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Is the Job Market Tight for Your Grads? Beyond the ABCs of Job Search: ‘Suit’em Up’, 

Inside & Out, and ‘Brand’ Them  
 

Ruth Taylor, Texas State University 
 

 

This paper focuses on ‘fear’ found most common among upper-level college students and military 
veterans in today’s tight job market. One principles of marketing educator’s experiential project, entitled 

‘Suit’em up,’ inside & out, and ‘brand’ them is discussed at length with implementation details and 
perception survey findings provided along with pre-project related mini-lectures. The project moved 
individual participants beyond the typical ABCs of the job search process to that of creating for a 

mission-centric, introspective-based marketing plan with the ultimate goal of finding meaningful, life-
satisfying work. Implications for student cohorts- at large and academic, veteran, and at-large career 

counselors are identified.   
 

 

With the U.S. economy lagging in 2011 and employment rates exceedingly high, educators are 

encouraged to advise students, veterans and other job seekers to re-think their personal job search 

readiness strategies. And, to encourage them to move beyond the typical ABCs training of a job search 

learned in school: the resume, the cover letter and personal interview skills. Helpful job search readiness 

actions that go beyond the ABCs the following elements: (1) an introspectively-determined armor of 

skills; (2) a competitive position with a brand catch phrase; (3) an intensive study of industry of interest 

and alternative industries of interest; (4) a personal marketing plan; and (5) a meaningful long-term, life-

satisfying employment-oriented networking plan. The experiential project discussed in this paper, entitled 

‘Suit’em up,’ inside & out, and ‘brand’ them (hereafter referred to as the Suit’em up…project) is a means 

of accomplishing these above listed actions and is most beneficial if completed before students begin to 

write their resumes and cover letters, make job applications. Thus, the project is appropriately assigned at 

the junior level of a student’s academic studies.  

This project was assigned as a required experiential project in a principles of marketing course. It was 

designed to accomplish two main comprehensive objectives: (1) give students experience in applying the 

principles and practices of marketing, and (2) help students increase their job search readiness. Individual 

project activities helped to move students toward taking personal responsibility for gaining the 

meaningful, life-satisfying work job seekers commonly desire. Many U.S. unemployed/underemployed 

people still actively seeking employment’ (i.e., still part of the so-called workforce), and the many 

workforce dropouts (those unemployed, discouraged, former job seekers who are ‘no longer actively 

seeking employment), are all hurting psychologically and financially. These people may not have thought 

about the readiness element needed in preparing for a meaningful job search and the flexibilities 

necessitated by a necessitated by a tight job market, and necessitated by other job markets changes.   

The intent of this paper is to the share major details of the experiential project, Suit’em up,…’to share 

the nine introductory mini-lectures associated with the project; to share empirical findings regarding 

students’ perception of the project’s worth in terms of helping them with job search readiness; and to 

share students perceived fears as related to job searching in a tight job market. The project is introduced 

and explained in terms of its usefulness in teaching principles of marketing course content and in terms of 

its usefulness in training students to develop a job search readiness plan and personal marketing plan as 

part of their job search readiness efforts. The project directed students as job seekers to complete the 

following actions: (1) conduct a drill-down personal assessment of abilities; (2) conduct intensive 

industry of interest and alternative industry of interest experiential research; (3) create personal branded 

position; (4) write an introspective-based brand catch phrase; (5) design a personal marketing mix; and 

(6) construct an individual-centric/alternative industries-centric networking plan.   

Empirical findings discussed include the following: (1) focus group findings of sixty-five, upper-level 

business students’ greatest ‘fear’ in today’s tight job market, and their need for help in overcoming it; (2) 



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findings of literature reviews regarding job search needs of unemployed military veterans (Campbell, 

2011); and (3) three-year project implementation findings. Project details and survey findings hold 

implications for other academic educators, veteran and at-large career counselors; and for all job seekers, 

regardless of major area of academic study, prior work experience, or military service.  
 

LITERATURE REVIEW 
 

Current ‘Tight’ Job Market 
 

Today, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (June, 2011), the unemployment rate of young adults 

(ages 18-24) is at a crisis point of 26.8%; the general population unemployment rate is at 9.0% 

(Campbell, 2011); at least 50% of 2010 business school graduates and most of 2011 graduates are still 

seeking employment (Business News, 2011); and the unemployment rate of military veterans seeking 

civilian jobs is at 8.8% (Campbell, 2011). Training people to develop different job search strategies in 

different types of labor markets and getting them to access their readiness for a meaningful job search are 

prerequisites in career counseling, albeit not always put into practice. According to Piggott (1997), we 

need people who can reinvent themselves, as market changes occur, doing so to give themselves a 

competitive advantage. Job seekers need to be encouraged to broaden their scope of job search by being 

curious about the way job market works in various industries and how their skill set is applicable in a 

variety of occupations in a variety of industries. Some educators, career consultants, and U.S. government 

entities are beginning to provide enhanced training, although, as survey findings discussed in this paper 

demonstrates, more intensive training is needed that regard job search readiness and training in the value 

of and development of a personal marketing plan as part of one’s life-satisfying job search effort.  
 

