How to Build Your Professional Brand

How to Build Your Professional Brand

Have you thought about your professional brand, about how you get labeled in a few words?  Businesses shape their brands.  So should you.

Your Strengths and Interests.

Think first about career related things you are good at, that you are passionate about, that come naturally to you.  Then, ask a friend what they see as your distinguishing characteristics.   Consolidate their and your answers into a short-list.  Now, use this consolidated list to create a brief yet powerful description: great negotiator, strong leader, determined problem-solver, etc.  Overlay these behavioral elements with specific skills, knowledge and experience descriptors like: efficient python coder, strong sales skills, knows so much about __.  These are the seeds of your brand.  Next, grow them and show them – for example, in your resume or during an interview.

Demonstrating Strengths and Interests.

Do things outside of your studies to reinforce this image, both its substance and perception, for example: serving in leadership positions in clubs/societies, publishing or blogging, giving presentations, engaging in volunteer work, focusing your posts on LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter, etc.  These individual things come together to build a mosaic that is your professional brand.  Recruiters see this mosaic, and know when it’s missing.  Help them see it better by using recognizable keywords and concrete outcomes matching your brand on your LinkedIn page or in an interview.

Emphasizing Cleantech.

If you’re pursuing a job or internship in sustainable energy, then the product of the above needs to reflect that.  Let’s say, for example, that you want to get into solar project finance and you are an economics major.  Taking inventory of your strengths and interests presumably identifies the following characteristics and behaviors:   enjoys financial and cost analysis, loves to read and learn about solar technology developments, thinks about making processes more efficient, makes money by investing.  Then, you should be taking action proving that you actually do these things, that this is where you are putting your time — member of an energy club, financial officer of any club, internship and coursework involving finance/accounting, researched and/or published an article on the future of community solar, microgrids and/or utility scale solar.   These are the things on a resume or Linkedin page that project the brand of future solar project finance person!

Odds are, you’re getting labeled. Why not make sure you’re the one who’s shaping it?

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