You want to know that you're going to be working in a place that fits your lifestyle. If you love to be in a city, you probably won't be happy with a job in Iowa. Once you've made the decision, you can move on to other steps in the process of job-searching. For example, right now I have a lot of options open as far as internship location. I made a decision to apply for as many internships as I could, even if I have to relocate for them. I narrowed down the places that I would like to be (and in some ways, where the competition is fierce vs. not as fierce), and as long as the company offered a paid internship and relocation for summer, I would be happy with it. As you get older, your preferences change and your flexibility decreases. If I were a mother of four and my spouse was working, I would probably feel restricted to a specific region for work.
Is the price right for the job you want? It's not just about how much you "cost" to the company, but how much it costs to live in the place where the job is. If you live in NYC, it will cost much more to live there. Of course, you also want to consider how much money and what benefits you want to work for. Again, it's all about preferences and what works well for you (and possibly your family). Do you have ten pets and want free pet insurance included? C&S offers pet insurance as a part of its benefits package! Do you want bare-bones benefits and lots of money? That's a different story.
The marketing mix also cites the product itself. Not that I want to fall into marketing myopia, but the product in this case is extremely important, because you are the product. In this case, your customer is your future employer, and they want a well-rounded, worthwhile, and affordable product. When applying for jobs, you need to think about what you're putting out there and whether or not you, the product, is something that the employer, the "customer," wants.
The final part of the mix is promotion. Are you getting your name out there? Linkedin, Facebook, Myspace, whatever you're using (hopefully not the last two), you need to make sure that your message is getting across. You need to promote yourself to your best ability or else getting a job will be a disaster. Without self promotion, your hopeful-future-employer will see you as someone without self esteem and possibly without value for the company. That's a bad boat to be in.
So, when you're looking for a job, what do you think of? Is it the marketing mix - is it place-price-product-promotion or is it asking yourself if you've done enough as the product? I wonder if we ever fall into marketing myopia as we search for jobs -- are we considering every part of the job or are we considering every part of ourselves and stopping there?
You bring up a good point about price. I forgot to consider benefits, as well as actual pay, when it comes to price in the marketing mix. It is not just money that an employee will be receiving, but in some cases health insurance, dental insurance, memberships etc. It is about finding the right job for YOU and not just a job that will compensate you for your work. Also, I agree in that the location will make a difference in the amount of compensation an employer will shell out to its workers.
ReplyDeleteAnd in response to your last question “…are we considering every part of the job or are we considering every part of ourselves and stopping there?”, this brings up a good point. Especially in today’s economy, many people are looking for and getting jobs to just have an steady income rather than searching for the one that may be most satisfying and beneficial to their own personalities and skills. I’ve heard of so many people hating their job but don’t do anything about it for feel as if they’re trapped in a dead end job. It may be hard to find the perfect job for yourself but, at the end of the day, wouldn’t it be worth it to have a self fulfilling job rather than spending hours, days and years not living the life you desire?