Help Strategies 
 

In essence, based on reviews of current literature and websites analyses, it can be said that there are 

many and varied entities reaching out to help today’s job seekers. Although this paper will not make a 

complete review of each helping entity, the essence of some help strategies is presented in Table 1. 
 

Table 1:  Job Search Help Strategies Provided Student-Cohort and Graduates. 
 

Academic Business Program 

- Internship programs 
- Job shadowing experiences 
- AMA; SIFE; other student organizations 
- Designing curricula & extracurricular activities to make program’s graduates more marketable 

College Placement Offices 

- Career counseling, Job postings, Job search advising, mock interviews, speed interviews, walk-in coaching, resume workshops, etc. 
- Internship fairs; Job fairs 

Industry-Specific Efforts 

- Online specific employment information & association listings 

- Industry-related career opportunities 
- Examples:  

  AgCareers.com (agricultural industry) 

  Aef.com (advertising industry); 

  Winetalent.blogspot.com (wine talent) 

  Oilcareers.com (oil and gas industry); 

  Youtube.com (fashion industry) 

U.S. Government Efforts 

- Department of Labor  (Occupational Outlook Handbook OOH) 
- Joining Forces  (First Lady Michelle Obama & Dr. Jill Biden, http://www.whitehouse.gov/joiningforces 

Online Career Counselors and Recruiters 

- Indeed.co 
- Gijobs.com 
- Militaryhire.com 
- Careerbuilder..com 
- Resumeedcge.com 

‘Sharks’ .com 

- Ones that students need to be careful about using and educators need to warn against. 



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In regard to U.S. Government Efforts/Grant Programs the U.S. government offers a variety of help 

aids and publishes many industry-specific statistics useful by job seekers. For example, the Department of 

Labor’s, Bureau of Labor Statistics’ publishes the Career Guide to Industries - Occupational Outlook 

Handbook (OOH) (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011) that is a valuable job search readiness reference. 

Another example is, as reported by Campbell (2011) in the USAA Magazine, the Joining Forces (2011) 

grant program that first lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden recently launched, accessible at 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/joiningforces. This grant program has the push objective of providing grant 

money to help educate employers on benefits of hiring veterans and their job seeking family members 

(Campbell, 2011). Campbell’s (2011) also showed that civilian hiring managers may not understand a 

veterans’ transferrable skills encoded in ‘military speak’ rather ‘corporate speak.’ Thus, many companies, 

as the following select ones, have initiated specific efforts to help veterans and hiring managers translate 

military skill language to civilian skill language: www.careerbuilder.com, www.resumeedge.com, 

www.militaryhire.com, www.resume.info, www.regis.edu, and www.gijobs.com. Translating military 

skills to private sector language is of utmost importance in a veteran’s successful job search effort.  

In regard to online career counselors and recruiters, today’s online recruiting and career help industry 

is international in scope and is dedicated to matching hiring employer need and job seeking candidate 

skills and to providing career-related help and hiring advice to their clients. In terms of helping hiring 

employers, some of these online companies train hiring managers in advanced on-line recruiting 

techniques. At times specialized help is offered as well. For instance, one online company, Indeed.com 

(2011), accessible at http://www.indeed.com, has recently broadened its business scope to include a 

military veteran only link dedicated to helping veterans find jobs.   

Many on-line career-oriented organizations are legitimate; others not. Mixed in with the legitimate, 

highly beneficial company offerings, there are, likewise, company offerings not so helpful. With the 

current tight job market, many online marketing shysters and/or scammers have popped up to help; albeit, 

‘help - at a huge price,’ in the form of monies paid by job seekers or in private information elicited form 

them. These are to be guarded against as they exploit the fragility of the unemployed and underemployed. 

Educators can help by guiding students to critically screen ‘career advice - at a price’ or ‘free’ ones that 

may have a possible ulterior motive and do so before signing up for counseling engagements with any of 

them. Likewise, there are sham on-line job postings specifically designed to elicit personal information 

from the unemployed. These exploiters create a ‘beware’ situation for job seekers. Questionable practices 

by recruiters and career-assisting entities, on- or off-line and/or any suspect job or suspect resume posting 

noted by suspect job seekers can be reported to the job seeker’s state’s Office of the Attorney General. 
 

