Yesterday I was in an exhibition about new media. It was so glamorous and really impressive. Some pretty big companies where participating. You know, those that need to spend a lot of eurodollars each year in marketing, brochures and flyers. So I took three brochures. I believe it was not a coincidence, but the overall context was the same. As in... the same! "We arethe best" (of course), nobody could compare with us, we are also the cheaper provider in our services and so on. There were a lot also of nice pictures of happy people since, I assume, they bought their products. But the thing is, like me they did attract people to at least take those brochures.
I could identify three elements that attracted me:
There are two kind of job interviews. Those that go well and those that don't. There is no mid situation. Most of the HR managers know from the first five minutes what is going to happen but they need to follow the questioning procedure. I am sure you have heard of questions:
Did you find it easy to get here?
Tell us a bit about yourself...
What are your three strong and three weak points
What are your expectations from this job opportunity
Why would you like to work for us?
Have you ever thought to answer sincerely to this questions? Like:
No, you are in the middle of nowhere... they would have the same problem each day.
Well I am Nektarios Baziotis, two words that define in your mind who am I. But this is not what defines me... I don't get into details, each one of you should know YOUR answer.
Because I found your advertisement and I need a job in this particular field. It would be the same to me to work in another company that has the same profile as you, but you approached me. now don't say it exactly like that!
Now three tips before your next interview:
Be confident but not overconfident
Understand why you want that job
Be honest with your potential employer, but first be honest with yourself!
I would like to share with you today, some lines of my under publication book. "Young I am. Young. But not in soul. And I see the sky. And I want to reach it. Now I want to live it. Now its huging me. I see. The clouds. The Sun.The limit that I just won."
We are actually having a working month left till the 2008. What are your achievements this year? Did you have goals when you started 2007? Are they succeeded? The strategy is separeted in three basic steps:
definition
plan
action
There is no achievement without these steps. Though, there is a trick. You may say that your plan for this year was to reach the figure A and for next year to reach the figure B. But, who holds you to bring results for two times or even three times B. Only yourself! Think better. There is no limit, than the one you set.
It's a common conclusion, things are not as they seem to be! OR at least with marketing they seem better. Like the Bananoctopus, a used banana (Chiquita are my favorites) that you would throw it away, suddenly it has new meaning, because it has an unusual shape, an octopus (20000 leagues under the sea - The Legend of the Giant Octopus by Jules Verne), so it attracts your attention. But still, it's an almost worthless eaten banana. Great marketing for a bad product!
Now, talking about products, you, have a product. What are the values of this product? Forget about competition. Competition will always exist to make you work harder in order to enhance first yourself and then your company. Forget about taking euros, dollars, yens, pounds or name whatever else! That's not how business is done. Your product has ONE value and based on this value you can base your marketing and communication to the targeted niche and get results by providing this value to your customers. Simple isn't it?
