When you think about your next career move, how would things be different for you if you were the hunted instead of being the hunter? Personal branding—the process of clarifying and communicating what makes you and your unique value proposition different and special—allows you to make a name for yourself. It sets you apart from your peers and helps position you as a leader in your field, as a specialist and authority who knows how to do a job and fill a particular niche in the workplace better than anyone else.
Instead of finding yourself constantly looking for job opportunities that never quite work out, sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring and with your doors closed, imagine what a positive and safe feeling it would be if employers and recruiters were actually looking to leave. With some time and effort spent identifying and communicating YOUR personal brand in relation to your career, this is one of the key benefits you will enjoy.
If you’re a professional on a serious job search, it would be nearly impossible to escape the topic of personal branding. Everyone is talking about it! And for good reason. Personal branding can have an incredible positive impact not only on your current job search, but also on the success and progression of your entire career. But just because everyone is talking about it doesn’t mean everyone is making use of the knowledge. Through personal branding, there is still an incredible opportunity for the forward-thinking professional to position themselves above their peers and competitors in the job market.
It’s not hard to be convinced that personal branding is the wave of the future when it comes to professional job hunting. But once you’re convinced, and once you’ve put in the effort to clarify YOUR personal brand, how do you take that leap to incorporate that brand into your job search? Is there such a thing as a brand-driven job search? How exactly do you promote your personal brand in the job market?
Here are 5 tips for incorporating your brand throughout your resume, your cover letters, and your entire professional marketing portfolio.
Tip #1 –
The brand gives your resume and other professional marketing documents an instant, precise focus that positions you as the ideal candidate for the specific type of opportunity that interests you. An unfocused resume is boring and ineffective. An unfocused resume wastes your readers’ time and will land you in the circular file. A properly branded resume is by definition focused and addresses not only your unique value proposition, but does so in a way that addresses the concerns of your target audience.
Tip #2 –
Use your personal brand profile and personal brand statement to project a cohesive brand image and value proposition on your resume, cover letters, and all of your documents. In my job, I have the opportunity to review many resumes, letters, biographies, and other documents that my clients and prospective clients have tried to write for themselves. This tip relates to one of the most common mistakes I see. Too many people try to be too many things to too many people. Your professional marketing portfolios (resumes, cover letters, biographies, etc.) are a hodgepodge of documents written over several years and added haphazardly whenever the need for an updated resume arises. Certainly, throughout the portfolio, and sometimes even within the same document, I find multiple styles of design and content, as well as messages that are disconnected and out of date. When you mark your job search documents, you immediately correct this problem.
Tip #3 –
During the first review, resumes are scanned for a few seconds in a process that does little more than filter out unqualified candidates. Clearly and succinctly incorporating your personal branding statement into the profile or summary section of your resume is one way to ensure your resume stands out and grabs attention. One way to accomplish this is with a headline followed by a subhead that promotes your value proposition. If you’re not familiar with this style, take a look at the many sample resumes on the Distinctive Documents website.
Tip #4 –
Personal branding gives you a way to let your personality shine through and make an emotional connection with your audience. It can be difficult to make this connection on your resume, but your cover letters and narrative bio are great opportunities to promote soft skills and weave in examples of key brand attributes. In a very real sense, personal branding requires you to be brave to truly “own” yourself and recognize yourself for the strengths and value you bring. Let your personality come through in your letters and biography. Don’t be afraid to make a connection by accentuating your strengths and your value proposition in relation to your audience. This is a great way to build rapport and trust with your reader before you even get a chance to talk on the phone.
Tip #5 –
Keep in mind that one of your main goals when marking your job search documents is to paint a compelling portrait of your unique value proposition. To do this, you’ll need to structure your resume in a way that promotes your key skills, qualifications, experiences, and accomplishments in a way that is both compelling and compelling, and clearly illustrates to the reader that you can meet their needs and help them achieve their goals. while adding value to your organization and providing a solid return on your hiring investment. This is a lot to accomplish in one resume! One of the most effective ways to do this is to focus your work history timeline on achievements and results.
Write down your accomplishments so they tell a succinct story of the challenges and problems you’ve faced, the actions you took to meet those challenges, and then the results and benefits of those actions—the real return on investment for your actions. Writing your professional timeline this way will engage the reader, support your brand, and help them visualize how you will add value to your organization in the future.