Personal Branding

Personal branding is a technique borrowed from sales and marketing that has become popular in allowing job seekers to stand out from the crowd of similarly skilled applicants. With the potential of six people applying for one job it is critical to showcase your skills, competencies and attributes. In my book, Job Search for Moms I write about personal branding as a strategy to help get you noticed. Here’s an excerpt.

“Personal branding is defined as standing out from a similarly skilled pool of job searchers by offering a unique value-added service. It is focused on selling your unique brand; your skills, achievements and performance that would benefit a potential employer.

Since personal branding is about unique, value added propositions, it is necessary to identify one or two of your exceptional characteristics. By focusing on your top two competencies or particular skills you have begun to create your personal brand. Your next step is to create a listing of your achievements within those defined areas. Are you an excellent problem solver? How? Why? Is research and analysis your brand? Why? What have you done to support that?

Since the cover letter is the first impression a recruiter or hiring manager has of you, it is vital in these days of job insecurity that you identify what makes you a specialist, expert or a leader in your field.

There are a number of ways to format your personal brand in a cover letter. You can summarize your unique skill set in a paragraph by explaining how your background and experience can fill the open needs identified by the company. Another method is to create a bulleted summary statement emphasizing your particular strengths and achievements. Another helpful cover letter to advance your personal brand is the T-format cover letter. In the T-format, the first paragraph contains the Introduction; the job you are interested in, any networking information and a powerful statement tied into the organization’s business needs. The second paragraph contains the “T”. Rather than writing a Qualifications Summary, you can create a column that matches the job skills needed by the employer with your skills and experience.”

Examples of the tools, cover letters and resume personal branding statements can be found in my book. It also defines how to identify those skills, attributes and competencies that create your brand. To purchase a copy of Job Search for Moms, please visit my website.