Published: 2 July 2020
The Careers and Employability team are back with a look at personal branding. What is it and how can you use it to improve your career prospects.
Your personal brand is a combination of skills, experience, personal qualities, passions and purpose that are unique to you.
Although it’s not a term that everyone is comfortable with, identifying your personal brand is a great way of becoming more self-aware and managing your reputation.
This can be useful in a number of ways:
- When you’re looking for work
- Networking
- Becoming self-employed
- Looking for a promotion
- Changing areas in a company
- Working in a community and much more
Below are six key things you need to think about while building your personal brand.
Your skills
Being aware of your skills is an important part of building your personal brand.
Which skills and strengths do you like using and think you’re good at? What skills and strengths do others see in you? Do you have skills that really motivate you? Which skills do you need to develop for your future career ambitions?
You could ask people you trust for some feedback - friends, colleagues, managers, your course leader. This could help you spot any patterns and give you an interesting insight into how others see you.
Your weaknesses
It can be useful to work out what you’re not so good at, the things you don’t enjoy or feel you need to improve. These are sometimes the cause of underlying stress that we feel in certain situations.
Knowing where your weaknesses are can give you an idea of the sorts of jobs, projects and business areas that aren’t right for you.
Your strengths
While your skills are something you can learn and improve on, your strengths are generally thought of as the things that come more naturally to you.
Examples of strength could be: empathy, curiosity, geniality, being detail or bigger picture orientated, being articulate or a creative thinker.
Understanding strengths means you’ll be able to put yourself forward for projects that excite you, which can help you move up in your career.
Values
Working out what your values are could be the key to finding a fulfilling career. The values you have whether personal or professional can guide you to the opportunities that are right for you.
For example, is work/life balance important for you? Do you want to make money a priority? Do you want to be in charge? Do you want to work for an environmentally ethical company? Do you consider kindness and compassion important in a job?
Passions
Your passions are the things that make you excited - the activities that really motivate you.
Think about what makes you want to get up in the morning. What does a perfect day look like to you? What kind of people are you drawn to? Do you browse particular parts of a newspaper or bookshop?
When you’re passionate about something, you have the power to motivate others as well as yourself.
Purpose
Imagine it is July 2030 and you are looking back over the last ten years.
What would you like to be able to say about yourself and what you’ve achieved?
Think of your purpose as the big picture - why you’re doing something, not just what you’re doing.
What kind of impact do you want to have? This doesn’t have to be set career achievements. It could just as easily mean being a good parent or having strong friendships for example.
To find out more about personal branding, see Get more information about personal branding at Abintegro.