Personal Branding For Job Seekers: Beyond The 8.5

Suki Shah

CEO and Co-Founder,
GetHired.com

Here are some personal branding tips for today's job seeker:

Be authentic. People relate to individuals who express who they are, not what someone wants them to be. That said, it is important to cater to the highest common denominator. If you are looking for a job online, make sure that the information that you portray in your social networks, on your blog, on your website, and others, is cohesive and authentic. Carry this into your personal interactions, including phone calls, video interviews, in-person interviews and more.

Become a Jack-of-All-Trades in your trade. Make sure that you are presenting yourself in the most well-rounded way possible. For example, if you are applying for a job in technology and are very active on Twitter and LinkedIn, talk about your technological know-how in interviews and have a consistently updated personal blog, it behooves you to make sure that your resume is equally savvy. On job boards like GetHired.com you can create a video introduction of yourself to help build out your brand -- and to show that you are an early adopter of the most innovative technical advancements in recruiting and job search today.

Take action! A lot of people prefer to talk about what they think and what they believe. But, it shows strong character for job seekers, especially, to actually get out into the world and do those things. Having been there and done that makes you interesting, and it makes you an expert in ways that no online forum can.

Get creative. Seek out platforms in your job search that help you to differentiate yourself. GetHired.com, for example, allows job seekers to create an online video introduction to their resume -- and to respond to employer pre-screening questions by video or audio. This means that an employer not only sees the job seeker's resume, but also sees who that job seeker is as a person beyond the 8.5”x 11” piece of paper. When you integrate video and audio into the hiring process, you give every applicant an equal opportunity to be seen and heard by an employer.

Above all else, we build our personal brand by highlighting our personality and our skill set in every interaction that we have with others. Job seekers, especially, need to be aware that all of their interactions, no matter how small, are an extension of their personal brand. Whether it be a resume, a conversation, a video recording, a phone call or an update to a social networking site, it is important for all of us to embrace who we are and find a way to keep that version of ourselves professional and pro-active.

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