Mike Berg - Invisible to Remarkable: In Todays Job Market, You Need To Sell Yourself as Talent, Not Just Someone Looking For Work.

Invisible to
Remarkable

In Todays Job Market,
You Need To Sell Yourself as Talent,
Not Just Someone Looking For Work.

Discover Why You Need To
Become Your Own Personal Brand.

Mike Berg, M.Ed.

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

Invisible to
Remarkable

In Todays Job Market,
You Need To Sell Yourself as Talent,
Not Just Someone Looking For Work.

Discover Why You Need To
Become Your Own Personal Brand.

Copyright 2012 by Mike Berg, M.Ed.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-1864-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-1865-6 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 06/28/2012

Contents

1
Begin With The End In Mind

Something happened in the last 3 years. It seemed like overnight, companies started laying off employees and the unemployment rate reached record highs. The news reflected a changing economy and suddenly, the local job market seemed to become a global employment market. For many people, it appeared that the meltdown of home prices and problems in the financial markets appeared to be the temporary reasons for this situation.

However, the financial crisis was actually triggered by a complex combination of valuation and liquidity problems that caused the value of real estate pricing to drop damaging financial institutions globally. Declines in credit availability and declining investor confidence impacted global stock markets, and economies worldwide slowed as credit tightened and international trade declined.

You are about to discover that these changes in the economy are the result of many factors that were bringing us to a new job market several years earlier. Not only has the availability of full-time positions changed, the way people will find and do work is also changing.

The new employment market is not temporary; its quickly becoming the new world of work. Cost effectiveness, flexible employability, just-in-time production and a global workforce are the new buzzwords in an economy that is now connected globally more than ever. The availability of technology and software for people to connect to the Internet offers almost anyone the chance to become their own company.

Now more than ever, its not the degree you have, who you know, the school you graduated from, your score on a college entrance exam or how much experience you have, that determines your employment security.

In todays employment market, your success is primarily determined by whether or not youre REMARKABLE. Randomly searching for whats available is no longer a realistic option. Unless youre REMARKABLE, youre invisible.

You have to begin with the end in mind.

Decide what you want to be and then pursue it.

This is NOT a book focused on job search. Its transformational thinking to help you understand and apply the concepts of personal branding to become financially independent, be successful in your career, establish yourself as being remarkable and do work that matters.

So how can YOU become remarkable?

Its surprising simple, yet few people know what you are about to discover. Perhaps insights learned from a house fly offer the best perspective.

A True Story

Im sitting in a quiet room at the Millcroft Inn, a peaceful little place hidden back among the pine trees about an hour out of Toronto. Its just past noon, late July, and Im listening to the desperate sounds of a life or death struggle going on a few feet away.

Theres a small fly burning out the last of its short lifes energies in a futile attempt to fly through the glass of the windowpane. The whining wings tell the poignant story of the flys strategytry harder. But its not working.

The frenzied effort offers no hope for survival. Ironically, the struggle is part of the trap. Its determined effort offered no hope for survival. Ironically, its struggle is part of the trap. It is impossible for the fly to try hard enough to succeed at breaking through the glass.

Nevertheless, this little insect has staked its goal through raw effort and determination. This fly is doomed. It will die there on the windowsill.

Across the room, 10 steps away the door is open. Ten seconds of flying time and this small creature could reach the outside world it seeks. With only a fraction of the effort now being wasted, it could be free of this self imposed trap. The breakthrough possibility is there. It would be so easy.

Why doesnt the fly try another approach, something dramatically different? How did it get locked into the idea that this particular route, and determined effort, offers the most promise for success?

What logic is there that in continuing, until death, to seek a breakthrough with more of the same? No doubt this approach makes sense to the fly. Regrettably, its an idea that will kill.

Trying harder isnt necessarily the solution to achieving more. It may not offer any real promise for getting what you want in life. Sometimes, in fact, its a big part of the problem. If you stake your hopes for a breakthrough on trying harder than ever, you may kill your chances of success.

Reprinted with full permission of Pritchett, LP from the book You by Price Pritchett, PhD. all rights reserved. www.pritchettnet.com .

Remember when you were getting ready to graduate from high school? You thought that commencement meant the end and you said Im FREE! Shortly after your graduation party, you probably realized that the word commencement means to start.

You are about to learn that going forward, your career will no longer be linear with a logical path going from A to B. Its going to zig and zag and probably take 20 different directions throughout your lifetime. Sounds scary doesnt it?

Yet, now more than ever, having a dynamically changing career will allow you to make more money, have more fun and have control of your time. Best of all, YOU will have control of your life and the benefits that come with shaping your own destiny.

Lets begin by taking a look at whats happening in the global employment market to understand how the world of work has changed and how it impacts your ability to compete in the new employment marketplace.

2
What In The World Is Going On?

For the past 20 years, it was the age of the great employer. Success was a stable job at a single company where you worked hard to hopefully go from being a line worker to a position in management.

Then in 2009, a more prominent awareness of the global economy took center stage and we discovered that the world financial situation was in bad shape. Since December of 2007, the economy lost 7 million jobs, taking the unemployment rate to 9.4 percent. The total number of Americans who are currently out of work is estimated to be at 14 million, a 26-year high. Another 9 million find themselves in the category of involuntary part-time workers, a jump of 3.7 million in just 1 yearthats 23 million people in need of full-time work.