Unanswered Questions 
 

However, many questions remain unanswered. One question is in regard to marketing program efforts 

to make graduates more marketable. In the process of business programs implementing revised strategies 

for enhancing the marketability of their students, thus increasing the placement rate of their graduates, an 

unanswered question arises. Are these revised strategies, likewise, helping students to become more 

marketable from each student’s own personal perspective? For instance, do any of these programs offer 

training for students in developing for themselves a personal life-mission oriented marketing plan? And, 

in doing so, are students being helped such that they become more confident that they are seeking 

employment in the right places, for them, whether in industry of intent, adjacent industries, or alternate 

industry venues?   

When initiating the following discussed project three years ago, in this educator’s principles of 

marketing course, most on-line and off-line career-related, job-search advice was well meant and helpful 

but was, in this educator’s opinion, ‘surface’ in nature. Today there is a plethora of websites advising 

introspective assessment of skills and help for veterans, but none, as could be determined by this 

educator/author that directly advised job seekers to develop a personal marketing plan applying the 

principles and practices of marketing as a way of keeping job seekers out of a potential existential job 

search vacuum (Schultz and Miller, 2004).   
 



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Experiential Survey Design  
 

Approximately 390 junior level business students, enrolled in various sections of the principles of 

marketing course taught by the educator at a large university in the southwestern part of the United States, 

over a three-year period, 2008-2011, was the population studied in this research. Two different surveys 

were conducted. A current year conducted focus group survey involved sixty-five upper-level business 

students. A three-year study including approximately 390 business students who completed the Suit’em 

Up... project was conducted. Students participating in the focus group did so before the project was 

introduced to them. The project has not been implemented in a short-term summer principles of marketing 

course. The original project assignment three years ago was based on a marketing career advice-oriented 

project in a principles of marketing textbook by Kerin et al., (2009). The project has been modified over 

time to fit the needs of contemporary students, seeking jobs in the contemporary workplace.  

The project required students to apply the principles and practices of marketing in personal job search 

readiness efforts. Project assignments completed helped students gain an understanding of the ‘whys’ of 

needing to go above and beyond the typically-learned ABCs of  job search readiness before developing 

their resume or cover letter, not afterwards. Students, too, learned the importance of starting job searches 

early and getting related experience, whether volunteer- or pay-based. In today’s tight job market, with 

many job seekers and few job openings, many academic business programs, college placement offices, 

professional career consultant organizations, and government entities have enhanced their strategies to 

help as explained above. Individual educators, likewise, have planned helpful course projects, such as the 

one discussed in the section just after the Survey Findings section that follows.  
 

Survey Findings 
 

In essence, the principles of marketing students as job seekers surveyed appear to be seeking help in 

their job searches that will move them above and beyond the ABCs of job search training typically 

receive in school. This seeking of help is evidenced by the following specific findings. These past 

semesters’ findings are discussed here, before the project is presented, because the updated form of the 

project was based on past semesters’ learning curve.  
 

Focus Group Findings 
 

Focus group findings indicated that many business students in their third-year level of academic study, 

for the large part, are unacquainted with the following: 
   

1. The value of the Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH) and the OOH’s 

usefulness as a resource for broadening one’s knowledge of industries and skills required. 

2. The many industry-specific help Websites such as the agricultural industry at AgCareers.com; the 

advertising industry at aef.com; the wine industry at winetalent.blogspot.com; the oil and gas 

industry at oilcareers.com; and the fashion industry at youtube.com, and others.   

3. The many general on-line help Websites such as americanhires360.com, topUSAJobs.com, 

JobsDirectUSA.com, monster.com, and others.   

4. The introspective assessments and due-diligence research needed prior to resume writing.    

5. The deep concern of their greatest fear (as discussed below).   
 

Focus Group Job Search ‘Fear’ Finding 
 

It was a surprising finding that, given the tight job market of the past few years, students appeared not 

so much worried about getting a job per se, but worried at a deeper level. The large majority of focus 

group participants, 53/65 or 81.5%, when asked what their greatest fear or apprehension was in applying 

an after graduation job. They stated that their greatest concern was not about finding a job per se, but 

rather finding life satisfying work. If not successful, they felt that they would think their time and money 

spent earning a degree in their major area of study would have been a total waste. The few, 3/65 or 4.6%, 



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veteran as student participants indicated that they, likewise, were confident, given their prior military 

experience, that a post-graduation job would be there for them. Although, they, likewise, sought more 

than just a job, they wanted meaningful, life-satisfying employment. These findings further revealed that 

surveyed students also feared knowing what they wanted to do, that they wouldn’t get a job they liked, 

and they would hate their jobs, and feared the inability of attempting to show their true self on a piece of 

paper. Surveyed students’ expression of fears can be interpreted as their calls for help in eliminating these 

deep down job search fears. 
 

