15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

  • 8/19/2019 15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success

    1/3

    3/9/2016 15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success

    https://www.quintcareers.com/printable/15_career-branding_tips.html 1/3

    Search Quintessential Careers: Search

    Quintessential Careers:15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success

    by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.

    Reprint Guidelines

    Free Newsletter SubscriptionMain Articles Page

     As part of the celebration of Quintessential Careers's 15 anniversary, we're presenting lists of 15 tips on some of the most essential topics in college, job search, and career .

     As a job-seeker, are you a Coke, Pepsi, or generic cola? In other words, have you been proactive in establishingand promoting your personal career brand -- or are you still using outdated job-hunting and career-managementmethods that keep you from standing out from other job-seekers? Personal career branding is about defining who

    you are, what you offer to prospective employers; it's a combination of reputation, image, promise, and value-added.

    Whether you're new to career branding or a pro at it, we've included our best tips for creating, enhancing, andbroadcasting your career brand. Once you've developed your career brand, you can use it in a plethora of ways toobtain a new job, help get a promotion with your current employer, and even establish yourself as a consultant.

    Here's our list of the 15 best tips for career-branding success.

    1. Start with articulating your accomplishments.  Building your brand begins with tracking your pastaccomplishments and gaining strategically important new experiences. Your accomplishments are thefoundation of your career brand. If you're not sure how to go about tracking your accomplishments, consider using this Accomplishments Worksheet.

    2. Compile a spreadsheet of your strengths and skills.  Sometimes we are so involved in the daily grind of our work that we don't take the time to inventory our strengths and skills. To develop a true and authenticcareer brand, you have to understand your most important strengths and skills -- ones that set you apartfrom others.

    3. Examine your education and training.  Your education, training -- and degrees and certifications -- canplay an important role as your develop your career brand. By examining your these elements, you may alsorealize you need additional education or training to fully execute your career brand.

    4. Review awards, honors, and other recognition you've received. Because many of us are raised tobehave modestly, we often downplay awards and honors we receive, but in building your personal career brand, it's important to consider any external validation you have received for your work.

    5. Decide what makes you different from your competitors -- your USP.  By exploring your accomplishments, strengths, education, and recognition you can begin to build a picture of the total packageof who you are as an employee or job-seeker -- and what makes you stand out from the crowd. Try toarticulate this using a tool from advertising, your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

    6. Translate your passion, goals, and core values into words.   Identify the key elements of your work thatexcite, drive, and motivate you -- as well as the work-related values you cherish the most. Put into wordsthe true passion, goals, and values of your career.

    7. Create, edit, and revise your personal career brand.  Once you have gathered together your accomplishments, strengths, skills, education, honors, USP, and passion, it's time to distill all thatinformation into a concise statement that is your career brand. Your brand statement should be easily

    communicated and understood, separate you from the competition, and be relevant to your target audience(i.e., hiring managers, recruiters).

    8. Communicate and reinforce your career brand by becoming a published expert.  An excellent methodof reinforcing your career brand is through becoming a published author. Consider writing for national andindustry magazines and newsletters. Post insightful comments and write guest blogs for influential industry

    http://www.quintcareers.com/accomplishments_worksheet.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/quick_tips_articles.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/quick_tips_articles.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/quick_tips_articles.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/articles.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/15_years.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/15_years.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/USP.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/accomplishments_worksheet.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/quick_tips_articles.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/articles.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/QuintZine/http://www.quintcareers.com/reprint_guidelines.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/15_years.html

  • 8/19/2019 15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success

    2/3

    3/9/2016 15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success

    https://www.quintcareers.com/printable/15_career-branding_tips.html 2/3

    blogs and Websites. Speak at local and industry gatherings. Start a Twitter account and tweet intelligent andcareer-brand building thoughts.

    9. Communicate your career brand to your network, references.  Make certain that the people most likely totalk about you to others -- people in your network as well as people you've asked to serve as references --know, understand, and communicate your career brand to others.

    10. Craft brand stories you can use in job interviews.   Stating your career brand is one thing, but showingyour career brand in action through stories that highlight and reinforce your expertise is something altogether different -- and much more powerful. If you're unsure how to start, considering using the STAR (situation-

    task-action-result) formula as the foundation. Read more in our article, STAR Interviewing ResponseTechnique.

    11. Incorporate your career brand into your Elevator Speech.  If you have not done so already, it's importantto integrate your career brand into your elevator speech -- a 15- to 30-second (and sometimes longer)commercial that job-seekers use in a variety of situations that succinctly tells the person you are deliveringit to who you are, what makes you unique, and the benefits you can provide. Read more in our article, TheElevator Speech is the Swiss Army Knife of Job-Search Tools.

