Christine B.

Regardless of what you do for a living, whether you are a writer, a scientist or a lawyer, it is not enough to be great at what you do. You also have to be great at marketing,… yourself! That is perhaps the most challenging part once you have acquired the skills you need to actually do your job. There are great professionals who are underpaid because they are not landing the “big jobs” (whether full time or freelance). They may not have any networking skills, or not know how to start networking. They may not be good at “self promotion” when they do network. Whatever the case, in today’s day and age we all need to be excellent marketers before we even get a job.

Why am I saying this? Because it is an often overlooked fact of the job market. People post resumes online, write cover letters and submit job applications or queries left and right. In most cases it is hit and miss and meeting one person by chance could turn your career around 180 degrees. It can be frustrating when you don’t know where to start, and frankly I don’t believe there is a strict “formula” for success. Instead there are many strategies that could work, depending on your unique situation.

I was pondering about this issue after reading some earning reports from a fellow writer, who shall remain unnamed, and talking to a friend who was recently back on the job market. While some people (in any industry) earn $10.000 for a particular project, others only pull in $250 if they are lucky. Similarly, my friend received offers ranging from $40.000 a year to $150.000 a year for the same job description! The difference on both cases? Simple: how big is your employers budget? And how much do they value your work? So the key is to network, and preferably network with people who do have appropriate budgets for whatever it is you would be hired to do for them. There is no such thing as a budget that is “too big”, but there are budgets that are simply too small, and if there is nothing you can do to change that then all you can do is save your working hours for companies that are willing to invest in quality talent.