Why Employers Love Bad Girls & Boys

by Guest on March 2, 2010

Personal Branding 101 is proud to present this guest post by Marian Schembari of www.marianlibrarian.com.  This article is a fantastic reminder that “personal branding” means something different to everyone.  Enjoy!

I wore jeans to my last interview. I also swore like a sailor, laughed too loudly and admitted to knowing nothing about an author I really should have known more about. I didn’t bring a resume or posh myself up. I didn’t “play the game”. It’s entirely possible that five years down the line this is going to bite me in the ass but for now it has served me well.

Why? Because that’s how I am in the real world. I blog the way I speak and speak the way I am. Meaning I talk to professionals the way I talk to friends and promise to never bullshit you. The people I work with know this. They know that if I don’t understand something I’ll ask, if I don’t like something I’ll speak up and if I don’t want to do something, well, I won’t. And I would never recommend you do this. Ever.

Unless, of course, we’re twins.  Because if that’s how you really are, more power to you.

I attribute my blunt honesty and refusal to put on a suit as part of that coveted personal brand. What the hell is a personal brand if it isn’t about you personally? People just getting started down this road think personal branding (especially for career purposes) is all about getting on Twitter and having a newfangled online resume. Asking and answering questions on LinkedIn. Which it is, but that isn’t all it is.

So (generally) stop doing this…

  • Writing generic emails.
  • Wearing anything that makes you uncomfortable in your own skin.
  • Practicing speeches/interview questions/etc.

Instead, start doing this…

  • Figure out who the hell you are.
  • Be really honest.
  • Say things (speeches/interview questions/etc) from the heart and your audience will hear you.  I promise.

For the first 18 years of my life I got in big trouble for my potty mouth. My circle of friends was seriously limited because I was always blunt and sometimes rudely so and I usually did the opposite of what everyone else was doing just for the sake of it. Needless to say, I was kind of annoying.

Once I got to college I was determined to be a little nicer, have an actual circle of girlfriends and generally be slightly less… me. Socially, this kind of worked, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that the me part of me, the stuff I tried to tone down for the sake of social survival, actually got me more attention career-wise than if I just followed the lemmings.

Granted, I work for myself now and the people I chose to surround myself with professionally are also a little outlandish, but that’s cool. You don’t want to be in an industry where you can’t be yourself, do you? That’s why you read this blog.

My famous internet crushes (who are all brands within their niches) – Gary Vaynerchuk, Penelope Trunk, Jessica Valenti, Marie Forleo, Melanie Notkin – all have their own unique style. Love it or hate it, it’s theirs and theirs alone. And it’s that kind of passion and voice that will build up to create your own personal brand

Sometimes one person’s definition of “unprofessional” is another’s idea of innovation and cleverness and fun. So keep that in mind whenever you worry about censoring yourself.

Example: Today I met a woman who has the word “shit” on her business card (my kind of girl!). She also gets around 100 comments per blog post and has over 20,000 followers on Twitter.

Be yourself people, and while everyone else takes that cliche and proceeds to be what they think everyone else wants them to be, how about you actually be yourself – warts and all – and watch your personal brand take a new, exciting and more successful shape.

Marian Schembari specializes in social media for publishers and authors. She blogs over at http://marianlibrarian.com and usually features posts under the “uncategorized” tag but likes to pretend it revolves somewhat around Gen Y careers that don’t fit in a box. Follow her on Twitter. Do it now.

Photo credit, laverrue and plutor.

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  • I've had similar problems, with varying results. At this point I try to find a happy medium between unvarnished honesty and unabashed schilling at job interviews. It's bizarre how hard it can be to wrangle a mouth between the answer you think their looking for and a tactful deliverance of your real response. As far as color in the personality (swearing and sartorial bent) I think this freedom of expression comes with age and professional successes. When your resume speaks for you, your presentation of self becomes secondary. That being said, I know for damn sure that I've had plenty of arguments with myself about Hunter S. Thompson's refusal to be a little less weird for the sake of his co-workers. Of course, HST was a genius, and we're naught but humble bloggers. Here's hoping that your future employers look more to your work and ability rather than what you put on your back or choice of adjectives in conversation.
  • I'd much rather hear somebody at a job say, "That's fucked up," and work at fixing it than somebody tip-toeing around an issue with a bunch of corporate speak and doing nothing. Or forming a committee and having a bunch of meetings to get something done that somebody who may swear can figure out on their own.

    My personal preference is somebody who doesn't constantly swear and gets things done, but I've seen more people who use slang and are willing to jump into things in 20+ years of working than people who stand on convention and are more concerned with what others are doing than doing things themselves.

    Depending on the company, there may be times when the person who swears may need to tone it down a bit (recognizing those times shows flexibility), but I judge a person at work by their heart, intellect, and actions--not by the slang they use.

