Are You a Commodity in the Employment Marketplace?

Competition is Fierce, So It’s Essential to Distinguish Yourself

By Eric P. Kramer
Senior Consultant, Career Potential, LLC

In a competitive and crowded marketplace, every product and service must differentiate itself. It is not enough to be simply “as good” as all the rest. In addition, with easy access to cheap (or even free) Internet marketing, there is a great deal of advertising that makes it difficult to differentiate services and make buying decisions. As an example, just think of all the “pop-up ads” you see online. In the employment marketplace, this is exemplified by the thousands of job web sites and hundreds of resumes submitted over the Internet in response to advertised jobs.

To rise above the flood of advertising, successful companies establish powerful branding and distinct “value-adds.” You can adopt the same strategy to rise above the flood of your competition in the employment marketplace.

“Value-add” refers to an extra feature or benefit that goes beyond the standard expectations and provides a more compelling reason to purchase. A value-add makes the service or product more desirable and positively influences the buying decision. However, a value-add has no impact if it is not provided in addition to good service. Always having on-time delivery, for instance, does not make a difference if the pizza tastes lousy.

The worst characterization of a service is to be “a commodity.” A service is a commodity when it is equivalent to what all the competitors offer. A provider of a commodity service can easily be exchanged for another provider of the same service who offers a lower price. For example, many dry cleaners provide a commodity service. Customers will change to another dry cleaner if they can find one that costs even slightly less. In the employment marketplace, many employees (even mid- and senior-level employees) are commodities in that they provide a service that can be replaced easily. In bad economies, companies replace more expensive “commodity” employees with cheaper employees. So, the big question is: are YOU a commodity in the employment marketplace?

If you are a commodity, it will be difficult to differentiate yourself in interviews. However, most of us are not commodities – we just haven’t defined our value-adds, or learned how to articulate them. Here are some tips to determine your value-adds:

Know Yourself

Take an inventory of your skills. Do not limit the inventory to skills applicable to the job for which you are interviewing; do a full inventory. This inventory should include skills connected to your job, interests, hobbies, and leisure activities. When you have a full inventory, you can choose which skills serve as value-adds for the type of jobs you are seeking.

Know Your Profession

Every profession has areas of concentration and a large skill base. For example, within human resources, you might be applying to be a Compensation Manager. But the human resources field has a number of other specialty areas and required skills, such as diversity management, employee retention, benefits, training, and international employment. So, even though you’re applying to be a Compensation Manager, having international employment experience could be a differentiating value-add for a multinational company, or a company that is expanding internationally.

Once you have determined your value-adds, be sure to clearly communicate them in your interviews. This could make all the difference, and ultimately lead to more job offers!