Post-Project Completion Survey Findings 
 

Post-project completion survey findings indicated that many business students in their third year level 

of academic study found the ‘Suit’em up...’ project to aid them in the following positive ways. They felt 

the project experience helped them by increasing their job search readiness in the following ways:  
 

1. Increase job search skills beyond the ABCs of resume, cover letter, and interview.  

2. Increased awareness needed and the ability to apply for meaningful, life-satisfying work. 

3. Increased awareness of many job opportunities in many industries previously not considered.  
 

The Project - ‘Suit’em Up,’ Inside & Out, and ‘Brand’ Them 
 

The comprehensive “Suit’em Up…” project was carried out in three parts; (1) introductory mini-

lectures on topics related to job search readiness, (2) conducting introspective assessments of skills and 

experiences; creating a brand position and brand catch phrase, (3) creating a personal marketing plan, and 

creating a professional job search networking plan as shown in Table 2.  
 

Table 2: Suit’em Up,’ Inside & Out, and ‘Brand’ Them Project 
 

 

Part 1: Introductory Pre-Project Mini-lectures (the ‘why’) 

- Lecture 1: Overcoming workplace ‘fear.’ 

- Lecture 2: Step back and take a different approach. 
- Lecture 3: Value of Introspective, individually-based project (vs. team project). 

- Lecture 4: Essentials of an extended Job Search.  

- Lecture 5: Success with personal branding (and brand tags). 
- Lecture 6: Need for networking & personal Networking plan. 

- Lecture 7: Need or relevant internship experience. 

- Lecture 8: Marketing mix/introspective assessment job search relationship. 
- Lecture 9: Need for company, industry & cross-industry analyses 
 

 

Part 2: Project Logistics (the ‘how’)- Introspective and Experiential Due Diligence Research 

- Introspective assessment of interests, preferences & skills 

- Industry research of preferred industry and alternate(s) 

- Develop personal marketing plan with self as product, price, place and promotion. 
- Development of a brand catch phrase 

- Development of a professional networking plan 
- Develop of resume with ‘up front’ elements  

- Development of cover letters 

- Development of personal interview skills 
- Personal reflective statement of experience and complete a post-project survey. 

 

 

Part 3: The Personal Strategic Marketing “YOU” Marketing Plan (the ‘show’)  

- Determine target market (i.e., employers to target) 

- Development of Personal Marketing Mix, “you” as: 

- Product 
- Place 

- Promotion 

- Price 
 

 



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Student project packets on the next page were developed and provided to all students including mini-

lectures and specific project guidelines. 
 

Student Project Packets 
  

When project was introduced early each semester, students were provided a packet with the associated 

mini-lectures and detailed project guidelines. The mini-lectures were orally to students and also included 

in writing in project packet. This organization, with project part completion interim due dates assigned, 

was chosen to cut down on students being overwhelmed with project comprehensiveness the assessments 

and due diligence research necessitated. Due to space limitations, only the main parts of Suit’em Up… 

project are provided above. Further project details can be obtained from the author. 
 

Part 1: Introductory Pre-Project Mini Lectures 
 

The following nine mini-lectures were embedded with past-semester student survey findings, current 

focus group findings, and related literature review findings as a means to increase the ‘realness’ of  the 

project in a student’s job search processes. Job search topics included in the mini-lectures were directly 

related to issues of concern that go beyond resume, cover letter and interview skill readiness.   

Mini-Lecture 1 - Overcoming Workplace ‘FEAR’. The easiest way for employers to cut operating 

costs immediately is to downsize their labor force causing the unemployed and those threatened with 

unemployment, ‘FEAR.’ It is generally accepted that one of the best weapon against fear is 

‘information.’’ For all job seekers, information co-joined with preparation and purposeful action will lead, 

in time, to meaningful and life-satisfying job landings. Invalid assumptions, based on a lack of 

information about jobs, companies, industries, skills requirements, and so on, might lead, at times, to job 

seeker uncertainty and lack of motivation. And, unfortunately, at times, leads to a jobseeker’s exodus 

from the labor force (deemed no longer actively seeking employment). Thus, information is one of the job 

seeker’s best assets. 

Mini-Lecture 2 - Step Back and Take a Different Approach. When things are not going right in one’s 

job search, it might be time to step back and approach it from a different direction (MSI, 2011). A re-

approach might require a break from tradition; creating the new; crossing industry lines, and in some 

cases crossing industry lines two or three times; and developing different job search strategies in different 

workplace environments to better accomplish planned mission. A stepping-back re-approach may require 

using creative and analytical approaches to re-direct job search efforts by analyzing past job seeking 

efforts and those of others, and staying motivated. Unemployment is stressful. However, with the right 

introspective assessments and due diligent experiential industry-centric research; with the right approach, 

attitude and job search tools; and with the right strategic career plan, dedicated and motivated job seekers 

will eventually land meaningful and life-satisfying jobs.  

