Baby steps before a giant career leap. Are you ready?

RODRIGO PORTO - You finally landed in Canada, now what? Now it’s time to put to work your pre-landing strategy and solidify your presence in this great country. Every two weeks I will post here the baby steps you should take before making your giant career leap, so let’s get to it!

USP, or unique selling proposition, is a marketing concept that states how successful an advertising campaign pitches new clients. Putting that into career search perspective, it’s all about how you articulate your unique value proposition to the job market. Considering you are in a new country, new job market and Vancouver is such a small town you must not miss out on any opportunity to pitch your unique value. One of the initial steps in being able to articulate, either verbally or in written format, what’s unique about you is being self aware of your skills and attributes. How about trying this free online assessment which is a good starting tool in helping you identifying your character strengths?

Now that you have done that – take the time to read your results and prioritize the five most important ones related to the career you wish to leap into. These should always be your starting point in working towards making a successful 30-second pitch, working your transferable skills into a powerful cover letter and most importantly strongly networking using what’s unique about your set of skills.

Bear in mind, the baby steps you take towards your giant career leap should not be a numbers game, but rather a strategized action plan where you highlight what’s unique about you, both as an individual and a competent professional therefore enhancing your chances of landing into the career and role you know you’ll excel at.

After all, now that you have been granted entry into this great country in the north, it’s up to you to make this a success story and ensure you make the most out of this unique time in Canada’s history. So start working on your unique value proposition and you’ll see how things start clearing out on your job hunt. Hit your targets.

Rodrigo Porto is a Manager, MBA Careers, at the UBC Sauder School of Business. He also works with newcomers to Canada in setting them up for success in the tough Canadian job market. You can reach Porto at rodportocareers@mail.com.