Day 18: How to Stand Out in a Brutal Job Market by Developing Your Personal Niche Positioning, in 30 Minutes or Less

The job market is brutal right now.

Every week, I talk to 15-20 expats looking for their next opportunity.

There are few openings that don’t require German. The competition is intense. When they do get to it, they often get passed over at the final stage.

𝗠𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻? 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 “𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗡𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴”.

This approach helps you stand out, get more interviews, and become the top choice. But if you google things like developing a personal brand, you get all kinds of woo woo, such as defining your long term mission and vision, auditing your personal brand equity, and so on. This is too complicated for me.

Here’s my simple two-step plan to draft your personal niche positioning in 30 minutes or less.

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀.

1. What part of my role excites me the most, or do I excel at? Ex — implementing scalable architecture, ensuring my team adopts best practices, mentoring my team

2. What specific outcomes am I good at achieving? Ex — faster product development cycles, aligning engineering efforts with business objectives, improving system uptime

3. What industries do I have experience in? Ex — e-commerce, cloud computing, FinTech

4. What types of businesses or teams do I thrive in? Ex — early stage startups, mid-sized manufacturers, software scaleups

𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿.

"I specialize in [Part of Role You Excel At], helping [Type of Business/Team You Thrive In] [Industry] companies achieve [Specific Outcome You Help Achieve]."

Ex — I specialize in team leadership and technical project management, helping ecommerce scaleups achieve faster product development cycles and align engineering efforts with business objectives.

That’s how you quickly position yourself in a crowded market and avoid getting lost in a sea of sameness.

Do you think this will work for you? Let me know in the comments!