In this educator’s/author’s opinion, all educators and academic program planners have a responsibility 

to not only design program curricula in such a way that it helps students to become more marketable, thus 

increasing academic program’s graduate job placement rates,  but likewise to ensure that these curricula 

help students to become more marketable in meaningful and life-satisfying ways.  

Mini-Lecture 3 - Value of Introspective, Individual-Based Projects. Although a good many required 

Principles of Marketing projects are group- and team-based experiential projects, some incorporate a 

plethora of innovative technologies, such as, tablet computers (iPads and others); smartphones, wireless 

clicker systems; social media (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others (Granitz and 

Pitts, 2011), individually-assigned projects have intrinsic value as related to personal growth and 

development. The Suit’em Up… project is individually assigned, and can be done with or without the use 

of innovative technologies, was designed to help each student plan for and find employment opportunities 

that fits the student’s soul. The project was required students to ‘drill down’ getting at his or her psych 

level, helping individual students to know themselves better and have a holistic understanding of the 

comprehensive job search readiness process. The assigned Suit’em Up… project was designed to teach 

students the principles and practices of marketing and how to apply them to a level of learning most 



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relevant to students - the job search process. A major aspect of this applied project required students to 

apply the universally-applicable marketing mix to themselves, making the completed project a job search 

applicable.  

Mini-Lecture 4 - Extended Job Search Process Essentials. Introspective and experiential information, 

preparation, motivated action, and good communication skills (along with well-honed cover letters, 

resumes, and interview skills), are the essentials of the extended job search preparation process. Multi-

armed with these job-landing essentials,  job seekers stand a better chance, in a tight job market, and 

otherwise, at landing a meaningful job, than job applicants armed only with the ABCs of typical job 

search preparation.  

Mini-Lecture 5 - Success with Personal Branding. A personal branding strategy includes the 

development of and use of a brand tag or brand catch phrase. Brand tags or brand catch phrases have 

successfully been used in many industries, including the on-gaming industry; and the use of brand tags is 

showing up  in creative job search processes. To promote understanding, an analogous example of the 

value of a brand catch phrase, or ‘brand tag,’ in marketing oneself, as used in the on-line gaming industry 

by individual on-line gamers, will now be given.   

In the gaming industry (large market of on-line video game players), branding and brand tags 

strategies are used by individual gamers (marketers) seeking contact with other like-minded gamers 

(market segmentation and target marketing), albeit, highly-experienced ones (niche marketing) in the 

army video game sector of the gaming industry (market segmentation). To attract high level gamers of a 

particular video game, for example, high-skilled at playing Call of Duty: Black Opps, accessible at 

http:www.activision.com/atvihub/home.do (Activision, 2011), the first gamer who is a high-level Call to 

Duty: Black Opps, gamer, being highly-skilled his or herself, (a marketer) develops and uses a brand tag 

(i.e., brand catch phrase) always written just under the gamer’s own name on each electronic send-out, of 

any form, sent to other gamers with the aim of them, if likewise highly skilled, contacting the originating 

game player (a sale made). The highly-skilled gamer interested in being contacted, then identify 

themselves to the original high level gamer and a match is made (a sale made). Personal branding and the 

use of brand tag are becoming very important and widely used in the gaming industry, and in other 

industries.   

Personal branding and the use of brand tags is becoming widely used personal marketing strategy and 

has direct applicability to individual job seekers wanting to emulate the success of the gaming industry’s 

use of brand tags. Personal branding, as defined in the literature, is interpreted as a job-seeker’s 

identification of his or her unique promise of value to employers (Brown, 2011). With the use of personal 

branding becoming popular, Brown (2011) advised job seekers to use a well-written, introspective-based 

brand catch phrase, or brand tag, by typing it just below the job seeker’s name in on-line and traditional 

communication efforts, job postings, and personal and professional profile postings. It likewise can be 

used in all face-out communication efforts such as at networking events and when speaking with or 

interviewing with potential employers. For example, a graphic designer could use the brand tag of, 

‘Creator of Futuristic Designs,’ assuming of course, that he/she is a creator of futuristic designs who can 

deliver what is promised by his or her brand tag. Brand tags, appear to be a ‘hot’ job seeking technique 

with the benefit of giving a job seeker’s personal contacts a ‘handle’ useful in remembering the job seeker 

and differentiating him or her from competitive job seekers.  

