For anyone confused about marketing these days, I think the biggest lessons come from the job market. Finding a job is the most basic form of marketing. You put together an ad, target a market, and go after the sale. And because it is so personal, dealing with just one person and their efforts as opposed to big companies with complicated multi-tiered plans and big budgets, it is easier to glean some good lessons for what works and what doesn't.

I know a few people looking for jobs these days and it's been a great learning experience to get on the ground floor of some pretty bad marketing thinking.

One gal, young and energetic, is sure to be a real asset to any small, agile organization that hires her.  That said, she has a resume and cover letter that say that at the tender age of under 30, she has directed strategic planning for global brands. Chock full of buzzwords and large corporate brand names, her resume is designed, presumably, to puff up the fact that she is so young and inexperienced. She is relying on puffery to make herself look important rather than relying on real-world facts to make herself look valuable.  Of course, this strategy isn't working and neither is she.

Another job-seeker, a guy I know who is between jobs, is flailing back and forth between next steps as diverse as launching a start-up and getting a job at a large, old-fashioned institution. For one track, he needs to be able to hang off cliffs without a net and in the other, he needs to be able to not hang himself in long boring meetings. I am not sure if anyone's brain is so nimble that it could thrive in environments at each end of the extreme, but the guy is pretty insistent that just about every idea that comes his way is perfect!

So, what does this have to do with restaurants?  Well, it's easy to see when other people make mistakes. Not so easy to see our own.

It's easy to see that the young puffer is so insecure about her own abilities that she's clouding her real value, which could be communicated with straight talk, by turning her resume into an interpretive dance she hopes will wow people. But it is equally easy to see why this strategy doesn't work because it serves the dual purpose of making her unbelievable, so people turn her off, and diverting attention away from her real value, so people don't know to turn her back on.

The flailer is clearly not at all clear on who he is, what environment suits his demeanor, or even how he wants spend his days.  He's insecure, too, but it has more to do with the fact that he is so worried he'll miss some great opportunity that he has turned off the filter. The problem with this scenario, of course, is that he won't have the focus to really understand it when the perfect opportunity does come his way. Focusing and filtering are weird that way -- the more you narrow in on what you must have, the more opportunities come your way. Most people think it is better to keep their options open, spread their eggs into many baskets, but the ability to laser in on the core issue is the difference between great and not-so-much.

It is important to examine our own actions, of course, so that we can grow as professionals and human beings. I personally just find looking at the mistakes and misfires of others as a shortcut to learning about my own shortcomings.