When you think about your next career move, how would
things be different for you if you were HUNTED rather than
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 differentiates you from your peers
and helps to position you as a leader in your field - as a
specialist and an authority who knows how to do a job and
fill a particular niche in the workplace better than anyone
else.
Rather than finding yourself constantly pursuing jobs
opportunities that never quite pan out, sitting at home
waiting for the phone to ring, and having doors stay locked
shut to you, imagine what a positive and secure feeling it
would be to have employers and recruiters actually seek YOU
out. With some time and effort put into identifying and
communicating YOUR personal brand as it relates to your
career, this is one of the key benefits you will enjoy.
If you are a professional engaged in a serious job search,
it would be almost impossible to escape the issue of
personal branding. Everyone is talking about it! And, for
good reason. Personal branding can make an incredible
positive impact on not only your current job search, but on
the success and progression of your entire career. But,
just because everyone is talking about it, doesn't mean
that everyone is making use of the knowledge. Through
personal branding, there is still an incredible opportunity
for the forward-thinking professional to position
themselves heads and shoulders above their peers and
competitors in the job market.
It is not difficult to be convinced that personal branding
is the wave of the future when it comes to the professional
job search. But once you are convinced, and once you have
put the effort into clarifying YOUR personal brand, how do
you make that leap to incorporating 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 career
marketing portfolio.
Tip #1 - Branding provides your resume and other career
marketing documents with instant, precision-like 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 in the circular file. A
properly branded resume is, by definition, focused, and
addresses not only your unique value proposition, but it
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 across your resume, cover letters, and all your
documents. In my work, I have the opportunity to review a
lot of 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 that I see. Too many people try to be too many
things to too many people. Their career marketing
portfolios (resumes, cover letters, biographies, etc.) are
a hodge-podge of documents written over a number of years
and added onto randomly whenever the need arises for an
updated resume. Certainly across the portfolio, and
sometimes even within the same document, I find multiple
design and content styles, as well as disconnected and
outdated messages. When you brand your job search documents
you immediately correct this problem.
Tip #3 - During the first review, resumes are scanned for
mere seconds in a process that is meant to do nothing more
than filter out unqualified candidates. Clearly and
succinctly incorporating your personal brand statement into
the profile or summary section of your resume is a way to
ensure that your resume will stand out and get attention.
One way to accomplish this is with a headline statement
followed by a sub-headline that promotes your value
proposition. If you aren't 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 truly let
your personality shine through and to establish an
emotional connection with your audience. It can be tough to
make this connection in your resume, but your cover letters
and your narrative biography are great opportunities to
promote soft skills and weave in examples of key brand
attributes. In a very real sense, personal branding
requires that you be courageous about really "owning"
yourself and acknowledging yourself for the strengths and
value you bring to the table. Let your personality come
across in your letters and in your biography. Don't be
afraid to make a connection by accentuating your strengths
and value proposition as they relate to your audience. This
is a great way to establish rapport and trust with your
reader even before you have the chance to speak by phone.
Tip #5 - Keep in mind that one of your primary goals in
branding your job search documents is to paint a compelling
portrait of your unique value proposition. To do this, you
will need to structure your resume so that it promotes your
key skills, qualifications, experiences, and achievements
in a way that is both convincing and compelling and clearly
illustrates to the reader that you can meet their needs and
help them to achieve their goals, all the while adding
value to their organization and delivering a strong return
on their investment in hiring you. This is a lot to
accomplish in a single resume! One of the most effective
ways to do this is to focus the chronology of your work
history on achievements and results. Write your
achievements so that they tell a succinct story of the
challenges and problems you have faced, the actions you
took to meet those challenges, and then the results and
benefits of those actions - the actual return on investment
of your actions. Writing your professional chronology in
this way will engage the reader, supporting your brand and
helping them to envision how you will add value in the
future to their organization.
----------------------------------------------------
Certified resume writer and personal branding strategist,
Michelle Dumas is the director of Distinctive Career
Services LLC. Through Distinctive Documents
http://www.distinctiveweb.com and her Executive VIP
Services http://www.100kcareermarketing.com
Michelle has
empowered thousands of professionals all across the U.S.
and worldwide. Michelle is also the author of 101
Before-and-After Resume Examples
http://www.before-and-after-resumes.com
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