Most of us have no problem determining how to market our companies or our products. Thinking of ourselves as a brand, however, takes a little mental adjustment. But it can be a smart way to manage a career. Find out how to brand yourself successful with the following steps:
The first step is to stop thinking of yourself as an employee and start thinking of yourself as a company. Consider this:
You have customers; your actual customers, your boss, and anyone at your company that you provide a service to.
You have vendors; your actual vendors and those people in the office whose services you rely on.
You have a product; you. Everything you do professionally reflects on and builds your brand value.
Basic Brand Strategy
Typical brand management work would include establishing long-term goals, understanding strengths and weaknesses, knowing the competition (sounds harsh, but there are only so many jobs), and knowing the market. For our purposes we are going to focus in on the basics of branding. The four P’s: Position, Promotion, Placement, and Price.
Position
Positioning defines a product in the mind of the consumer. It is the essence of the brand. You may not need a personal tag line or logo, but you definitely need a strong position. How do you want to be seen by others? Work on your personal positioning by focusing on your strengths and figuring out what is unique about you.
Knowing how to summarize what you do and how well you do it is an important part of communicating your personal position. Start by crafting a 15 second elevator pitch that answers these questions:
What is your area of expertise:
Bad: “I work in marketing.”
Good: “I launch consumer brands and deal with all stages from product development to consumer advertising. But my real passion is marketing to kids.”
When have you done it well:
Bad: “I’ve launched lots of products.”
Good: “One of my favorite projects was launching product X which targeted inner-city tweens.”
What were the results:
Bad: “It was a really successful launch.”
Good: “Within eight months we were number three at retail in our category.”
If you can explain your strengths in the time it takes to ride an elevator, you’ve got it.
Promotion
Network, network, network. Make sure that you are representing yourself well in all environments. Self-promote with vendors, competitors, and even co-workers. Be vocal about your current successes, and let people know where you want to go in the future. You never know who might be able to help you get there.
Placement
Where are you working? Like it or not, if your company is not doing well, it reflects poorly on you. Successful companies look good on a resume. Wow, you worked at Google? You must be talented, smart, sought-after... What is your current title, what are your responsibilities, and what do you see yourself doing in five or ten years? Be sure you are placing yourself in a position to move to the next step.
Price
Are you what the retails industry refers to as an Opening Price Point product (OPP)? Are you at the bottom-end of the salary scale? Or, are you a luxury brand? OPP may work for selling volumes of product at Wal-Mart, but it never works for developing a brand. Value your worth appropriately and monitor your income as you would a profit and loss statement.
Thinking of yourself as a brand is not a novel concept. There are books, and even seminars you can attend like the Brand You World that all promote the concept. Tom Peters, management guru and author, may have launched the phenomena with his 1997 article The Brand Called You. Peters calls the idea being "the CEO of Me." It’s more than just a clever way to look at your career. It’s a great way to manage the future of your business. And who better than you to be the CEO of your career?
Is your job search turning into a grind with no end in sight? It may be time to take a step back and reevaluate your entire approach.
In cold weather climates, the beginning of spring is a time to clean the house and get organized—a practice known as spring cleaning. Through the years, spring cleaning has taken on a larger meaning with people using the time to organize and declutter things in their lives.
For professionals on the job hunt, a little spring cleaning (metaphorically speaking) could be a great way to reinvigorate your job search. Here are a few strategies your job search spring cleaning should include.
Reevaluate Your Job Search Approach
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Make a list of the last handful of jobs you applied for and see if you can identify any positive or negative trends. Consider things like:
How did I learn about this job?
How did I apply for the job?
Did I earn an interview?
What was the ultimate result?
A lot can be learned about your job search approach just by answering these questions and identifying patterns. For example:
Negative Trends
You discovered five jobs through job boards, applied to all of them via the job boards, and never heard back from any of them.
The common pattern here is applying through job boards. This isn't to say that job boards don't serve a purpose in the job search process, but they have their limitations, and you can't run your job search entirely off of them. When you apply through a job board, there's a good chance that your materials will never get past the applicant tracking system (ATS) and never be seen by an actual person.
