When You’re Talented – A Personal Brand Speaks For You (Or, How To Work Naked)

February 26, 2009 by sparktalk

By J.T. O’Donnell

I still remember the first time I saw this scene. Once I got past his out-of-date suit with high-water pants to show off 1980′s-style tube socks and boat shoes, I was captivated by Ben’s character as he leaned back in his chair, and with all the confidence of a sports MVP, spouted off the most hilarious misuse of professional terminology I’ve ever heard. And yet, he manages to get the three stiffs to pony up $200! Now that, my friends, is a candidate with some serious personal branding power. The reputation of the talent sitting before them was so strong, these supposedly intelligent people willingly (yep, pun intended) opted to look past a good two dozen interview offenses Ben’s character makes in a matter of minutes.

But in all seriousness, here’s the valuable career lesson to be learned from this scene…

Don’t get hung up on trying to be all things to employers. Instead, figure out what you are the ‘go-to person’ for and then just work to get yourself in front of the people that need it most. In doing so, your brand will take care of itself and you’ll have more latitude in how you present yourself and what you can demand. Don’t believe me? This will prove it:

True story…

In the 1990′s, I worked in the technical staffing industry in the Silicon Valley. It was during dotcom boom and competition for talent was fierce. A good software developer could command a $10,000 signing bonus, an insane salary, and still be poached 3 months later by another firm. The most legendary story was of a guy that was so good, he was able to demand a private office with no windows because he liked to program in the nude – and they agreed! FACT: when your reputation is known and your brand is strong, you get to market yourself less and still get your choice of the best opportunities. How great is that?

Now, for those of you who are saying, “I don’t have any special talents.” You’re wrong. The fact is, everyone has the ability to brand themselves. You just haven’t learned how to connect the dots of your professional strengths so you can develop your career identity – and that’s because school teaches you everything EXCEPT how to get the job.

So, unless you’ve got the confidence and swagger of Ben’s character, it’s time to start thinking about what you can do to get your personal brand in order. As I’ve just pointed out, it can make a huge difference in terms of the quantity AND quality of career opportunities that will come your way.

Technorati Tags: advice, ben affleck, brand, branding, candidate, career, demand, employer, goodwill hunting, job, perks, personal, personal brand, requirements, search, Talent

Filed Under: Career Advice (Articles), Climbing the Ladder & Managing Up, Interviewing, Job Search Tactics, Networking (In-person & On-line)
Tagged: advice, ben affleck, brand, branding, candidate, career, demand, employer, goodwill hunting, job, perks, personal, personal brand, requirements, search, Talent

Comments

Katrina Meidanis

I am just recently learning the number of different ways one is able to brand themself (thanks to J.T. and Careerealism)! Freshmen and Sophomore year of college, I always assumed that grades were very important when it came to finding a job, but now I know that is no longer the truth. Everyone has to be able to brand themself in a unique way to make him or her stand out from the crowd. With the way the economy is going, those that are offered the jobs most likely have branded themselves very well. When going in for an interview, I know that I will feel more confident because of the brand that I have developed for myself!
Anthony Dineen

this is one of my favorite movies so this article caught my eye immediately. and so I have to say great article, but I just want to ask a few questions. BRANDING, I understand it's all about advertising yourself as a certain type of person who can do a certain type thing that employers want out of their employees. but what are the best ways to actually do that? I know blogging is great, but I haven't really gotten into that yet, commenting yes, but my own blogs no. Resumes can only say so much, one page or so can only hit so many points. are their any other spectacular ways of getting my name along with my skill set out there?
J.T. O'Donnell

Great question Anthony!

