Introduction
Personal marketing is an important activity taken up by a candidate looking for a job opportunity. The main purpose of tertiary education in colleges and universities is to instill knowledge and skills in the minds of a student.
After the graduation, the student goes and practice in the job market in order to acquire the requisite experience necessary for the job of expertise. Hence, job experience adds value to the curriculum vitae of the student for the benefit of high value job opportunities that may arise in the future.
SWOT analysis
Strengths
There are various sources of strength to a candidate, who is fresh from college, when applying for job vacancies and opportunities in the job market. A fresh candidate has the necessary knowledge and skills for the job that he or she applies for a vacancy or an offer. It takes at least four years period of comprehensive studying in universities for a student to graduate and qualify to apply for a job opportunity.
Four years is quite a long time for training and thus enough to instill the necessary skills in the minds of the student that are necessary for the nature of the jobs that are related or associated with the course of training. Therefore, a fresh candidate from college is most suitable for a job vacancy for he or she has the right knowledge and skills for the job.
Secondly, a fresh candidate from university has keenness and desire to learn as additional advantages to his or her strengths. Fresh candidates from tertiary institutions have higher discipline than those who finished colleges and universities a long time ago.
Main reason behind this characteristic is the fear and anxiety of the environment outside colleges and universities. In other words, in the minds of a student, real world is harder than world enclosed by education and academic activities, and thus are ready to adhere to the rules of the employer as an escape route from the troubles of the real world.
Such discipline is highly required by the employers for a disciplined candidate makes a highly promising employee, who deserves the employer’s trust. Graduate trainees greatest strength is highly associated to naivety and fear of the consequences of the real world.
In addition, fresh graduates a have high desire of making money due to their huge budgeting deficits related to the material goods that they desire to acquire. Consequently, they are ready and willing to work for the money, and hence have a low bargaining power for high payments as compared to those who have stayed quite a while after graduating from tertiary institutions of learning.
Thirdly, the nature of fresh graduate’s physique also contributes greatly to the strengths of fresh graduates in the job markets. Most of the fresh graduates are younger and physically stronger than their counterparts, with whom they seek for job opportunities.
Hence, they stand higher chances of being employed into the jobs that are physically involving than their counterparts as they are willing to cope with a job that is physically challenging.
Fourthly, fresh graduates are suitable for jobs that demand extensive readings and research for their minds are used to readings and understanding the concepts.
Hence, they stand higher chances of acquiring employment opportunities into the research and development teams for they can perform visibility analysis of situations and events and above all base their analysis on literature reviews and reliable readings. In addition, young graduates can work for long hours without fatigue unlike the old aged candidates and thus more desirable to the employers.
Weaknesses
The greatest weakness for fresh graduates is the stiff competition that has been available in today’s jobs markets. Many candidates opt to further their studies by enrolling for masters’ degrees, doctorate degrees and other certificate courses in order to increase knowledge of expertise and chances of acquiring job opportunities.
Fresh graduates lack other knowledge backgrounds to back their resumes with, and hence appearing inferior in the job markets as compared to their counterparts.
Education system seems to have adopted a new route in today’s world. A few decades ago, people used to enroll into the institutions of learning for the sake of acquiring knowledge and hence the intelligence of a person.
In addition, there was no stiff competition amongst the learned fellows for everybody enjoyed utilizing his or her knowledge into an area of expertise, and their employers awarded promotions based on merit in an employee’s contribution in a workplace.
However, things seemed to have taken a new course of action in today’s world. Education is no longer only a source of knowledge and wisdom to majority individuals, but also a source of employment benefits such as promotions and increases in salaries.
This scenario has created an abnormal course of action whereby majority are enrolling for degree courses as means to increase their chances for promotions and increasing salaries in their work places.
Hence, they have caused college conspiracies as education facilities hawk courses in trying to increase the number of students for financial benefits, but not for the delivery of quality services.
Consequently, college degrees have lost value and some employers have opted to ask for masters’ degrees as minimum requirements as opposed to the trend in the past few decades whereby degrees were highly valued for applications of job opportunities.
