随着新一年的来临，大大小小的 招聘会 也闪亮登场了。作为大学即将毕业的学生来说，学生生活的重要组成部分“学业”也逐渐被“就业”给取代了。当就业挑战成为大多数学生忧心难题的时候，如何在找工作的过程中推销自己无疑成为了重点。现在介绍一个新理念：使用营销策略推销你自己(Marketing Yourself-using the marketing strategy)。
In popular usage, "marketing" is the promotion of products, especially advertising and branding. However, in professional usage the term has a wider meaning which recognizes that marketing is customer centered. Products are often developed to meet the desire of groups of customers or even, in some cases, for specific customers. The four Ps, which are product, pricing, promotion and placement, are often referred to as the marketing mix.
营销学里有4个核心观念(4P)：Product，Place，Price和Promotion。在一场求职的过程中，product就是求职者自己，找工作的人要把自己给推销出去，price就是薪金，而place则代表了求职者target的市场，在promotion的阶段，求职者要使用不同的方式把自己给推销出去，即求职者采取何种的方式和方法。
Whether you're at the most senior level, or starting a career at entry-level, it is imperative that you know your product (you) in order to be competitive in today's marketplace. Know what your product is, what is does, (and doesn't do) and how it adds value and benefit to an organization. Don't presume that you can figure it out during an interview. For most of us, it simply can't happen! Do some research on yourself. Prepare. Plan. Practice. Perform. Persist. Produce!
在找工作的过程中，最重要的要素之一就是了解你自己，了解自己所处的位置，自身的优势和劣势。比如说，作为大学刚刚毕业的学生，优势可能来源于诸如academic record和extracurricular activities的部分，像学术背景和大学时期的课外活动等都是一些很好的证明，劣势可能就在于没有工作经验，是人们所说的新手，不具备相关的工作背景或者在相关工作领域的雇主的推荐。总而言之，作为应聘者，特别是大学才毕业的毕业生，要推销自己，必须了解自己，了解自身的不足，才知道应该怎样准备，怎样做合理的计划。最后就是多点实践精神和坚持不懈的信念，最终达到自己的目标。
Put simply, price is the amount of money or goods for which a thing is bought or sold. Setting the right price is an important part of effective marketing. The price of a product may be seen as a financial expression of the value of that product. For a consumer, price is the monetary expression of the value to be enjoyed/benefits of purchasing a product, as compared with other available items.
在这里，price无疑就是找工作的薪金了。对于工资水平，当然是双方面的，既来自于雇主，也包含了雇员的要求。当然对于那些刚刚毕业的"新手"，这个方面没有太多的优势，因为作为大学才毕业的学生，往往不具备"开价"的能力(use profit maximization pricing strategy)，而且中国的现状是，毕业生的人数日益增多，而且市场上劳动力的供给数量也在加大，导致了工资的总体水平被压低。但这种劣势也是相对的，大学毕业生的起点不高，要求不高，通常雇主们会给予考虑，同时也会通过提供一些 培训 和实习锻炼的机会，最终达到add value的目标。那么这个时候，就要求刚刚毕业的学生，摆正好自己的心态，不要提出过高的要求，而是重在工作经验的积累和自己的不断实践和锻炼上。
Product placement is a promotional tactic used by marketers in which a real commercial product is used in fictional or non-fictional media, and the presence of the product is a result of an economic exchange. Promotion involves dissemination about a product, product line, brand, or company. Promotion is the specific mix of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations a company uses to pursue its advertising and marketing objectives. Information gather is extremely important at this stage of the game.
如果把placement和promotion仅仅限定在一次找工作的过程中，那么地点可能就是一次 面试 ，或者一次 招聘会 ，而promotion可能就是招聘者推销自己的方式，可能是招聘者的一次简短的介绍(short presentation)，或者一份漂亮的 简历 等。作为学生，就是多多利用现有的资源，比如收集网上的公司的资料、广告，参加 招聘会 和听取一些成功人士的求职经历，结合自己的实际情况，取长补短，把自己successfully sell出去。
