Build Your Personal Brand
Build Your Personal Brand
Transcript
The reason personal branding is important-- and I know some people don't like that phrase. They don't want to be compared to Colgate toothpaste or a Ford truck-- is that people are going to form an opinion about you. You are going to have a reputation.
One of the best quotations that I've ever seen about this is from Carla Harris, who is a managing partner at Morgan Stanley. And she has said, almost all major decisions about your career will be made when you are not in the room. So think about it. If you go to interview for a job, someone is going to discuss that interview after you leave. If you send in a resume for an opportunity, that is going to be discussed when you are not there to explain it.
So your brand, your reputation has to speak for itself. That's in the way you talk about yourself in a job interview or networking session. That's the headline and summary on your LinkedIn profile. That is the words that you choose to feature on your resume. That is the people in your network who speak up about you on your behalf.
Do not wait and hope that people get about you what you want them to. I believe you have to be very deliberate and proactive about telling people who you are and what you're looking for. That's the essence of building a personal brand as a job seeker.
Tom Peters is the business guru who invented the term personal brand to apply to individuals and not just companies or products. And I want to read to you his description, his definition of personal brand. Tom Peters said, everything you do and importantly, everything you choose not to do communicates the value and character of your personal brand. Everything from the way you handle phone conversations, to the email messages you send, to the way you conduct business in a meeting is part of the larger message you're sending about your brand.
And this comes through in a job search. For instance, I talk to a lot of recruiters who attend job fairs. And you may attend those yourself. And I ask them, what really stands out?
When you have dozens, hundreds of people online to hand you a resume, how can anyone make an impression in that kind of a situation, in 30 to 60 seconds? And over and over again, what recruiters tell me is it's the person who comes up with a smile. It's the person who doesn't have their face in their cell phone when they're waiting in line. It's the person who has a strong handshake.
It's the person who says hello, I'm so happy to meet you. It's the person who when you ask tell me about yourself, has prepared exactly what they want to say. These are small choices that make a tremendous impression, but it takes time.
It takes doing your homework. It takes proactively thinking about how you want to come across. So make sure that you are prepared to answer questions like, tell me about yourself. Why are you interested in our company? What jobs are you looking for?
And be sure that after every career fair, after every phone interview, after meeting somebody on a bus who says you should apply to my company-- you are the first one to reach out with a follow-up message. I've had so many recruiters tell me that the way they assess candidates from a job fair is they leave with a huge stack of resumes. And what they look for is the people who follow-up.
The people who send the email to say it was so nice to meet you at the job fair. That resume immediately comes out of the pile and goes right to the top. So small moments, even in an enormous event like a job fair, can differentiate your personal brand from other candidates.
As you continue to think about your personal brand, there are a few areas to focus on. Number one is visibility. Visibility means do employers know who you are? Do people in your industry, in your town know you? That means are you on professional networks, like LinkedIn?
If there is a professional organization, or community group, or business luncheon meeting in your town-- do you show up and introduce yourself to people? There's that old saying that success is not about what you know, it's about who you know. And that's true, but I think it misses something.
Success is about who you know, but really, more importantly, it's about who knows you. Who knows that you are job hunting? Who knows that you have left the military and you're looking for your next opportunity?
Have you told your friends and family? Have you sent an email to everyone you know letting them know what you're looking for? And are you showing up to networking events, to job fairs, to business association meetings, to the social networks important in your industry? You have to be visible.
After visibility in your personal brand is differentiation. Once you're visible, what are people going to know about you? What are the skills you bring and the interests you have?
If you've worked on your resume, you've likely heard this called keywords. What are the top three skills that you have that you can bring to a job? What are the three things that I need to know about you? What makes you different or unique? Not from everybody else in the world, but from other people who might be in a similar position.
Really get clear on your skill set. Maybe go and ask five people who know you well, what three words would you use to describe me? And when you start to hear repetition in the words that they're using, that's when you've hit on it. But what other people know about you is often, what we sometimes can't see in ourselves.
Knowledge, skills, experience. Make sure that once you hit on those words, or concepts, or talents, that you are using them in your cover letter for jobs. In your LinkedIn profile. In your LinkedIn summary statement. When you describe yourself at a job fair. Use those words over and over, again.
The third piece of your personal brand is consistency. What happens a lot is I meet you in person and you are professional, and you are polite, and you are articulate. And then, I get an email from you and it's full of typos and really informal. Make sure that every touchpoint you have with a potential employer or a networking connection is consistent.
Make sure that if I connect with you in a professional way on LinkedIn and I happen to come across you on Facebook, that there's not a huge disconnect in the level of professionalism. Certainly, you can be human and have fun on other social networks. And nobody's going to be in a suit and tie every day. But I want to feel like I'm meeting the same person in a variety of different situations.
And fourth and finally, is authenticity and this word can be really complicated. Authenticity-- to me-- means are you being true to yourself in the context of the industry that you want to join? So authenticity means if you are a more introverted person, that maybe you have more one-on-one coffee meetings during your job search. Or you're not the first one to stand up and give a speech when you are at a networking event.
Authenticity means playing to your strengths. Being true to who you are. It does not mean that if you feel your most authentic in sweat pants that you should wear sweat pants to a job interview. It means being your true self in the context of the industry that you want to join.