One simple fix is to research who the hiring manager or recruiter is that posted the position and email your materials to them directly.
The more efficient fix would be to take a proactive approach by putting together a bucket list of companies that you want to work for and start making connections on LinkedIn with people who work at those companies. You may already know some people who work there or have connections that can refer you to some individuals.
This is a great way to network your way onto a company's radar.
Positive Trends
You applied to three jobs via referral, were invited to two job interviews, and made it through multiple rounds of interviews for one of the jobs before being passed over for someone with a little more experience.
The pattern here is that getting referred to a job by a professional acquaintance is a great way to land a job interview. This indicates that you're leveraging your network well and you should continue to focus on your networking efforts.
The next step is to review the interview process and determine what went well and what needs to be improved. Sometimes the interviewer will provide feedback, and that feedback can be valuable. However, not everyone is comfortable with giving feedback.
Chances are you probably have a good idea about areas of improvement and the skills you need to gain. Put together a plan for addressing those shortfalls.
The good news in making it deep into any interview process is that it indicates that the company likes you as a potential employee (even if the timing just wasn't right) and the experience could be a roadmap to a job with that company at a later date, or another similar opportunity elsewhere.
Give Your Resume & Cover Letter Some Much-Needed Attention
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Are you continuously sending similar resumes and cover letters to each job opening with only minor adjustments? If so, your strategy needs some serious spring cleaning.
The reason why it's so important to tailor your resume is that throughout your career, you acquire numerous skills, but the job you're applying for may only be focusing on 6-8 of those skills. In that case, those skills must rise to the top of the resume with quantifiable examples of how you successfully used those skills at previous jobs.
Remember, recruiters go through hundreds of resumes. They need to be able to tell from a quick glance whether or not you're a potential candidate for the position.
While updating your resume, you could also spruce up your LinkedIn profile by highlighting the skill sets that you want to be noticed for by recruiters.
As for writing a good cover letter, the key to success is writing a disruptive cover letter. When you write a disruptive cover letter, you're basically telling a story. The story should focus on how you connect with the particular company and job position. The story could also focus on your personal journey, and how you got to where you currently are in your career.
If your resumes and cover letters aren't unique, now is the time to clean things up and get on track.
Build Your Personal Brand
Just because you're looking for work doesn't mean that you don't have anything to offer. Use previous career experiences and passions to build your personal brand.
Ask yourself, "How do I want other professionals to view me?"
Pick an area of expertise and start sharing your knowledge and experience with your professional network by pushing out content on your LinkedIn and social media accounts. Good content can include blogs, social media posts, and videos.
By sharing content about your experiences and passions, you slowly build your personal brand, and others will start to notice. The content could lead to good discussions with others in your network. It could also lead to reconnecting with connections that you haven't spoken to in years, or making new connections.
You never know when one of these connections could turn into a job lead or referral. The trick is to get on people's radars. So, when you're cleaning up your job search, be sure to build a plan for personal branding.
Maintain Healthy Habits During Your Job Search
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Your job search is important, but it's even more important to know when to pull back and focus on personal health and spending time with family and friends.
There are actually things that you can do for your own enjoyment that could help your job search in the long run, such as:
Grab coffee with a friend - It's good to engage in light conversation with friends during challenging times. And if your job search does come up, remember that most people have been through it themselves and you never know when a friend may provide you with a good idea or lead on a job.
Volunteer - Volunteering is a great way to get involved in the community and help others. In addition, if you develop a little bit of a career gap while looking for a job, you can always talk about how you filled that time volunteering, if you're asked about it during a job interview.
Continue to focus on other passions - Are you a fitness nut? Blogger? Crafter? Continue to do the things that bring you happiness. And if you're in a position to profit from your passion through a freelance job or side hustle, even better!
Spring is the perfect time to clean up and improve your job search so you can land the job you want. If you're struggling to find a job, follow the tips above to reinvigorate your job search—and watch your career blossom!
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.