline from a different field: Six Sigma Master Black Belt | Dedicated to process excellence in auto manufacturing Or you could get very specific about your great results, as this tagline does: Social Media Expert driving successful campaigns on a shoestring budget. 800%+ ROI in the past 12 months. When writing a tagline that will be used as a LinkedIn headline, include keywords that will help you get found by recruiters. The most important keyword from a recruiters point of view is the name of the job theyre trying to fill, e.g., Project Manager in the first example above. Or you can add your title before the tagline, as Ive done here with the third example: Operations Manager Six Sigma Master Black Belt | Dedicated to etc. Ill end this post with my own tagline: Thea Kelley One-on-one job search and interview coaching. Geta great job, sooner! Brand Your Job Search with a Tagline TweetGetting a job is a matter of marketing communications. You have a product to sell your skills but you have a lot of competition. You need to be able to very quickly, clearly and memorably communicate what differentiates you. Thats your brand. A tagline is a one-liner that instantly conveys your professional brand. How would I use a tagline in my job search? Use it in your resume as a headline or in the summary, at the top of your social media profiles, on your business cards and in your email signature so people get it about you, right from the start. You can even adapt it for use as an elevator pitch in networking situations, and as your answer to Tell me about yourself in job interviews. Here are some good taglines people have used: PMP-certified Project Manager Known for successfully leading multi-million dollar projects in developing countries. Great! This communicates a job title, a key credential, and a couple of specialties, all in less than 120 characters so it will fit as a LinkedIn headline, among other uses. Or lets say youre the head of a recruiting firm and you want to emphasize your great interpersonal skills, including humor and communication. Heres what recruiter Michael Bense has on LinkedIn: Head honcho, headhunter, sometime head-shrinker and living proof that the only good recruiter is NOT a dead recruiter! Heres a more conservative tagline from a different field: Six Sigma Master Black Belt | Dedicated to process excellence in auto manufacturing Or you could get very specific about your great results, as this tagline does: Social Media Expert driving successful campaigns on a shoestring budget. 800%+ ROI in the past 12 months. When writing a tagline that will be used as a LinkedIn headline, include keywords that will help you get found by recruiters. The most important keyword from a recruiters point of view is the name of the job theyre trying to fill, e.g., Project Manager in the first example above. Or you can add your title before the tagline, as Ive done here with the third example: Operations Manager Six Sigma Master Black Belt | Dedicated to etc. Ill end this post with my own tagline: Thea Kelley One-on-one job search and interview coaching. Geta great job, sooner!