To understand branding is to internalize this famous phrase, "People hear what they see." This means, ALL career tools you utilize to represent yourself create your brand. So, it stands to reason that the more sources you use, the stronger your brand will be. Resumes, cover letters, commenting on blogs, writing actual blog posts. receiving awards, community involvement, networking in professional groups, and even participation at work outside your immediate job responsibilities are opportunities to brand yourself. And of course, let's not forget all the social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

To start creating your brand, consider a theme you can project across all of these platforms. One great place to start is to ponder this question: "If you could only use 5 words to describe yourself professionally, what would you say?" Better still, "What would you want others to say about you?" When you determine this you can start to consider how to brand yourself accordingly.
Shannon Carroll

Both JT and Sue bring up valid points. I am a college senior, graduating in May and I have spent the past few years trying to prepare myself with all the necessary tools to find a job (that I enjoy) post graduation. I have turned to the University Career Center on campus and have had less than stellar results. I have found that the information I've received has been vague and impersonal. I understand that this may differ at different career centers but I have found that what I'm learning might not be the most important or up to date information and have had to look elsewhere for advice.

As I have read consistently on careerealism.com, personal branding is one of the most important things you can do in your career quest. I think that JT has the right idea by recognizing that there is a lack of information being given to college students and they might not even know it yet! Sue, admittedly, I could have probably started a bit earlier in my job search preparation, but in some cases, its not the students that need the help but maybe the resources themselves!
Sue

I teach college students every single day how to get a job on an individual basis. I teach a class on career development to more than 20 at a time. Our offices are open from 8 to 5, five days a week, and our resources are available on our website 24/7. I believe most people who work in a career services office on a college campus would take offense to the assertion that schools will teach them nothing about how to get a job. Speaking for myself, I sure will, and I love doing it. I wish more would take advantage of the services available to them as students.

If they're leaving school not knowing how to get a job it's because they didn't use the resources right on their campuses. I've had a number of alumni come back after graduation, still looking for work, and usually they'll say they never came into the career office while they were a student. That's a shame.
J.T. O'Donnell

Hi Sue,

First off, thank you so much for voicing your opinion. College career counselors are a group of individuals I greatly admire and have been trying to connect with since we launched CAREEREALISM last October. You see, I agree that there are great resources at many campuses that students don't take advantage of. HOWEVER, I disagree with the theory that all it takes is for students to visit the center. In fact, CAREEREALISM.com is going to be coming out with a very interesting survey that explains why in the near future.

I stand by the statement," College teaches you everything EXCEPT how to get the job," because the majority of schools do not factor this into the required coursework and learning objectives. And for that reason, we have far too many students graduating without proper knowledge of how to translate their college experience into a meaningful career direction.

Saying that students are 'lazy' is common feedback that I hear from campus career counselors today. Yet, I must challenge them to look at their own flawed service model. Simply put, it's broken at many schools and must be fixed. In business world, a company has no excuse when clients don't purchase their services. They can't say, "Those lazy customers, they didn't know how to buy from us."

The fact is, like all services, career services on campuses vary in their quantity and quality. Moreover, I feel the biggest mistake colleges make is leaving the responsibility of using these services effectively to their customer, the student, who has zero experience with the process for career selection and professional development. Back to the survey results, when we post them, we will in fact be showing exactly where the disconnect is occurring AND highlighting which universities are doing it right.

I'd love the chance to connect with you to discuss this further because it sounds like your college is one of the ones who is doing right. So, if you e-mail info@careerealism.com, we could take this discussion off-line and I could get your input.

PS - And the same offer goes for any other college career counselors out there. If you are reading this, please contact me!
Meg Homan

Branding is definitely important and this post shows it. It is important to brand yourself well because although it worked for in a positive way for this guy, if you brand yourself the wrong way, you most likely not even get the interview. This truly shows the importance of branding and making yourself worth while to a company.
Andrew Hennessy

Learning to brand yourself is one of the biggest advantages you can have when applying for a job. Through the help of JT and CAREEREALISM.com I have personally learned how to brand myself and make myself stand out from other candidates.

Its a very nice feeling going into an interview as a confident individual, knowing what you're good at, and knowing that you can answer any type of question thrown at you.
J.T. O'Donnell

Thanks for the kind words Andrew, but honestly, it takes a person who is ready and willing to do what is necessary to brand themselves that deserves the credit. Over 2M people will get college degrees this year - I can tell you right now less than 2% will contemplate the value of personal branding. But their efforts (your efforts!) will pay off!

