If your job search isn’t going well, you might be making a classic mistake: trying to be all things to all employers.
When you rely on a generic resume that doesn’t specify what you’re good at, your odds of landing interviews are slim to none. It’s like marketing: if you try to make a product that appeals to everyone, it will end up appealing to no one.
What’s the solution? Get a niche. Many of the laid-off tech pros who promoted themselves as experts with a particular process, tool or methodology found new jobs shortly after beginning their search.
Rest assured that everyone has a unique selling point that differentiates them in the marketplace—you just need to know what yours is. To give you a hand, here is a process you can use to identify a niche that is guaranteed to attract potential employers.
Identify Your Strengths and Interests
Your sweet spot or niche lies at the intersection of three things: the strengths you offer to an employer, the things that interest you, and the problems tech managers are looking to solve through new hires, explained JJ DiGeronimo,founder of Tech Savvy Women.
Knowing the skill, talent or area of expertise you possess that satisfies all three criteria can help you position yourself as the go-to expert and maximize your job-hunting efforts.
Ideally, you want to come up with about three to five potential niches that you can narrow down later on. Start the brainstorming process by asking yourself the following questions:
- What problems are you able to solve with your technology skills?
- What value do you provide to internal and/or external customers?
- How have you gone above and beyond in any of your roles in the last five years? If so, what are the most impactful examples?
- Have you received recognition from bosses or leaders based on your work?
- Have you mentored or assisted new or developing employees?
- What special skills or knowledge have you developed either on-the-job or on your own?
Once you’ve identified a short list of the things you’re good at and that pique your interests, you want to make sure that hiring managers need what you’re selling.
Figure Out If There’s a Demand for Your Niche
Using a keyword finder or research tool to search job postings in your target industry and field can help you preliminarily identify in-demand skills, tools or competencies that align with your list of potential niches.
Pay close attention to the jobs that employers seem to be struggling to fill; see if you can close the gap between the things employers need and the experience that candidates possess. Also, take stock of the priorities that CIOs and CTOs care about, such as cost-optimization strategies, specific industry needs, or up-and-coming tools; doing so will allow you to position yourself as a more competitive candidate.
Taking the time to understand your ideal employer and the problems they’re facing can help you narrow your focus to a specific need or set of issues that you can solve effectively.
Validate, Test and Refine
Writing about potential niche areas on social media, professional networking sites and technology forums is the ideal way to evaluate, test and refine your niche, says Julie Davila, VP of Global Field CTO Operations for Sophos, a cybersecurity-as-a-service firm.
You can use engagement rates and interactions to gauge the interest and demand for niche skills and expertise. Blogging also helps you build brand awareness and tap into the hidden or unadvertised job market, which may comprise 80 percent or more of the most desirable jobs in some industries.
If you’re a cybersecurity specialist, for instance, writing short 400- to 500-word essays about the evolving K-12 ransomware threat landscape or best practices in BYOD security can help you grab the attention of managers who primarily fill jobs through referrals, added Davila (who secured all of her post-military positions through relationships).
Your niche or blog topic doesn’t need to be based on something you're an "expert" in; it can be focused on something that interests you and want to learn more about. “Keep narrowing down your topic to get higher levels of engagement,” Davila said. Niching down not only helps you identify your ideal employer and opportunity; it helps you concentrate your marketing efforts toward a specific group of recruiters, managers and influencers.
Develop a Niche Marketing Strategy
Once you’ve established your niche, the final step is to target a specific segment of the overall talent market and share messages that will resonate with your target audience, generate referrals and support your professional brand.
Bring your niche to the forefront by adding testimonials and case studies to your online profiles, DiGeronimo said. Then validate and support the value you offer to a prospective employer by describing the problems you’ve solved using your specialized skills and knowledge in your resume and during interviews. Make your niche the centerpiece of a comprehensive personal branding and marketing campaign.
Remember, the whole point of having a niche is to be so clearly differentiated in the marketplace that hiring you is not only the best decision a hiring manager can make—it’s the only decision.