However, not all uses of brand tags, especially ‘false front’ ones, are put to good use, creating a ‘hiring 

manager beware’ situation. If a job seeker can’t deliver what a brand tag promises, the job seeker is using 

a ‘false front’ brand tag. Well-designed personal brand catch phases or brand tags need to be individual 

job seeker-centric, based on introspective assessment of job seeker self-awareness, strength of skill-set, 

and long-term career goals; as well as it should indicate the job seekers’ industry of preference or 

alternate industry of interest. If ‘false-front’ brand tags are used before or after a hiring, it creates a ‘job 

seeker beware’ situation as it doesn’t take rocket science to ferret out a fake.   

Mini-Lecture 6 - Need for Networking. Networking pays off. Survey findings show that 50% of the 

employers surveyed (MSI, 2011) stated that the large majority of their new-hires were a result of a 

networking contact, on the part of the employee, or on the part of the employer. Network early and 



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creatively, and expanding one’s networking circles, can go far in helping secure employment and 

contributing to professional development. Matt Youngquist, president of Career Horizons, stated that at 

least 70%, if not more, of jobs are not published, yet the majority of job seekers spend at least the same 

percent of their time surfing the Web, when a better use of their time would be spent networking as the 

vast majority of new-hires is as a result of recommendations from trusted friends and acquaintances (MSI, 

2011). Networking advisers encourage the following job seeker actions: (1) network early and often; (2) 

expand knowledge of employment opportunities by crossing industry lines and researching alternate 

industries of interest; and (3) emphasize to all networking contacts the job seekers’ transferable skills in 

understandable language regardless of prior specialization or experience used jargon.   

Mini-Lecture 7 - Need for Relevant Internship Experience. The value of both a successful and not so 

successful educational internship experience cannot be overstated. All internships have value 

(http://www.About.com, 2009), as they teach the inside of a company and its industry helping students to 

determine their own industry of preference; alternative industries of interest; and determine industries 

they are not interested in. Relevant hands on internship experience gained with pay or for experience only 

is the job seeker’s best asset (Hoffman, 2008).  All internship experiences, whatever the outcome, should 

be treated as experience on one’s resume.  

Student internships lower employment risks for both student and employer and lessens employer 

training time and costs if the employer hires from within its internship pool. Internships offer students the 

opportunity to gain hands-on experience; to build professional networks; to explore career options, and to 

do without long-term commitment. Internship experiences help students develop industry-specific 

abilities and skills that and increase the likelihood that an intern will land a permanent job offering with 

the internship-sponsoring company or elsewhere. Survey findings of recruiters show that more than 50% 

or more of their newly-hired employees come from their internship pool (Students Veterans of America, 

2011).   

Educational internships can be with pay or without, i.e., for experience only. Either type brings the 

student the experience he or she seeks for resume building purposes. However, national attention is being 

given to unpaid internships by the U.S. Department of Labor. A new document recently released by the 

U.S. Department of Labor (Lipka, 2011) is being used in regard to student internships in that it applies a 

six-part litmus test from the Fair Labor and Standards Act and applies other conditions that must be met 

for unpaid student internships at for-profit companies to be considered legal. Unpaid internships not 

meeting the Department of Labor litmus test may be deemed as taking advantage of the intern as ‘free 

labor’ - an illegal action. With changing internship rules and laws, most companies will comply, and 

students will continue to gain the true value of internships.    

Mini-Lecture 8 - Marketing Mix/ Introspective Assessment/Job Search Relationship. Job hunting is 

about marketing one’s self. Job seekers need to spend time taking stock of him or herself as introspective 

assessment is a critical foundation of any job search, or job change (Career and Work Place, 2008). 

Taking introspective stock should result having a clear picture of  one’s self, what one enjoys; what 

competencies one does well; a clear picture of one’s skills set and other abilities; and of one’s personality 

traits. By answering the introspective-based questions in the Suit’em Up… project these questions helped 

each student to determine what matters to him or her, where the his or her work passion is; and then helps 

the student to create a personal resume, custom made for each job application if necessary, and cover 

letters that let his or her spirit and skills shine forth to potential hiring managers - up front, not burying 

away in other resume matter.   

When seeking a job, in a tight job market, or otherwise, it is important for soon-to-be college 

graduates (typically entry-level job candidates), military veterans and other job seekers, to acquire for 

well-honed skills that are transferable to on-the-job performance: (1) introspective research skills; (2) 

search engine and database navigational skills, and (3) creative and critical thinking search skills; and (4) 

well-refined written and oral communication skills. Completion of the Suit’em Up… project will help 

students develop in each of these skill areas; as well as help each learn how to apply marketing principles 

and practices of marketing as learned in the classroom.   



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Exploratory focus group findings indicated that there is a chance that many college juniors and seniors 

nationwide do not know ‘where’ to start their Web searches, where to go to start identifying ‘open’ 

(unfilled) industry-specific employment positions and industry-specific information. This Suit’em Up… 

project will help student’s build their repertoire of workplace and job force information resources. 