Not everyone already has job offer for the summer with a well-known hospital like someone I know! Congrats again - you deserve it!
Dan Schawbel

You got my attention here ;). I agree with this post to some extent. Having talent and knowing what you're good at will get some attention, for sure. The only thing is that you can be the brightest person and people won't know about you. It's all about constant communication and reminders. For instance, every time you post on your blog, you're reminding people of your existence and knowledge.
J.T. O'Donnell

Thank you Dan,

Given you are one of the main people I encourage young professionals to learn from when it comes to Personal Branding (Dan's new book Me 2.0 from Kaplan Press comes out soon. I got an advance copy and am already talking about it with students of CAREEREALISM University!), I love that this caught your eye.

And yes, you are completely correct. The 'legend in your own mind' problem can occur if you don't get yourself out there. Just had this conversation with a young person who e-mailed me begging for advice as to why she hadn't landed a job a year out of school. When I realized she had done ZERO personal branding and made suggestions to do so, she immediately became defensive and wrote off all of my suggestions. Well, looks like she'll be unemployed for a lot longer.

Thanks for stopping by and posting!

JT
Bob Gaynor

A lot of what I read and hear about branding seems to be focused on "selling the sizzle, not the steak". What I think your posting tells us is that the candidate has to start out with strong abilities and accomplishments, then bundle them and communicate them to prospective employers. Figure out what kind of go-to person you want to be and work like hell to be the best go-to person in that category.
J.T. O'Donnell

Exactly Bob!

For example, I was working with a college student who is about to graduate recently. She claimed she had no experience. And in some ways it was true. She hadn't worked too many 'paying' jobs over the years. We discussed what people asked for her help on and what other saw as significant in her. She said, "Really, there is nothing." So, we looked at her resume. On there, at the very bottom, she listed volunteering for a 3-4 organizations, but no explanation of what she did for them was listed. When I asked about it, she suddenly got very animated and happy and said. "Oh, I love to coordinate events. I've raised thousands of $$$ for various organizations with the events I've coordinated and had hundreds of people attend. I even won an award for my work." As soon as she said it, you could see the light go off in her head as she realized she had found something she was the go-to person for. We re-did her resume and built her brand to reflect her event planning, project management and fundraising skills. She was off and running with her brand.

Thanks for point out how the process starts!
Kaplan Mobray, Author, Speaker

Positioning yourself as a "go to" person for a specific outcome is a great way to establish a personal brand within your company and an effective way to stamp your value. It starts by understanding what you want to be known for, what you can do consistently, and who you will seek out to make sure they know what you can deliver. When managed well personal branding can deliver great results but it takes focus, preparation and planning
gl hoffman

Great story JT.
Michaela DeRoche

This is a great example of the importance of branding yourself! He could do just about anything because his reputation was so strong. Do you think people discover their strengths and therefore their brand through experience?
J.T. O'Donnell

Yes Michaela - experience definitely helps you fine-tune your brand. The more experience, the more dots you can connect and get confident in terms of explaining to an employer what your expertise is. HOWEVER, it doesn't mean as a college student or recent grad that you don't have enough experience to brand. Life experience can be used to determine strengths that can be leveraged in entry-level jobs as well. The key is stepping back and saying, 'What do people seek my advice, guidance, support on?' As well as, "In what ways to people rely on me?" Answer those and you are on your way to determining your brand.

Thanks for the great question!
BenEubanks

While I have no interest in working nude, I still like the branding idea. It's really been picking up steam lately. I like to think of it as a job title for yourself. Not necessarily your real title, but what you consider yourself to be.
J.T. O'Donnell

Ben - I am with you completely. The whole idea of it was just insane. The guy was a legend in the staffing world. But, it proves the point. We buy brand - even when it comes to employees!