    12. Use your career brand statement as a headline on your resume.   Broadcast your career brand by placingit boldly at the top of your resume. If you are using a profile or qualifications summary section on your resume, make certain your brand statement and bullet points align. For more information, read our article,Branding Your Resume.

    13. Incorporate your brand into your LinkedIn profile.  Your career brand statement fits perfectly in the"headline" section of your profile. Of course, you should also consider your entire LinkedIn profile as abranded profile -- including the groups you join (or establish). Finally, you can also showcase your expertiseby responding to questions.

    14. Add your career brand to your Facebook profile.   Your career brand statement goes perfectly in the"About Me" section of your profile. Because Facebook tends to be more personal than professional, youcan't do too much more branding on the site -- but you can make certain your profile contains no digital dirtthat could negatively affect your brand.

    15. Promote your career brand as cornerstone of your personal Website and/or blog.  The ultimate incareer branding is establishing a personal Website using your name (firstlast.com) -- with which you canpublish all your key career credentials, including your branding statement, elevator speech, personal missionstatement, resume, and career portfolio, as well as white papers and other writings, videos, or podcasts thatshowcase your brand. If an entire Website is a bit daunting, and you like to write, establishing a blog aroundyour area of expertise might serve you and your brand better.

    Final ThoughtsThe most important tip here is just do it -- just go ahead and create, revise, polish, and broadcast your career brand. Doing so will help you in all other areas of job-hunting. Once your brand is established, consistency is vital --you want prospective employers to find one brand message across all media.

    Other places you can publish your career brand include in your email signature and in personal business(networking) cards.

    Remember to coordinate your professional attire with your career brand; in other words, look the brand, which maymean removing or restricting access to pictures and videos of you that do not fit your brand.

     Also, try to be c onsistent with all aspects of your career brand -- including both your message and your look(design elements such as font, colors, appearance). When a brand is not consistent, the meaning tends to get lost,greatly diminishing all your hard work.

    Finally, remember that just like most elements of your career, you should evaluate your personal career brand atleast annually -- at which point you can make tweaks and adjustments, as well as additional plans and action stepsfor strengthening and promoting your brand.

    Wondering about the level of your online identity? Take this Online Identity Calculator .

     Also, don't forget to check out all our Personal Branding and Career Self-Marketing Tools for Job-Seekers andCareer Activists.

    Questions about some of the terminology used in this article? Get more information (definitions and links) on key

    http://www.quintcareers.com/branding_self-marketing.htmlhttp://www.onlineidcalculator.com/http://www.quintcareers.com/resume_branding.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/job-search_elevator_speech.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/STAR_interviewing.html

  • 8/19/2019 15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success

    3/3

    3/9/2016 15 Quick Tips for Career Branding Success

    https://www.quintcareers.com/printable/15_career-branding_tips.html 3/3

    college, career, and job-search terms by going to our Job-Seeker's Glossary of Job-Hunting Terms.

    Dr. Randall S. Hansen is founder of Quintessential Careers, one of the oldest and most comprehensive career development sites on the Web, as well CEO of EmpoweringSites.com. He is also founder of MyCollegeSuccessStory.com  and EnhanceMyVocabulary.com . He is publisher of Quintessential Careers Press, including theQuintessential Careers electronic newsletter, QuintZine.  Dr. Hansen is also a published author, with several books, chapters in books, and hundreds of articles. He's often quoted inthe media and conducts empowering workshops around the country. Finally, Dr. Hansen isalso an educator, having taught at the college level for more than 15 years. Visit his  personal 

    Website  or reach him by email at randall(at)quintcareers.com .

     

    Home  | About QuintCareers  | A-Z Index  | Career Resources  | Job Sites  | Job/Career Bookstore  | Employer Resources  | Contact Us

     

    A member of LiveCareer.com Sites: LiveCareer Network

     

     A Job-Hunting and Career Development Site

    Home Page  | Privacy Policy  | Terms of Use 

    �  2015, LiveCareer, Ltd. All rights reserved.

    http://www.livecareer.com/terms-of-usehttp://www.livecareer.com/privacy-policyhttp://www.quintcareers.com/http://www.livecareer.com/http://www.livecareer.com/http://www.livecareer.com/contact-ushttp://www.quintcareers.com/employer_guide.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/jobbooks.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/jobres.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/career_resources.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/Career_Job-Search_A-Z_index.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/home.htmlhttp://www.quintcareers.com/mailto:[email protected]://www.randallshansen.com/http://www.quintcareers.com/QuintZine/http://www.quintessentialcareerspress.com/http://www.enhancemyvocabulary.com/http://www.mycollegesuccessstory.com/http://www.empoweringsites.com/http://www.quintcareers.com/http://www.randallshansen.com/http://www.quintcareers.com/jobseeker_glossary.html