When you’re looking for a new challenge or to give your career a boost, you have to find a way to stand out as the best candidate for the job. You need to brand this great product called ‘me’ in a thoughtful and effective way. By Borderless Consultant Barbara Stupp
These are the three keys to a successful brand ‘me’ experience:
Check the fit
Don’t just blindly follow the crowds of applicants competing for roles at big-name companies. Instead, determine what the demand is for ‘me.’ Start by understanding your market and analyze your competition. What is the supply and demand for candidates for the role you are interested in?
Check opportunities at your current company and then look at competing companies, suppliers to your current company and customers of these companies, as well as adjacent sectors requiring some of the same skills.
Be outstanding
What makes you stand out – what is your unique selling point? To stand out in a crowded marketplace, you need to define your strengths in terms of competencies, experience and personality. Talk competencies, not job titles when describing your experience. Address the company’s needs and explain how you can help them deliver results. Show links between what you have done and what you want to do. And…
Network, network, network!
Harness your network, because this will be one of the most powerful tools to promote ‘me.’ Make networking a part of your professional life. Show a genuine interest in other people and offer help where you can. Stay in contact with former colleagues and ask for recommendations. And use the power of ‘coincidence’ networking whenever you cross paths with professional acquaintances.
Raise your profile in your online network through blogs, postings in professional forums, speaking engagements, and any other opportunities you can find. Also ensure that your LinkedIn account and that on any similar career networking service is professional and up to date.
Search and find
And give your own network a boost by leveraging the reach and power of an executive search firm. Make yourself known to executive search firms by contacting a named consultant working in your field of interest. They have exclusive opportunity pipelines and will be your best ally when it comes to making your brand ‘me’ campaign a success.
If you were to ask a random person on the street what an HR professional does, their answer would probably be conflict resolution, or that HR folks deal with employee salaries and benefits. And while that is part of an HR professional’s responsibilities — to ensure employee safety, respect and accountability — that doesn’t even scratch the surface.
With remote work destined for good to be a fixture of the modern workplace, almost half of companies are monitoring remote employees’ online activities. Monitored activity can include active work hours, websites visited, chats, and messaging logs. Almost a third (31%) of respondents said their employers are monitoring their computer screens in real-time.
Whatever the reason, people seem to be strongly craving a connection with their true selves and to bring more authenticity into their lives. There’s just one problem. There is no true self, at least not in any sense of the self that we can understand through science. We should seriously question the idea of authenticity as a meaningful construct in our lives.