Mini-Lecture 9 - Need for Company, Industry and Cross-Industry Analyses. Job seekers may go on 

online using netnographic content-analysis research (the intense study of on-line data and web sites) to 

determine organizations and positions where industry of preference and alternate industry of interest 

activities are being carried out and the places carried out; to determine how these industry activities align 

with job seeker interests and skills and long-term plans; and determine job opportunities. Career advisors 

at large heartedly endorse a job seekers’ research of and learning of everything about any company the 

job seeker might want to work for with the goal of articulating in writing in his or her cover letter and 

embedding in his or her resume and cover letters how he/she will be a good fit within the hiring company. 

According to Saunders (2009), this is the easiest step of all, however, often the most neglected.  

Experience shows that, that for the large part, job seekers who have researched thoroughly the company 

associated with their interview usually increase their chances of getting hired. Also, with netnographic 

research, job seekers can determine “ahead of the curve” careers (MSI, 2011), e.g., cutting edge careers, 

where particular skills will be of future demand in growth industries. Cutting edge jobs and cutting edge 

career paths can be identified in US News and World Report’s annual publication, for example, ‘Best 

Careers in 2011,’ with the selection of  the ‘best’ based on criteria of job outlook, job satisfaction, 

difficulty of the required training, prestige, and pay (Grant, 2011).  

Cross-analysis of industry of preference and alternative industry of interest is of importance the 

learning of cross-industry application of one’s skills and talents. Many students majoring in one academic 

field have no idea how their skills might apply in different industries. And, sometimes they don’t know 

much about the job opportunities in an industry directly applicable to their major. For instance, one 

agriculture major student was personally interviewed. The student had not heard of the AgCareers.com 

and none of the business majors participating in the exploratory research focus group had heard of the 

website. Yet, job opportunities abound in the agricultural industry for both students of agriculture major, 

business major, and other academic majors. For example, Echaore-McDavid and McDavid, (2011) argue 

that career opportunities abound in the agriculture, food, and natural resource industry and in other 

agriculture industry sectors of which many students are unaware: aquaculture and commercial fishing; 

forest production and management; agribusiness; food and beverage natural resource management and 

conservations; and travel, tourism and recreation, and others. Job opportunities in agriculture are not 

limited just to food production, distribution, and marketing as many students think. In reality, the scope of 

job opportunities in the agriculture industry is very broad and deep, yet many times the agricultural 

industry is not considered as a career option by business students. 
 

Part 2: Project Logistics (The ‘How’) - Introspective and Experiential Due Diligence Research 
 

 Part two of the ‘Suit’em Up…’ project included the requirement for students to conduct introspective 

and experiential research about the following issues: 
 

  Introspective assessment of interests, preferences & skills. 

  Industry research of preferred industry and alternate(s). 

  Develop personal marketing plan with self as product, price, place and promotion. 

  Development of a brand catch phrase. 

  Development of a professional networking plan. 

  Develop of resume with ‘up front’ elements. 

  Development of cover letters. 

  Development of personal interview skills. 

  Personal reflective statement of experience and complete a post-project survey. 
 

 



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Part 3: The Personal Marketing Plan 
 

Project Part 3, the personal marketing plan, that included two sub-parts, will be further discussed here:  
   

1. Determination of Target Market - Industry and employer type desired based on introspective 

analyses related to industry of preference and alternate industry of interest. 

2. Development of a Personal Marketing Mix - i.e., a Marketing ‘You’ Marketing Mix, consisting of 

the following subsections: 
 

  Product Strategy - the jobseeker treated as a product with benefits to contribute to a hiring employer 

as capsulized into a written product statement. 

  Promotion Strategy - the job seeker’s self-promotion plan to be used by the job seeker in promoting 

him or herself in the work place, that included: a personal brand catch phrase or brand tag, a two-

month networking improvement plan, an introspective-based resume and cover letter that highlighted 

the ‘shine’ of the job seeker. 

  Place Strategy - a statement of job seeker’s willingness to be flexible regarding place(s) where he or 

she is content in delivering his or her skills to the hiring employer; as well as a statement regarding 

any relocation limitations and hesitations.  

  Price strategy - a statement of the salary range and benefit package the job seeker expects (not to be 

openly discussed until invited to do so by the hiring employer).    
 

Project Logistics 
 

Looking deeply and introspectively, via the project requirements, students were asked to identify of 

their competitive points of difference in terms of benefits they could offer potential employers and to 

research industry of preference and alternative industries of interest. Then the project required students to 

develop their personal marketing plan, a brand catch phrase, and a personal networking plan. In the last 

part of the project students were asked to highlight their introspective job/career, interest/skills set 

discoveries ‘up front’ in their resumes and cover letters.  Individual post-project surveys and large group 

discussions of project benefits were conducted on the day of project submission. 
 

