As a job seeker or freelancer, you will need to impress your potential employer inorder to get hired! That's kind of obvious. right? But with so many qualified and experienced candidates in the job market, how do you stand out from the crowd? The interview may be last chance you have to land the job. You can not stop people from making assumptions about you based on how they perceive you when you meet for the first time. So how do you create the best first impression possible? In this post you will learn how to create a personal brand that will make you stand out to potential employers.
What is a personal brand
A personal brand describes what people think about you. Personal branding is the process of managing your reputation. It involves analyzing the physical impact you make and making changes that will enhance how people will perceive you. Essentially, you can use your personal brand to create a memorable experience in the minds of those you interact with.
What factors affect your personal brand?
The first impression any potential employer will have of you will be initially determined by the following factors:
* Your choice of clothing
* Personal grooming
* Body Language
* Facial Expressions
It is then confirmed or dismissed when she sees how you behave or hears you speak. The company you keep, the places you hang out and the events you attend can also impact how the employer will perceive you, and she will figure all these out as she learns more about your interests.
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How do you build a personal brand?
In order to build your personal brand, you will need to follow the following steps:
a) Define how you would like potential employers to perceive you
b) Evaluate how you are currently perceived
c) Determine what changes you need to make and how you will make them
Personal branding is not once -off exercise though. It is iterative, and requires a lot of attention.The three steps are explained in detail below:
1. How do I want to be perceived by potential employers?
At this stage, you may want to identify what motivates you or what your ambitions are.What would you want to be remembered for?How would you like someone who has just met you to describe you? Once you have figured that out, come up with a short brand statement which clearly articulates what you want your brand to be. The brand statement should be short and straight to the point. You can include your values, career goals, strengths, purpose, motivations and how you see yourself.
2. How am I currently perceived by others?
You need to evaluate whether the outward manifestations of your brand (e.g appearance, language and behavior )match what you want your brand to be. At this stage it is important to assess yourself and ask others for feedback regarding:
* your choice of clothing
* personal grooming
* body language
* facial expressions
* movement
* speech
* use of language
* behavior
3. Identify the changes you want to make to your brand
Now that you have identified what is working and what is not, you need to carefully plan how you are going to make the necessary changes so as to live up to your brand statement. This involves listing the changes you want to make, how you are going to make the changes as well as a timeline for when you should have made the changes. In addition, you should define how you can know when you have successfully made changes. You must also establish how you will maintain the changes. You can make use of this free downlaodable resource (pdf) to create your Personal Brand.
With a better personal brand you are on your way to leaving the best first impression possible on potential employers. This will surely increase your chances of landing that job or proceeding to the next round of interviews.
