"Recruit the Employer" - The fool-proof way to land your next job

Once upon a time she was a girl in finance, now she’s a business owner and personal brand expert. She’s Jena Viviano Dunay - Founder of Recruit the Employer . She moved from finance to sales to branding which has led people to ask, “How did you make those huge career pivots?” The answer might not be easy, but it is simple: personal branding. With Recruit the Employer, Jena helps individuals who have just been laid off, gives them tools, and equips them with the confidence that they need to land their next role. Her goal is to make them irresistible hires. Want to be an irresistible hire? Check out her full interview below:

Q: When you’re coaching these individuals, are there particular points that you focus on for personal branding?

“We figure out these three things: 1. How do you bring value? 2. What do you do? 3. What is your message??

1. How do you bring value? If you have no idea how you brought value in the past, it usually falls into three buckets. You either make a company money, you save a company money or you make someone's life easier. It's one of those three things, whether you're the janitor or the CEO. When you understand that it's a good starting point to get more clarity on what specific value you provide in each one of those buckets.?

2. What do you do? Understand how you bring value and then look at the job description. Most people will read a job description once. This is a terrible idea. In order to make sure that your marketing materials are actually effective and branded in the correct way, you need to understand the job description. Get inside the head of that employer. You look at that job description once so you can understand the main idea of this role. Read it a second time to determine what the ideal person needs to be good at for this role. At this point, you haven't even thought about yourself. The third time you read it through, you start connecting the value that you bring to the value that's needed for this role. From there, you can take those things and put them into your marketing materials.?

3. What is your message? When you show up to an interview, it's not about sharing your whole life story. It's more about sharing the things that are most relevant. Now that you've done all this work of understanding the value that you bring, it's actually easier because you're used to the messaging. This messaging is your personal brand. Everybody has a personal brand. It's just a matter of if you're curating it or not.“

Q: What has been one of the biggest game changers for you when it comes to landing that next job??

“It’s all about asking the right question. A lot of people just jump straight to applying for a job. This is the wrong first step. It's really about what the employer needs and how I serve that need. It’s a level of servant mindedness where you want to get inside the mindset of your potential employer. When I thought about it like that, it made finding a job so much easier because I could understand them and in turn know how to brand my own messages around what they needed."

Q: What’s your “why” for personal branding?

"You already have an internal, personal brand. It's just a matter of if you're curating it or not. Something I ask is, “am I presenting the same brand as what is being internalized by people on my team?” If you’re looking to be a leader, get promoted, enhance your company's reputation, or build your own confidence, personal branding is the answer. It helps you grow your network."

Q: How do you determine what people are internalizing about your personal brand??

"It’s the big F word that everyone hates - FEEDBACK. We do workshops where we have people articulate what they want their personal brand to be and how they believe they’re presenting themselves. Then we ask coworkers in a safe environment if in their honest opinion the brand their coworker hopes to present matches reality. You have to ask somebody you trust who will give you the truth. You need to trust that they will be kind in the process and ultimately trust that they're out for your good. When you receive feedback like that, it's going to help you bridge that gap between what I think I'm presenting and what other people perceive as me."

Q: Any last words of wisdom for our audience?

"With the way that the world is going, I believe that LinkedIn or a competitor to LinkedIn in the professional realm is how we're going to hire people. It's not going to be just through resumes. People are tired of AI bots and frustrated by the whole process. Companies and recruiters are going to be searching on platforms like LinkedIn or places where there's content to really understand if this particular candidate actually knows what they're talking about. It’s a way to fact check whether they are a leader in the space or if they would be a good fit for the company culture. There's a lot of information that you can pick up from somebody's content. In order to stay competitive, you have to at some level curate your personal brand especially through LinkedIn or a similar platform."

Thank you so much for sharing these thoughts, Jena. If you're interested in seeing more content like this, follow along on her LinkedIn right here!