With so many career buzzwords floating around, you may be skeptical about the importance of defining your personal brand. Here are three ways a strong brand can improve your job search.
1. Employers dig through a multitude of faceless resumes and have limited means of comparing the skills and experience of each candidate. An active brand provides a clear message about your expertise, contributions to the industry and ability to produce positive results in the future. Employers feel a connection to you as a person, gaining a better sense of whether your work ethic and personality fit the company culture.
2. When you publicly establish yourself as an authority, you attract recruiters and clients who believe in your track record of success. Building your brand through case studies, published works, video tutorials, seminars and networking events creates multiple contact points, which compel others to learn about you. In short, you generate higher-quality inbound leads and spend less time sending out mass applications in hopes of snagging an opportunity.
3. Whether you're a novice, mid-career or veteran professional, the process of shaping your brand helps you identify your personal value. To market yourself to employers, you have to know what makes you stand out against candidates with similar qualifications. Answering questions about what's important to you, how you handle conflicts and how you create value for employers gives you the tools to refine your search and leverage your most appealing qualities.
A personal brand is not a work of fiction, but a focused projection of who you are. Use branding to demonstrate your worth and promote the best version of yourself.
Photo Courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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