Defining Your USP: Marketing Yourself In Your Job Search
In the marketing world the term USP is often used. USP refers to the Unique Selling Point of the particular product or service being offered. Before a product is put “out there” the USP is defined and utililized to position the product in the market place, creating it’s niche.
When you embark on a job search you, too, are entering the world of marketing and must also begin to think in those terms. The product is of course YOU. Before you get “out there” you should define your unique assets and be prepared to sell them in relation to a specific job opportunity.
The question that may not be put directly to you, but the one in every hiring manager’s mind is “What makes you different from the other people being interviewed for this position?” To put it more simply “Why should this company invest in you?”. You see, you are a commodity that the company hopes will ultimately increase the bottom line by adding value in some way.
So how do you go about defining your USP? Well, everyone is unique in some way. Your strengths (abilities, skills, personal style) are like a fingerprint that differentiate you from the competition, No two people have exactly the same combination of success factors. So what’s unique about you? How can you benefit this organization you want to join in a way that no one else can? Put that into words and you have your USP.
Of course it may not be so easy to find those words for several reasons. We have becomed conditioned to think that to talk positively about ourselves is boasting. Another barrier could be that you don’t have the precise language needed to describe those assets. Beyond that, you could even have a blind spot regarding our attributes. Therefore, to be really successful in framing your USP you may want to take some specialized assessments like the Highlands Ability Battery and the DiSC Personal Profile assessments I offer on my website. With those tools you will have the words you need to shine in the interview and enable you to answer that unspoken question with clarity and confidence.
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