Written by Carl Freelove, Marketing Manager, Big fish Recruitment

Want a fresh way to size up the state of your career and beat the competition? How about taking a page from the marketing handbook and running a SWOT analysis?

In a challenging economic environment, where competition is high, applying the SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), will enable you to develop an actionable career plan that is vital for job-search success.

What are your strengths and weaknesses? How can you capitalize on your strengths and overcome your weaknesses? What are the external opportunities and threats in your chosen career field?

To get an idea of what you could incorporate into your own personal career SWOT, we’ve put together some examples below that will help you examine your current situation and bring some objectivity to your job-hunting.

Strengths
What are you good at? What kinds of work or tasks do you do well and enjoy? Do you have a strong network? Are you a member of any industry bodies or professional organizations? Do you have strong technical knowledge within your field? Do you have specific transferable skills (e.g. communication, teamwork, leadership skills)? What are your personal characteristics (e.g. strong work ethic, self-discipline, ability to work under pressure, creativity, optimism, or a high level of energy)?

Weaknesses
What kinds of work or tasks are you poor at or just not interested in? Do you have any negative personal characteristics or poor work habits? A lack of work experience or relevant qualifications? No network or a small one? A lack of direction or focus? Weak professional or career-management skills.

Opportunities
What are your options? What are your long-term objectives? What kinds of work could you do with your skills? What kinds of roles would be logical next steps to move you towards your ultimate ambition? Other opportunities include emerging demand for a new skill or expertise or referral to a high-powered contact .e.g. through LinkedIn

Threats
What are the constraints on your ambitions? For example, the qualifications required or technologies used? Other threats include industry or company restructuring, changing market requirements, reduced demand for one of your skills or rhe emergence of a competitor, either to your company or to you personally.

By using the SWOT as a career-planning tool, you will gain an overall picture of where you are now and where you want to be. It will also help you to focus on your strengths, minimise weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available.

Your Personal Marketing Plan

Once you've analysed your strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities, you can then use the information to plan how to market yourself. This process involves three-steps:

1. Objectives—define your career objectives. What is your ideal job? What are some other positions you could accept? What is your five-year career goal?
2. Marketing Strategies—a broad “game plan” for attaining your objectives. What are the companies you’re going to target to achieve your objectives—your ideal job? How will you communicate with these firms? The strategies you identify should utilize all resources available to you, such as your personal online network on social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook.
3. Action Plans— Your marketing strategies need to be turned into specific action plans. Your key task is setting specific timetables and deadlines for getting the career and companion information you identified in the marketing strategy step. What will be done? When will it be done? Who is responsible for doing it?

So once you know what you can offer, or indeed what you are ‘selling’ and to whom, its simply up to you to market yourself and maximise return on investment.

Until next time, best wishes

Carl Freelove
Marketing Manger
Big fish Recruitment