Source: Se Style
One of the key elements to building a successful career is managing and leveraging your personal brand. Your personal brand is how you represent yourself in person, on paper and online. It’s also your reputation and unique promise of value to a potential employer. Without a strong personal branding, you’ll struggle to differentiate yourself, which means you’ll miss opportunities and possibly that all-important dream job.
Have you given any thought to what your personal brand is saying about you right now? Is it representing your best self? Does it clearly reflect your unique strengths, skills and attributes? If it doesn’t, then you need to get clear on what it is that makes you great, what makes you stand out and what it is that makes you compelling to a potential employer. Once you’ve nailed those three things, you on your way to building a kickass personal brand that will get you noticed, and get you more work.
Don’t fake it to make it
You need to begin with understanding what it is that makes you tick. What makes you happy, what things are you good at and what do you like to wear etc. Think about your core ‘values’ – the things that give meaning to your life. Your core values are a set of standards that determine your attitude, choices and actions. This is the ‘authentic’ you. Bring that same authentic self to work every single day so you can thrive and realise your true potential. People who fake it just end up feeling confined and unhappy because they’re not being who they truly are. You know the ones – the office outcasts who never have anything positive to say about anything, EVER!
What’s your freak factor?
Your freak factor is something that sets you apart from everyone else. It’s your number one advantage over hundreds of other job applicants. If you don’t embrace your uniqueness and use it as your competitive advantage you’ll look just like vanilla ice cream and taste just like vanilla ice cream. Who’s for Ben and Jerry’s choc raspberry with fudge chips?
Leave them wanting more
Whether you’re using a traditional resume, digital CV or online profile, the key to getting a hiring manager’s attention is to tease them with something compelling. You need to grab their attention, show them what you’re all about and leave them wanting to find out more about you. Admittedly, it’s pretty hard to make a traditional resume look and sound sexy so I suggest using online tools to showcase your personal brand. With many offering themes, info-graphics and interactive links, it’s a much more creative way to connect and tell your story.
Embrace online
If you use LinkedIn, don’t just dump your resume and run. Create a keyword rich profile that tells the reader exactly who you are, what you do and what you stand for. Forget the sales pitch too. People will buy into you first before anything else. Digital CVs are another way to bring the sexy back into your career. They’re a new marketing tool to promote your brand online – 24/7 and even when you’re not around.
Whichever way you choose to get your brand out there, just remember – your reputation is everything. Keep your resume, digital CV or online profile consistent. Don’t create a mismatched brand that sends competing messages and confuses your audience. It should be the ever evolving genuine you.
As a last minute check to make sure you’re sending the right branding message, run a Google search on your name and check out what comes up. Brace yourself because whatever you can see is exactly what a potential employer can see so be very, very careful about what you post online. Last weekend’s blinder that your mate posted on Facebook could come and haunt you when you least expect it.
Bronwen Kaspers is the CEO and Founder of Trumpet Page, a company that provides you with the tools needed to create a digitally optimised resumé with the goal of getting you noticed by employers in the hyper-competitive environment of job seeking.
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