Secondly, fresh graduates lack of experience that is highly needed by employers in many employment opportunities that arise. Employers demand highly skilled candidates for some job opportunities, which put off fresh graduates from applying.
Fresh graduates feel humiliated by such trend, but it serves well to employers who get highly skilled labor as they desire. Tertiary education lacks to provide enough expertise to the students hence locking them out of contesting for job opportunities that demand highly experienced personnel.
The third weakness for fresh graduates is the lack of money or capital. It is always a desire of many students to start their own businesses once they get out of colleges, but armed with ideas, they cannot implement their ideas due to lack of money. Hence, they lack the ability to offer job opportunities unless they seek for employment opportunities first in order to acquire the amount of money needed to start their own enterprises.
The fourth weakness is the naivety to bargain for better employment conditions as their counterparts. Fresh graduates are more naïve than old graduates are, and that results to their employers taking advantage of their situations. Hence, they end up working for low pays and their employers often overwork them due to their ability to work for long hours without questioning the treatment they get from their employers.
Opportunities
There are always new job opportunities that require fresh graduates that serve as opportunities in the graduates SWOT analysis schedule.
The ultimate goal of every new fresh graduate is to acquire a job amongst many job opportunities that are always available and start planning for the life ahead from what he or she gets from that job. However, the candidate chooses the best suitable job opportunity from the list of available job opportunities that employers have advertised.
Fresh graduates have the necessary knowledge and skills for various job opportunities that fall under areas of their expertise. Hence, they can perform better than old aged graduates can if given the opportunity to work by employers. Knowledge and skills are the key components of all necessary opportunities that an employee needs to have for his or her suitability in a job opportunity.
Threats
The greatest threat to a fresh graduate seeking for a job opportunity is the competition in the job market. This competition has resulted from large population of highly trained individuals in the society. In contrast, there are a few job opportunities available for fresh graduates, and such an element poses a threat to the chances of a fresh graduate getting a job opportunity.
In addition, majority of the trained individuals lacking job opportunities are more educated and experienced than the fresh graduate is, and thus diminishes his or her chance of acquiring an employment opportunity.
The second greatest threat to a fresh graduate in seeking for a job opportunity is the lack of experience that majority employers demand from candidates. Experience results from exposure to working environments where candidates acquire exposures o working conditions and environments. Hence, fresh graduates find themselves locked out of applying for job opportunities whose employers call for experiences.
Mission statement
The personal marketing plan needs to have a strong mission statement that is capable of motivating an individual and at the same time serve as a marketing creativity tool for pleasing the future employers.
My mission statement as a fresh graduate reads: To uphold the company’s rules and policies as stipulated in the company’s rules and regulations statements, and offering my contribution to the best of my ability with accordance to rightful judgments.
In addition, marketing the company to the outside world by ensuring there is an adhering of quality production of goods and services under my watch for the sake of maximizing the shareholders wealth and creating a good reputation of the business to the outside world.
Objectives
First Objective
In a bid to contribute to my level best to the company’s affairs and especially in the area of my assignment with a clear goal of ensuring that company’s growth and development gears well towards the realization of its vision by conforming to the clearly stated mission statement of the company.
Second objective
I will conduct myself by upholding honesty and diligence to create a good environment for working under minimal or no supervision as required by the international industrial relations in the labor rules and regulations. In addition, I will follow the stipulated communication channels in the company’s policies in airing my grievances and advise my fellow colleagues upon realizing their ignorance on the same.
Third objective
I will respect and honor the public in the company’s matters that involve the public and ensure that my behaviors and attitudes towards them add value to the corporate social responsibilities. I will not report anything concerning the company to the media unless advised to do so my public relations manager or the public relations department or relevant authorities.
In addition, if required to make a public communication, I will protect the name of the company regardless of the nature of internal business environment guided by the heart of ensuing that the external environment is protected for the benefit of retaining the market size.
Target markets
As a fresh graduate, I will experience some challenges in identifying the best areas that I ought to do personal marketing for my career. However, guided by my heart desires, I will market myself to areas where my training and skills are relevant and highly used in order to attain a competitive advantage over other applicants whose training and skills are less relevant to the areas that they often apply for jobs.