But please do not interpret personal brand as my giving you advice to be fake or to be perfect. We're all human beings. This is about playing to your strengths. And figuring out the essence of who you are and exactly what you want in a professional context.
One of the best quotations that I've ever seen about this is from Carla Harris, who is a managing partner at Morgan Stanley. And she has said, almost all major decisions about your career will be made when you are not in the room. So think about it. If you go to interview for a job, someone is going to discuss that interview after you leave. If you send in a resume for an opportunity, that is going to be discussed when you are not there to explain it.
So your brand, your reputation has to speak for itself. That's in the way you talk about yourself in a job interview or networking session. That's the headline and summary on your LinkedIn profile. That is the words that you choose to feature on your resume. That is the people in your network who speak up about you on your behalf.
Do not wait and hope that people get about you what you want them to. I believe you have to be very deliberate and proactive about telling people who you are and what you're looking for. That's the essence of building a personal brand as a job seeker.
Tom Peters is the business guru who invented the term personal brand to apply to individuals and not just companies or products. And I want to read to you his description, his definition of personal brand. Tom Peters said, everything you do and importantly, everything you choose not to do communicates the value and character of your personal brand. Everything from the way you handle phone conversations, to the email messages you send, to the way you conduct business in a meeting is part of the larger message you're sending about your brand.
And this comes through in a job search. For instance, I talk to a lot of recruiters who attend job fairs. And you may attend those yourself. And I ask them, what really stands out?
When you have dozens, hundreds of people online to hand you a resume, how can anyone make an impression in that kind of a situation, in 30 to 60 seconds? And over and over again, what recruiters tell me is it's the person who comes up with a smile. It's the person who doesn't have their face in their cell phone when they're waiting in line. It's the person who has a strong handshake.
It's the person who says hello, I'm so happy to meet you. It's the person who when you ask tell me about yourself, has prepared exactly what they want to say. These are small choices that make a tremendous impression, but it takes time.
It takes doing your homework. It takes proactively thinking about how you want to come across. So make sure that you are prepared to answer questions like, tell me about yourself. Why are you interested in our company? What jobs are you looking for?
And be sure that after every career fair, after every phone interview, after meeting somebody on a bus who says you should apply to my company-- you are the first one to reach out with a follow-up message. I've had so many recruiters tell me that the way they assess candidates from a job fair is they leave with a huge stack of resumes. And what they look for is the people who follow-up.
The people who send the email to say it was so nice to meet you at the job fair. That resume immediately comes out of the pile and goes right to the top. So small moments, even in an enormous event like a job fair, can differentiate your personal brand from other candidates.
As you continue to think about your personal brand, there are a few areas to focus on. Number one is visibility. Visibility means do employers know who you are? Do people in your industry, in your town know you? That means are you on professional networks, like LinkedIn?
If there is a professional organization, or community group, or business luncheon meeting in your town-- do you show up and introduce yourself to people? There's that old saying that success is not about what you know, it's about who you know. And that's true, but I think it misses something.
Success is about who you know, but really, more importantly, it's about who knows you. Who knows that you are job hunting? Who knows that you have left the military and you're looking for your next opportunity?
Have you told your friends and family? Have you sent an email to everyone you know letting them know what you're looking for? And are you showing up to networking events, to job fairs, to business association meetings, to the social networks important in your industry? You have to be visible.
After visibility in your personal brand is differentiation. Once you're visible, what are people going to know about you? What are the skills you bring and the interests you have?
If you've worked on your resume, you've likely heard this called keywords. What are the top three skills that you have that you can bring to a job? What are the three things that I need to know about you? What makes you different or unique? Not from everybody else in the world, but from other people who might be in a similar position.
Really get clear on your skill set. Maybe go and ask five people who know you well, what three words would you use to describe me? And when you start to hear repetition in the words that they're using, that's when you've hit on it. But what other people know about you is often, what we sometimes can't see in ourselves.
Knowledge, skills, experience. Make sure that once you hit on those words, or concepts, or talents, that you are using them in your cover letter for jobs. In your LinkedIn profile. In your LinkedIn summary statement. When you describe yourself at a job fair. Use those words over and over, again.
The third piece of your personal brand is consistency. What happens a lot is I meet you in person and you are professional, and you are polite, and you are articulate. And then, I get an email from you and it's full of typos and really informal. Make sure that every touchpoint you have with a potential employer or a networking connection is consistent.
Make sure that if I connect with you in a professional way on LinkedIn and I happen to come across you on Facebook, that there's not a huge disconnect in the level of professionalism. Certainly, you can be human and have fun on other social networks. And nobody's going to be in a suit and tie every day. But I want to feel like I'm meeting the same person in a variety of different situations.
And fourth and finally, is authenticity and this word can be really complicated. Authenticity-- to me-- means are you being true to yourself in the context of the industry that you want to join? So authenticity means if you are a more introverted person, that maybe you have more one-on-one coffee meetings during your job search. Or you're not the first one to stand up and give a speech when you are at a networking event.
Authenticity means playing to your strengths. Being true to who you are. It does not mean that if you feel your most authentic in sweat pants that you should wear sweat pants to a job interview. It means being your true self in the context of the industry that you want to join.
But please do not interpret personal brand as my giving you advice to be fake or to be perfect. We're all human beings. This is about playing to your strengths. And figuring out the essence of who you are and exactly what you want in a professional context.