    I lean more toward accepted etiquette, but that doesn't mean I'd expect everybody I'd hire to do the same, depending on their role in the company or project. Granted, if the company were dealing with more conservative or traditional clients, I wouldn't send somebody who swears and uses slang as the first impression, but what a lot of people seem to miss about people who swear and use slang is they know what they are doing and they aren't shooting for traditional roles in stuffy companies where slang is seen as appalling.

    People who wear jeans to an interview, swear, and don't follow accepted mores get my respect because they know they aren't going to get jobs at many companies, and that's fine because they don't want to work for companies that won't accept them for who they are. Sure, they may be "limiting" themselves to some, but they are better at finding the jobs they are passionate about because they are more concerned with targeting the right job instead of just fitting in with everybody else to take any old job that comes along. And those right jobs allow them to make a real difference and build a reputation that makes them desirable to other open environments that seek that kind of person out.

    Especially when you're younger, why not take chances? It's my experience that even if a younger person follows all rules of business etiquette, that older workers look at them with some sense of disdain, saying younger people don't "pay their dues," when they bust ass and their enthusiasm and drive are recognized over somebody in a company for 10+ years who just shows up and thinks their time at the company matters more than the actions and initiative of somebody younger.

    I'm willing to see there are more ways of doing things than one accepted way. For some people, proper business etiquette and dress works; for others, jeans and being themselves works.

    Somebody who swears and wears jeans to an interview knows that aren't getting a job at a Fortune 500 company, but somebody who swears and wears jeans isn't looking for that kind of job.

    The world is full of very successful people who swear and wear jeans (and who don't have a formal education). Going in that way from the start and building a reputation of getting things done makes a person like that a part of a small, tight network that values action more than convention. The person who swears and wears jeans may not have as many options, but once they've found their way in to the places that value them, they are more likely to be happy and do much more than the average person at an average job.
  • Donna Dilley
    Your speech should be a reflection of your intelligence and education. The ability to articulate and communicate effectively with others is hindered by profanity and use of slang, especially others belonging to another generation. See my recent post on Handshake 2.0 -

    Here's the link to my post:
    http://www.handshake20.com/2010/03/using-slang-...
  • Thanks for your comment Donna. I just read your post and commented, but want to respond here as well:
    While I understand that some people are offended by slang, it's also a little close-minded to assume everyone speaks the same.

    I also think that "proper" language all the time can be boring and, maybe it's due to my age, but I have no desire to work in a place where I have to censor myself.

    The post is old-fashioned and in today's workplace, where personal branding is HUGE, I've found that being myself (swearing like a sailor, using slang or whatever) works wonders for my own brand.

    And based on your examples, I find it hilarious that phrases like "that sucks" and "he's so lame" would offend you. Language is constantly changing and what was slang yesterday is part of everyday vocabulary today. You need to be able to roll with the punches or you're going to be left behind. Or end up one of those crotchety old ladies who talks about the "good ole days". One of MY biggest pet peeves are people who are stuck in the dark ages.

    Finally (sorry for the book of a response, but I'm pretty passionate about this - obviously), you say "your speech should be a reflection of your intelligence and education." Well, intelligence and education don't necessarily go hand in hand. Thinking that way leaves out a hell of a lot of people, which can be incredibly prejudice and is a little presumptuous to assume regardless.

    Still, I agree that you do need to be respectful - of people's culture, education, background, age - but there's a line and being too respectful sometimes leads to dishonesty and that's the complete opposite of a thriving personal brand.
  • ddomo
    You are awesome. Hopefully more and more people will start thinking this way too...
  • No. YOU'RE awesome.
  • This is Marian's show, so I won't try to steal it...but I'll just add that Marian's point of view is educational, honest, and controversial. If you can be those three things at once you are doing pretty damn good in my book, whether or not you want to think of your actions as "personal branding".
  • Great! I once hired an assistant who appeared at the interview wearing leather jacket, thinking I got the right out-of-the-box independent worker. I fired him after two weeks and zero results. Come to think of it, I missed a big red flag - he was humble, maybe too much, during the interview. I relied on his outfit to judge his inner power - which was falling in the same trap we do - trusting well-suited person too much. Sorry maybe not related to your post but I remembered that incident.
  • I loved the post, Ryan. Sorry about busting your chops, that's just my way of saying your blog doesn't suck and I look forward to your posts! With this post, you obviously took care of #6, no guest posts. What are your recommendations for deciding when to start having blog posts? Take my blog for instance. It's still in its infant stages and I don't have a large following. I feel that proposing guest posts is reserved for those who have established some sort of influence in the blogosphere. And I obviously have not done that.

    This post rocked and was a great example of personal branding.
  • I've always figured that the people who wouldn't want to do business with me are the kind of people I'd probably prefer to avoid, too. Not every encounter is destined to be a love connection. Authenticity may occasionally turn someone off, but that's life and that shared awkward vibe probably serves a greater purpose. Assuming you're not a sociopath or a complete raging a-hole who lacks the necessary social skills to function in civilization, I think honest personal branding is the way to go.
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