YOU Inc.

You are no longer a person in this economy. You are a product, competing for shelf space. It's time to think in terms of features, benefits and value.

What are your features? What are your benefits? What is the value you deliver? If you are an IT Project Manager, your features would be the unique knowledge you have about specific technologies (award-winning Agile software development). By leveraging that knowledge, your employer will be able to realize benefits (i.e. competitive advantage in the industry). Finally, the value you deliver would be your direct or indirect contribution to the bottom line (delivering completed projects ahead of schedule and under budget).

Now, take this thought process and think in terms of a targeted marketing campaign, utilizing creative advertising and publicity to get the word out about you. This is what companies do to sell their products. This is what you need to do to sell yourself. Otherwise, you'll sit on the shelf and collect dust.