Establishing Your Professional Brand
Being a successful job seeker requires a particular frame of mind. Think of yourself not as a student at this college or an employee of that company but rather as a professional with a brand to establish and maintain. For instance, say your name is Amber Cunningham, and you work as a human-resources officer for Apple. Don’t think of yourself as an Apple human-resources officer. Instead, think of yourself as Amber Cunningham, a human-resources specialist who has worked for several companies (including Apple) and who has a number of marketable skills and a substantial record of accomplishments. Your professional brand (sometimes referred to as a “personal brand”) is Amber Cunningham.
To present your professional brand successfully, you need to understand what employers are looking for, and then you need to craft the materials that will present that brand to the world.
There is really no mystery about what employers want in an employee. Across all fields, employers want a person who is honest, hard-working, technically competent, skilled at solving problems, able to work effectively alone and in teams, willing to share information with others, and eager to keep learning.
You need to find the evidence that you can use to display these qualities. Begin by thinking about everything you have done throughout your college career (courses, projects, service-learning experiences, organizations, leadership roles) and your professional career (job responsibilities, supervision of others, accomplishments, awards). And don’t forget your volunteer activities; through these activities, many people acquire what are called transferable skills—skills that are useful or even necessary in seemingly unrelated jobs. For instance, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity says something important not only about your character but also about your ability to work effectively in a team and to solve problems. Even if you will never swing a hammer on the job, you will want to refer to this experience. Make a list—a long list—of your experiences, characteristics, skills, and accomplishments that will furnish the kinds of evidence that you can use in establishing your professional brand.
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With your long list of characteristics, experiences, skills, and accomplishments in hand, it’s time to start creating the materials—primarily online materials—that will display your professional brand.
According to a 2014 study (Guerin, 2014), almost half of employers research job applicants using social media. And although some of those companies find positive information that makes them want to pursue the applicant, many find negative information, such as unprofessional photos or text about drug use, negative comments about current or former employers, and discriminatory comments about race, gender, or religion.
Building the Foundation of Your Professional Brand
Follow these six guidelines in developing your professional brand.
Research what others have done. What kinds of information do they present about themselves online? On which social-media sites are they active? What kinds of comments and questions do they post? How do they reply to what others have posted?
Tell the truth. Statistics about how many people lie and exaggerate in describing themselves in the job search vary, but it is probably between a third and a half. Companies search online themselves or hire investigators to verify the information you provide about yourself, to see if you are honest.
Communicate professionally. Show that you can write clearly and correctly, and remember that it is inappropriate (and in some cases illegal) to divulge trade secrets or personal information about colleagues.
Highlight your job skills. Employers want to see that you have the technical skills that the job requires. They look for degrees, certifications, speeches and publications, and descriptions of what you do in your present position and have done in previous positions.
Focus on problem-solving and accomplishments. The most compelling evidence that you would be a good hire is a solid record of identifying problems and devising solutions that met customers’ needs, reduced costs, increased revenues, improved safety, and reduced environmental impact. Numbers tell the story: try to present your accomplishments as quantifiable data.
Participate actively online. One way to show you are a professional who would generously and appropriately share information and work well in a team is to display those characteristics online. Participate professionally through sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Presenting Your Professional Brand
The following six guidelines can help you display your professional brand.
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Create a strong online presence. The best online presence is your own website, which functions as your online headquarters. All your other online activities will link back to this one site, the only site on the Internet that is all about you. Register a site and try to name it yourname.com (you will be required to pay a small fee to secure the domain name). If you aren’t experienced designing and creating sites, try a drag-and-drop site builder like Weebly or Squarespace, or use a template from a free blogging site such as WordPress. Upload to your site everything you want potential employers to see: contact information, a professional history, work samples, documents, and links to your accounts on social-media sites.
Participate on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the major social-media site used by employers to find employees. Set up a LinkedIn account and create a profile that includes the keywords that will attract potential employers. Rather than calling yourself a “programmer at ADP,” which describes your current situation, call yourself “an experienced programmer in various programming languages (Java, C, C++, and PHP) and scripting languages (JavaScript, Perl, WSH, and UNIX shells) who understands interactive web pages and web-based applications, including JavaServer Pages (JSP), Java servlets, Active Server Pages (ASP), and ActiveX controls.” Including keywords makes it easier for potential employers to find you when they search for employees. In addition, remember to list specific skills in the “Skills and Abilities” section of your profile. Potential employers searching for specific skills can then locate you more easily, and colleagues who know your work can endorse you for various skills. Participate actively on LinkedIn by linking to articles or videos you find useful and contributing to discussion forums. Make connections with people and endorse them honestly.
Participate on Facebook. You probably already have a Facebook account. Within your account, you have the option to create separate Pages for specific interests. Create a public Facebook Page and use it only for professional activities. Share information that will be interesting and useful to other professionals.
Participate on Twitter. Follow influential people in your industry on Twitter to see the kinds of activities, conferences, and publications that interest them. Comment on and retweet useful tweets, link to the best items you see in the media, and reply when others send you messages.
Create a business card. Having a business card if you’re a student might seem odd, but a card is the best way to direct people to your website when you meet them in person. Your card should have your contact information, a few phrases highlighting your skills, and the URL of your website. Some people add a QR code (a Quick Response code, the square barcode that smartphones can read) to allow others to link to their websites instantly. (Search for “QR code generator” to find free sites that will help you generate a QR code.)
Practice an “elevator pitch.” An elevator pitch is a brief oral summary of your credentials. At less than 20 seconds long, it’s brief enough that you can say it if you find yourself in an elevator with a potential employer. After the pitch, you hand the person your business card, which contains all the information he or she needs to get to your website.
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However, some employers are cutting back on their use of social media in researching applicants. Another 2014 study (Tysiac and Amato, 2014) suggests that employers are becoming aware that, in doing their research, they might discover protected information about applicants—such as their age, race, religion, or sexual orientation—and, in so doing, become vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits by applicants.
Still, the best advice is to act professionally on all your social-media accounts to increase the chances that employers will like what they see if they do research your online presence.
Start by searching online for your own name. Look at what potential employers will see and ask yourself whether your online personal brand is what you want to display. If it isn’t, start to change it.
ETHICS NOTE
WRITING HONEST JOB-APPLICATION MATERIALS
Many résumés contain lies or exaggerations. Job applicants say they attended colleges they didn’t and were awarded degrees they weren’t, give themselves inflated job titles, say they were laid off when they were really fired for poor performance, and inflate their accomplishments. A CareerBuilder survey found that 38 percent of employees have embellished their job responsibilities at some point, and 18 percent have lied about their skills (Lorenz, 2012). Economist Steven D. Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics, concludes that more than 50 percent of job applicants lie on their résumés (Isaacs, 2012).
Companies take this problem seriously. They hire agencies that verify an applicant’s education and employment history and check for a criminal record. They do their own research online. They phone people whose names the candidate has provided. If they find any discrepancies, they do not offer the candidate a position. If the person is already working for the company when discrepancies arise, they fire the employee.