Table 3: Suit’em Up’ - Project Benefits for Students 
 

 

  Job readiness - ‘they are now suited up.’ 

  Know more about one’s self. 

  Know more about many industries. 

  Applied principles of marketing to one’s self. 

  Took responsibility for long-term & interim job-search efforts. 

  Got jump-start on their real job search. 

  Lessened job search ‘fears.’ 

  Developed ability to ‘deeply’ assess self. 

  Identified and navigated relevant on- and off-line industry/industry sector research sources. 

  Learned the importance of developing critical thinking skills. 

  Learned to scan research sources for workplace opportunities, trends and changes. 

  Cross industry lines in job search leading to ideas for new and different career paths. 

  Developed flexibility in job type and job location sought. 

  Practiced curiosity about other industries of interest other than academic major related ones. 

  Developed a strong, multi-faceted professional network. 

  Learned about and developed customized resumes. 

 

 

Project Benefits to Students 
  

Post-project completion survey findings related to student perception of project worth to job search 

readiness, continuously indicated that students really enjoyed the Suit’em Up… project, although they 

found it intensive. After completing the project, students felt they knew more about themselves; knew 



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much more job search readiness process; and knew more about many jobs available in many industries of 

which they were previously unaware. Students completing the project benefited in a multitude of ways, 

including their awareness of, or development of, skills in the following ways as illustrated in Table 3 

above. These life-skill learning encounters by students made teaching richly rewarding. Project benefits to 

educator were, likewise, many as shown in Table 4.   
  

Table 4: Suit’em Up’ - Project Benefits for Educator 
 

 

  Involved students. 

  Students understood themselves better. 

  Stimulated students long-term career planning. 

  Witnessed principles and practices of marketing ‘coming alive’ in student applications. 

  Help students develop life skills. 

  Project grading was efficient as it was student-centered and required largely ‘completion’ grading - grades given were A, B, C, or -0-. 

  Richly rewarding experience. 

 

 

Grading of the project was very efficient in that it centered largely on each student’s introspectively 

completion of each project phase and professionalism of presentation - thus detailed grading was 

minimized. Most students that were part of the three-year study received a good grade (A or B) with some 

earning a C letter grade. Points were taken off if the project was submitted late, if a section was skipped 

or not quite finished, for lack of organization, and for grammar or spelling errors. Most students may have 

done well purposefully as they knew that they would receive a zero (‘0’) for gross non-commitment to the 

project, and gross non-compliance with guidelines. There were either good grades or average grades 

assigned, or zero credit was given to the project as D or F letter grades were not allowed.   
 

Summary and Implications 
 

In summary, completion of the ‘Suit’em up inside and out, and brand them’ project empowered 

students of all cohorts; no one group appeared to benefit more or less than another. Findings discussed in 

this paper have important implications for all academic, veteran and at-large career counselors, as well as 

the following groups of cohorts: (1) traditional college cohorts, (2) graduate cohorts, (3) unemployed 

cohorts, (4) underemployed cohorts and (5) veteran cohorts.  

Furthermore this paper has alerted business educators to the need for them to likewise help by 

considering the embedding of introspective job search skill training into course content of courses taught. 

As the above described ‘Suit’em Up,’ inside and out, and ‘brand’ them project showed, job search 

readiness skills can be easily be incorporated into a principles of marketing course and done so efficiently 

and effectively while simultaneously teaching required academic course content.   

The need for, strategy for, and importance of conducting introspective-based, job-seeking efforts that 

move all job seekers beyond the ABCs of the typical job search process were discussed in terms of 

helping them in their common mission to obtain meaningful, life-satisfying work careers. In a job 

seeker’s mission of obtaining meaningful, life-satisfying work, and with him or her armed with: (1) well-

honed introspective and experiential research and communication skills; (2) an introspectively built, 

industry-specific/company-specific ABCs of job search (resume, cover letter and personal interview 

skills; and with (3) patience and motivation,  he or she will be able to accomplish what Thoreau advised 

(as paraphrased by this author) “go confidently in the direction of your dreams and you will usually hit 

what aimed at.” (Quotationspage, 2011).  
 

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Ruth Taylor is a professor of marketing and honorary professor of international studies at Texas State 

University - San Marcos. She received her Ph.D. in marketing from University of North Texas. Her 

current research interests include international marketing, branding, marketing education, and hand 

woven textile marketing. She has published in Advances in Business Research, Journal of Brand 

Management, Journal of Marketing Education, Marketing Education Review, Journal for Advancement of 

Marketing, Competitiveness Review, Journal of Contemporary Business Issues, Journal of Global 

Competitiveness, Journal of Professional Services Marketing, and others.   