According to my strengths, I am best suited in areas that I have learned and acquired knowledge about in my training at tertiary institutions, and I stand high chances of outdoing my close competitors due to confidence in practicing and exercising the skills I possess. Hence, I should have confidence in trying to apply for job opportunities in areas that I am sure of delivering quality services as required by my employer.
The most common industries that I can work in include consumer goods package industries and manufacturing industries. My main target is Procter and Gamble Company for it is a competitive consumer package company and was recently rated as the largest in the industry in terms of profitability.
The company pays its employees well and awards them opportunities for advancing their training depending on the employee’s contribution. I desire to work at Procter and Gamble Company and wish to get an opportunity to work there, and promise myself to give my best to the growth and development of the company.
Marketing Mix
Market mix is an important element for applying for job opportunities as a fresh graduate. I will look into four basic elements of the marketing mix, which include the product, price, and promotions. The product, viz. a degree in industrial chemistry, is my basic product that I need to market in the job market.
Degree, being an academic qualification, eases the hustle of getting job opportunities after which a fresh employee undergoes training that is in most cases very different from the knowledge acquired from a tertiary institution.
Personally, I take my academic qualifications as a key to the industrial job opportunities for being the only product that can sell my knowledge and skills to potential employers. However, it is prone to growth upon my enrolment into university for master’s degree in the near future.
This aspect implies that I have plans of advancing my knowledge and skills through further learning in order to acquire a competitive advantage in the industry as well as acquiring a position that I could easily bargain for high salary payments.
Secondly, a product has a specific price tag once launched to the market. Therefore, I value my academic qualifications by setting up the minimum salary that I can accept from the potential employers. In order to come up with the lowest salary figure that I can accept, I applied the following pricing mechanism.
I took the number of years that I have been studying and found them to be nineteen, I calculated the minimum amount of money paid as fees in my university education and found it to be nearly $100,000.
In addition, I looked into the minimum wage that a fresh graduate receives in my career field and found it to be $9,000. Hypothetically, I assumed there has been inflation and rated my minimum wage as $9,500 so that by the end of twelve months, I shall have earned more than the amount of money paid for my entire university education.
Thirdly, I looked into the place for marketing my knowledge and skills using the degree certificate as the supporting document. I realized that the majority of job adverts in the dailies and advertisements demand experience of not less than five years, which I do not have, but needs am in dire need of a job opportunity.
I decided not to rely on the advertised job opportunities and opted to walk into the human resource offices in specific companies that I would wish to work for and sell my knowledge and skills. I consider it as a bold step that a few fresh graduates opt or even think of taking.
This idea of moving into the human resource offices of specific companies, I believe it works. Historically, it worked to one courageous man who walked into Thomas Edison’s office, inventor of light bulb, with a clear goal of becoming his associate and cared less about the nature of job that he could get at initial stages.
Fortunately, an opportunity presented itself and the man became an associate to Thomas Edison. That story motivates me for I feel that the same could happen to me if I walked into those offices and present my case before potential employers.
Fourthly, I look into ways of carrying out product promotions to my knowledge and skills. Product promotion is a crucial marketing strategy that enables the producer to get immediate feedback from the targeted customers. I intended to carryout my personal knowledge and skills in uniquely manner, which would grant me a higher competitive advantage over other job seekers that are available in the society.
I intended to walk into human resources offices and I belief I shall leave the office with clear information about whether I stand a chance of getting a job or not and the type of skills that companies need most.
Secondly, I also intended to get into social works such as environmental management and create a network with sponsors of such activities who may end up hiring me into their companies. I believe there is no way through which any of the above two ways of product promotion could fail to push me into a job regardless of whether it is in line with my career field.
Implementation
Implementation is the last step of my personal marketing plan, and the most important for my career objectives. After developing the strategies through which I intended to market my knowledge and skills, I have already prepared a timeline with which I shall work with in ensuring that I realize my dream of acquiring a job opportunity.
According to my timeline, I shall begin my registering with a social community group that deals with environmental conservation and campaigning against environmental degradation and participate in social works. At the same time, I shall be carrying out the second plan of walking into human resource offices of specific companies.