Start Creating Your
Core Personal Marketing Concept
Part I: Stop Worrying
About Who You Think They Want So You Can Promote Who You Actually Are
by John T. Carlsen, Psy.D.
Many internship and practicum applicants spend
hours wondering how selection committees would define their "
ideal" candidate. They rate their chances for a successful match using
criteria such as "Which sites would most likely accept someone like
me" or "Where would I have the best chances of matching?"
rather than "Where would I like to train?" and "What sites
would give me the skills and knowledge I need to become the psychologist
I have always wanted to be?"
Then, they waste even more time and energy
trying to package their qualifications so they fit neatly into these
pre-defined categories. Unfortunately, no matter how carefully you read
application materials - or how many previous trainees you ask - you have very
little chance of accomplishing either of these goals because
You will never be exactly who - or
what - they want. Nor should you even try to be.
In reality, few committee members have
rigidly-defined concepts of their "ideal" applicants. Even if you
could find out exactly what they wanted, you have limited possibilities of
actually fitting yourself into their definition. Furthermore, in applying to
15 or 20 different sites, you could drive yourself crazy trying to package and
re-package your background in so many ways. Secondly, even if they believed
that they knew exactly what kind of trainee they want, chances are very good
that they simply believe that "we will know it when we see it".
No matter how this realization
might disappoint you initially, however, it actually works to your
advantage: Their ambiguity leaves you with a wonderful opportunity and a great
deal of flexibility in showing them why they should want to choose you. Once
you have relieved yourself of trying to fit your unique self into a
pre-defined mold, you will experience a remarkable sense of freedom. This
shift might even trigger a complete transformation in how you approach
prospective sites.: That is, as you move toward reclaiming, promoting - and
learning to celebrate - your particular gifts as a training therapist, you
will stop worrying about what you think they want and increasingly take
charge of the entire application and interviewing experience.
Your best strategy, then, is to start
your preparations by focusing your attention on 1) what you want to learn from
your training and 2) what you have to offer as a trainee. When you have
clarity in these two areas, you can easily shift your own and committee
members' attention away from any pre-existing notions of an "ideal"
applicant and toward the definition you want to create. I call this learning
to promote your Core Personal Marketing Concept™
What is exactly a Core Personal Marketing
Concept and What Goes into Creating One?
Your Personal Marketing Concept is a brief, but
concise, description of the kinds of work you really want to do and why you
feel that it fits you particularly well. This description incorporates your
target population(s), the specific reason(s) you want to work with them, and
the in-born talents and gifts you possess that have prepared you to succeed in
these areas of concentration. Of course, you do not want to imply that you are
ready to specialize this early your training; you definitely want to develop a
solid foundation as a generalist in the field. This Concept simply gives a
focus to your training interests and provides committee members with a way of
remembering you that makes you stand out from your competition.
To illustrate the process of generating a
Core Personal Marketing Concept, let me describe the one I created
to guide me in writing my own internship applications and prepared for my
interviews. In thinking about my own professional aspirations, I began by
uncovering the feelings that originally inspired me to become a psychologist.
Before even starting to write my essays, I paused to reflect on and clarify my
unspoken dreams: Outwardly, I had chosen to apply only to university
counseling center internship programs, but I had never articulated exactly why
I felt inwardly drawn to them.
Gradually, I began to realize that my deep
desire to work with university students stemmed from my fascination with life
transitions, particularly those that occur between adolescence and adulthood.
This transition struck me as one of the most direct and powerful times that I
could positively influence my clients' lives. I also remembered how many
theorists view adolescence as a period of working and re-working developmental
tasks that resurfaces regularly throughout peoples' adult lives. They said
adulthood consists of several adolescences.
Although university students certainly
represented many different age groups and backgrounds, they, nevertheless,
shared a single, common characteristic: they would be actively engaged in or
affected by some familiar struggles. Whether they were recent high school
graduates leaving home for the first time to attend college or middle_aged
adults returning to complete degrees or change career directions, the majority
of my clients would be somehow actively engaged with the tasks of
"Identity versus Role Confusion," Erik Erikson's fifth stage of
psychosocial development. In other words, the fact that they were in school
meant they were probably working through - or, in some cases, re-working - their self definitions of personal and professional identity and social role.
Or, as Freud might have said, working to gain more satisfaction in their love
relationships and work.
The Benefits of Knowing Who You Are and Why You
Are Looking for What You Want
My own Core Personal Marketing Concept provided
me with a framework for clearly spelling out why I had limited my focus to
university counseling center internships: While my internship clients would
certainly come to the center with the more universal complaints about
depression, anxiety, and social isolation, I could more easily account for the
emergence of their symptoms in predictable, expectable life events than at
other times of life. This framework also helped me to understand more clearly
which therapeutic interventions might work best with individual clients
because their life circumstances had broken them open to consider change.
Finally, It enabled me to show in my applications how I planned to integrate
my passions for investing in the mental/emotional health of future generations
with my curiosity about how people arrive at their career and relationship
choices.
As any writer knows, the more tangible focus
you give to your writing and speaking, the more easily your readers and
listeners will 1) comprehend what you are saying, 2) remember it clearly, and
3) avoid being swayed by their pre-existing expectations. My own experience
again illustrates this point: I was unaware of the actual odds I faced in
applying for a university counseling center as a clinical Psy.D. student
competing with applicants from Counseling Psychology Ph.D. programs. The Ohio
State University counseling center internship is one of the most sought-after
training programs among these students. Yet, I believe that, because I was
able to articulate clearly why I was a good match for their training program
(not to mention unaware of the extent of my competition),
I was able to succeed in securing one of these coveted positions despite my
deficits in counseling psychology..
Similarly, the more clearly you, as an
internship (or practicum) applicant, can spell out your core reasons for
applying to specific internship sites, the more easily you will be able to
demonstrate the goodness-of-fit between what you want to learn and what your
chosen sites are prepared to teach you. And the less attention you - or
committee members - will give to the external characteristics of your fellow
applicants.
In short, the more directly and simply you communicate the match
between what you want to learn and what each site offers, the greater your
chances of getting the training you want. More importantly, no matter what
kind of trainees committee members originally had in mind, you will be amazed
at how quickly and easily you can become exactly the one they
want. .
John T. Carlsen, Psy.D. is
a licensed clinical psychologist who trains and supervises psychology interns
and externs. He offers personal coaching and training resources for graduate
students applying for internships and post-doctoral jobs. Click here
to learn more about how to write
effective applications and prepare for interviews. Click here
to submit comments, questions, or suggestions for future newsletter topics.
