What exactly is your professional brand, and can it impact your career?
From a career perspective, your professional brand has three essential components:
- Offline-Nearline Presence
- Online Presence
- Personal-Network
We’ll discuss each one of those components in this post. But let’s look at some great insight from the experts at Influencer Marketing Hub before we get started:
“Your personal brand can be vital to you professionally. It is how you present yourself to current and potential clients. It gives you the opportunity to ensure that people see you in the way you want them to, instead of in some arbitrary, possibly detrimental, way.”
No matter where you are in your career, unless you’re getting ready to retire, you need to be thinking about making yourself a more valuable employee. The more valuable you are to a company, the more opportunities you will have for advancement, compensation increases, work-lifestyle choices, etc.
All employees, especially job seekers, need to know how to leverage their professional brand. That starts with your resume.
Offline-Nearline Presence
This consists of your CV, resume, current letters of reference, work samples, personal business card, etc.
Some of these job-hunting assets can be used online as well, but sparingly. You want to be able to tweak your nearline resources at the drop of a hat to line up with specific job opportunities.
What is Your Online Professional Presence?
A professional LinkedIn profile is a must-have. LinkedIn is the largest online source for companies, recruiters, and hiring managers to locate potential candidates. Your profile is an abbreviated version of your professional biography and resume.
It should be short and sweet but packed with gems that will make hiring managers notice you.
What about additional social media portals? Focus on LinkedIn for your job-hunting efforts. Always make sure that any additional widely available online information about your personal life is truthful, respectful, and not too sensational.
Personal-Network
A personal network of friends, colleagues, previous employers, and fellow professionals can be one of a job seeker’s most valuable assets.
Make sure you keep your network active and up-to-date. You just never know when you will need it!
There are no hard and fast rules that separate the elements of your brand. Just be aware that you have one—and constantly endeavor to build and improve on it.
Are you a candidate looking for your next awesome job opportunity?
At 619 Recruiting, we help clients just like you find their dream job every day! We might just have a great employer looking for a great candidate like you right now. Our team will help you find employment opportunities that align with your skills, experience, short-term employment goals, and long-term career objectives. Call us today at (866) TEAM 619, or get in touch online. Our expert recruiters are waiting for your call.
