Why Personal Branding is So Important to Your Career Search
How to develop a standout resume and land your dream job
So, you want to grow or change your career. Maybe you’re seeking a role that aligns with your personal values, you’re looking for a healthier work environment that will foster your growth, or you’re looking for more responsibility and recognition.
Whatever drives your career goals, one thing is for sure:
You need to develop a personal brand. Attention is difficult to capture and even harder to maintain.
Your personal brand is how you stand out from the sea of applicants and remain top of mind for hiring managers.
“Attention is one of the most scarce resources today.” - Tracy Brower, Ph.D.
What is a personal brand?
According to Cornell University, a personal brand is how you define and promote what you stand for as an individual.
It’s also how people perceive you.
Everyone has a personal brand, whether they’ve intentionally cultivated it or not.
It’s important to identify how you want to be seen and understood to manage the impact and impression you leave on others.
Please note: personal branding isn’t about generating a false narrative of who you are or trying to be someone you’re not. Authenticity is one of the core foundations of a solid personal brand. It needs to be an accurate reflection of what you have to offer.
Why personal branding is important
It’s important to remember that when you’re applying for new jobs, you’re marketing yourself to potential employers. It’s not all that different from a business marketing its services.
The process of developing your personal brand clarifies what you want to be known for.
Not convinced? Take HBR’s word for it.
The strategy of personal branding for job seekers
Strategy is the foundation of a strong personal brand.
Personal brand strategy is developed through understanding yourself, your audience (in this case, potential employers), and the value proposition.
1. Deeply understand what you want and why.
Before you can confidently submit your resume to a prospective employer, you must understand what it is you seek.
Your brand is an authentic reflection of how you want to show up in the world, which requires an intimate understanding of yourself and your goals.
Consider the following:
What brings you joy?
What energizes you?
What does your ideal future look like?
How do you want your work to impact your life?
What are non-negotiables in your career?
What do you feel proud doing?
What do you want to be known for?
2. Understand what your prospective employer needs.
Consider this: Personal branding is more about your impact than your identity. Branding is ultimately driven by emotion, so consider what emotion you want to elicit in your prospective employer.
The hiring manager has their own goals and desires for filling their open role. Perhaps they’re seeking relief for an understaffed team, or craving inspiration from a newcomer’s ideas.
Whatever their driving emotion, the hiring manager has specific wants and needs behind the open position. Educate yourself on the company values, target goals, and role description. This is necessary to accomplish the next step.
3. Showcase the value you offer by meeting the need with expected outcomes.
This is known as your value proposition. It’s the lens through which you frame your work experience, skill sets, and accomplishments. The goal is to highlight how your past experiences will inform the impact you bring to the company.
Remember, being hired is a solution to a problem faced by the company. Focus on how you’re going to solve that problem.
How to create your personal brand
Start with a DIY personal brand audit. The goal of this audit is to determine how others perceive you. This is a great place to start, as it provides a valuable third-party perspective of your current reputation.
Google yourself! See what search results appear when you search your name online. This can provide a quick snapshot of what others see of you online. Consider if the results are a solid representation of your personal brand.
Ask your peers, friends, and family how they would describe you, your strengths, and what you stand for. Again, the goal of this is to identify how you’re currently presenting yourself and being perceived by others.
Identify your differentiators. Your differentiators are what make you uniquely qualified for the role and help you stand out from the competition. There are hundreds of applications for every open role, and a majority share the same core skills as you.
Start with your values. Often, our values are the undercurrent driving our daily decisions and actions. Understanding your personal values is a great way to identify how those values make you unique.
Consider what folks come to you for help with. What others ask of us is often a good indicator of our differentiated strengths or “superpower”.
Reflect on the emotion you want to elicit in others.
Be authentic. Authenticity lends credibility to your personal brand. Honesty and transparency also make it easier to uncover your differentiators.
Be consistent. No matter how you choose to show up and put yourself out there, it’s important to be consistent with how you’re presenting yourself. This creates trust in your personal brand, which makes landing the job that much easier.
Developing a brand isn’t easy. It takes a lot of internal reflection, external research, and identifying alignment between your personal goals and how to achieve them.
Take my recent rebrand, for example.
I was holding myself back because I didn’t have the strategy in place to portray my business in the way that I desired. There was misalignment between the goals I had for my business and the energy I was pouring into it.
I tried for EIGHTEEN MONTHS to sort out my own branding, creating three different options all with the same result… nothing felt quite right. I was overwhelmed and drowning in the minutiae. Every possibility felt like an option worth exploring. Nothing felt aligned with my goals and vision for Resume By Nico.
So, finally, I opted to work with Andrea Pascual, a brand and graphic designer.
Andrea was able to provide what I couldn’t: a panoramic view of my brand, goals, and differentiators. She had the benefit of a fresh perspective and distance. In two weeks we accomplished what I couldn’t for over a year!
Working with Andrea was incredibly empowering, and provided me with the clarity and confidence needed to complete my rebranding project.
The core lesson: When working on something so deeply personal, hire an external expert.
They relieve the burden of decision-making, clear the cobwebs of doubt, and bring an outsider’s point of view.
I could never have come up with this myself!
That’s why I love what I do. I help career-seekers and dreamers (like you) develop a personal brand that brings confidence and clarity to the job search.
Especially when someone’s career is non-linear, non-traditional, or at a crossroads, they struggle to see how to turn their experiences into a roadmap for the future.
Too often I see talented and brilliant people doubt themselves out of incredible opportunities.
All because they’re too close to the details of their career path and can’t see how their talents and skillsets are diverse and transferable.
That doubt hinders all opportunity.
The opposite is true when you have a clear vision of who you are, what you want, and where you’re headed. This energy alignment is powerful and attracts abundance and opportunity.
Feeling aligned with your brand strategy enables you to have confidence! It removes the doubt muddying the possibilities.
Overcome the objectivity challenge
We’re our own worst critics. We often underestimate ourselves and overestimate the competition.
That’s why stepping away when a project is very personal is so important.
Take it from my kick-ass client, Allison T: “Initially, the insecure part of me felt I needed to minimize this aspect or that skill… you definitely gave me that ‘I can SO do this!’ attitude. I can’t even begin to thank you.”
What it’s like working with a resume writer & brand strategist
I work with you to uncover your goals and values. This means asking the right questions, often ones you’d never consider asking yourself.
We identify your differentiators, what makes you stand out. This process brings clarity to your career search, attracting opportunities.
Your resume design prioritizes your brand statement. Immediately, the hiring manager will understand your expertise and unique qualities.
Everything on your resume serves a specific purpose. Your relevant skillsets are succinctly showcased. It’s clear how you’ll benefit the organization. There’s no fluff, nothing superfluous.
You’ll understand yourself better, building your confidence and ability to communicate your desires and differentiators to prospective employers.
“Wow! Your wording completely transforms my work experience. Thank you for capturing my skills in such an exceptional way. I feel re-energized and will be continuing my job search with a lot more confidence because of these resumes.” - Jasmine W.
Are you ready to land your dream career? Work with me.