Personal Branding Through the Eyes of an Introvert

The following is a guest article by Joshua Waldman of careerenlightenment.com.  Enjoy the article and check out Joshua’s site for tons of additional tools and resources.

There isn’t much of a choice. People who deny they have a personal brand simply end up with a very bad one and struggle with their careers. But people who proactively manage it are ahead of the game.

I was at a Project Manager’s networking event the other night. I noticed something about them that I noticed about many other job seekers… they were technical, to the point, but not necessarily comfortable networking. Let’s just say they were more introverted than other groups I’ve spoken for. Sure, these qualities can be great assets; they get their jobs done, don’t let emotions get in the way of delivery, and don’t waste time.

But these skills don’t necessarily translate well in a job search.

Everyone Has a Brand

During one conversation, a man told me that even just coming to this event was a huge challenge for him. And that running his job search around building a personal brand was WAY outside his comfort zone.

So I explained that a personal brand doesn’t mean you have to jump around the room pretending to be something you are not. Think about Spock, from Star Trek. He certainly has a brand: “meticulous,” “professional,” and “straight to the point.” Spock’s character is so consistent that you can almost anticipate what he’s going to say next.

Start Finding Your Brand

Your personal brand is a combination of who you are and how you can solve someone’s problems. And having a consistent and compelling brand will help you throughout your career.

As an introvert, you will probably find the self discovery side of branding easier than the other-person’s-problem side. So here is a quick, three step exercise you can do in the next hour to get yourself a personal brand and avoid getting stuck.

The next time you are at a networking event, or writing your profiles online, you’ll be much more confident about how you present yourself.

Step 1: Ask Yourself and Write Down the Answers to the Following-
What qualities do you have that help you do your job better than anyone else? How have you been remembered by potential employers in the past? What are the three things you want someone to remember about you when they first meet you?

Step 2: Make Sure Your Answers are Consistent
Take a look at what you wrote down. Do the answers reflect who you are as a person? Do they solve real business challenges of the companies you’ve targeted? Do your resume and online profiles reflect this message? If not, make adjustments to your brand position.

Step 3: Boil it Down to it’s Essence
Once you are comfortable with the description of your brand, boil it down to a statement. Your statement will be like, “I’m Josie and I’m a database wizard with a passion for complexity” or “I’m John, and I love translating business problems into on-time deliverables.” Mine is, “I’m Joshua, and I love helping job seekers find their dream jobs though the use of social media”.

What’s yours? Feel free to comment below with your brand-statement.

For more great tips to help you discover and communicate your own personal brand, check out my new book Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies.

Joshua Waldman helps frustrated job seekers leverage social media to find work FAST!  He is the founder of CareerEnlightenment.com and the author of the new book, Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies.  Sign-up for his newsletter today and get access to his exclusive training videos for free.

Tagged as: Guest Article