Personal Branding — Why is it essential for your career?
Do you remember the Apple Co-founder, Steve Jobs quote, “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life?”
Well, being the Millenials or Generation Z, living like someone else is more important than living the way we are! It is what most people believe is ‘Personal Branding’ and follows. From their perspective, it was an influence but from others, it’s just a dumb thing. Not just in real life, you can find people like this in the digital world too. [Internet marketers, social media influencers, pro bloggers, etc.]
For suppose, there’s a guy named Micheal who saw success by following a simple strategy, and he showcased it to others to sell the idea. By this influence, many will start the same which is directly copying what the first person did. It doesn’t mean anything, and 90% of them will always end up as scammers. Remember that, “if something works for someone, that doesn’t mean it would work for everyone.” But driving towards your ideas will always make you successful in life and for that personal branding is a must.
The term personal branding is closely related to the quote I mentioned above. As per Wikipedia, the definition of personal branding is ‘The practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands.’ From the example I mentioned, Micheal got an idea which is a part of his job, and started selling it which is a part of marketing, thus influencing his brand. But, the others who followed the same style are just copying what Micheal did. Well, I feel, “Living the way you are is important, as it is what shows who you are!”
My definition of Personal Branding is quite similar to the one in Wikipedia, but the difference is being unique in marketing the career. It’s a known fact that copying other brands’ marketing strategies may give success temporarily, but being unique can give more than success, i.e., satisfaction. The point here is the more uniqueness you show in marketing your career, the better you can brand yourself. Now, let’s see how important it is!
Personal Branding — Importance for your career:
If you’ve been following my writeups, you would have read about my take on Engineering grads becoming bloggers. This is not just from the money perspective, it is more about the art of survival in this competitive world. As per Aspiring Minds National Employability Report, 80% of engineering graduates who passed out in 2015 are still unemployed, and out of all the passed-out graduates, only 7% of them have the skills to get a software job. Aren’t these numbers alarming?
Maybe for the 7% of them, personal branding may not be as important as for the rest. The reason is obvious as they got placed, so what about the rest? Every day you can see many walk-ins, job calls, interviews, etc. but only a few get selected. Now that competition has increased, many companies are filtering out candidates just from their resumes. So, to be a part of this evolving world, you’ve to be unique to get placed where personal branding helps you.
Creative Resumes & Networking:
Remember Sumukh Mehta? The guy who made a creative resume and was hired by Men’s magazine GQ without any interview! Well, this is just an example of personal branding, and I believe you have the whole point now. It’s all about presenting your skills in a unique way that makes a difference to others. It can be your resume, personal blog, or even posts on social media. Everything matters!
Looking at a career perspective, having a creative persona on social media is a plus. It can be writing, answering queries, providing small services like proofreading, copywriting, etc. It’s just you have to showcase yourself as a brand, and fine-tuning your LinkedIn profile can help you gain more followers. Networking plays a significant role in understanding your key skill sets as you’ve to make an impression that holds steady. These are the few things you’ve to do in personal branding from a career perspective, but this is not the end of it.
Note: This article was first published on my blog dated June 5, 2017, and republished here.
