A Student who has studied abroad or intending to study abroad needs to learn how market oneself in the very competitive global market place. Over the years, we at International Scholar have advocated to students wishing study abroad or to any student who sought our advice on higher education options that would lead to good employment prospects the importance of Learning to Market oneself.
Among Sri Lankans there is mistaken belief that, shrouding oneself with qualifications will pave the path to a great career. Having qualifications alone is not enough to achieve career potential. For a student to achieve career potential mastering the Art of Marketing oneself is important. We can argue whether Marketing is an Art or a Science. In our opinion there needs to be a great deal of creativity in marketing oneself. One needs to learn to portray oneself to the target audience as an amazing persona for the job. But even having the creativity, qualifications and technical knowledge is of little use if one is unable to communicate these abilities to target audience.
Communication skill happens to be the number one skill that most employers look for in an employee. In day to day life having the ability communicate is very essential. A person with good communication skills is bound to do well in life irrespective of what their profession is. Good communicators make a great living using this soft skill in a creative manner. People pay thousands of rupees, sometimes thousands of dollars to listen to a good communicator. In social occasions good communicators make lively speeches and are able to make the audience happy. There is no doubt a good communicator will always have the ability pitch at the right length to a target audience. When being interviewed for a job it is important to have the ability to express clearly as well as have the ability to listen to what interviewer is saying. There can be deeper meaning to what is being said than what is heard. The answer to the question needs to be pitched at what is meant more than what is heard. In Learning to Market Yourself the first lesson is learning to be a good communicator. Which is also one of the most sought after skills when it comes employment. Paying attention to being a good communicator will pay dividends many times over when aspiring to climb up the career ladder.
Having the creativity, qualifications, technical knowledge and being a good communicator is of little use unless there is a target market to pitch to. The next lesson is to see how to create a target market. This is where creativity comes in. Having the creativity and not using it is again of little use. The standard approach is to look for job vacancies that appear in various public media. If there is a demand for a particular field a person with the right qualifications is likely to find employment. It may not be the ideal employment and global market place is getting very competitive. As much as preparing to earn the qualification and gain the knowledge it is important to get organized to find the ideal job once qualified. For this it is important to build up a wide network. Today with the advent of social media it is easier to do this than before. In the social media one has to be able to portray an interesting picture to the audience. The picture portrayed should be one that is communicating the message that here is persona willing to go beyond the call of duty. In contrary to popular belief one needs to Blow one’s own trumpet as loud as possible because nobody else will do it on behalf of another person. To do that there has to be a good Trumpet. In other words, one needs to able to give the message here is a person who is highly qualified and very knowledgeable as well as being a good communicator, leader and a team player – is the message to be communicated. Then audience will take note. It is important for student to start communicating this message from inception of their intended study programme. One needs think outside the box to create a market for oneself. This is more important than collecting certificates.
We at International Scholar are happy advice students on how to pave the way for successful career, not only to get a qualification. Please feel free to contact our experienced consultants for more information.
Remember, more than what you know who you know matters and what matters even more is who knows you.
