Whether you’re looking for a new job or starting out on your career path, creating a strong brand could be what you need to help achieve your personal and professional goals. Here at Optimus, we believe in promoting an individual's personality and skills as part of the recruitment process, demonstrating to potential employers what kind of person you are and how your personal values may be aligned to company cultures. This can be made easier by having a brand to fall back on. Think of it as the way you sell yourself, making it easier to answer questions such as, ‘what are your strengths?’, or, ‘what are your long-term goals?’ Here are some tips we have compiled to help you develop your own unique brand.

 

Know yourself and decide what kind of brand you want to put forward

 

Think about what you have achieved so far in your academic career as well as your interests and goals and use these to inform how you would like to present yourself to employers. Think of it as the best version of yourself. Consider people you admire, either because of their role, their skills or the way they present themselves. With these things in mind, reflect on how you could use your own achievements, aspirations and personality to create a brand that employers will be drawn to. 

 

Your public persona

 

In the digital age your social media account gives the public a first impression of you, as employers and contacts are likely to check out your personal profiles before they even meet you. Try to post in a way that shows off your interests and hobbies, as people will use it to get a flavour of the kind of person you are. 

 

Be clear about what you offer and follow through

 

Try to summarise in a few sentences what you’re about and what you want to deliver. This will help you stick to your long-term goals as you continue to ask yourself with each new career opportunity, ‘is this for me? Is this what I set out to achieve?’ Similarly, in job interviews try not to oversell yourself; show the interviewer what you are capable of through practical examples of what you’ve done rather than what you want to do, avoiding overused words like ‘teamplayer’ or ‘organised’. Remember to give yourself credit for your achievements as these will form the basis of your brand and help affirm that you are on the right track. 

 

At Optimus we believe that now, more than ever, it is important to stand out from the crowd and promote yourself as having a brand employers are attracted to. If you need assistance creating your brand, identify your strengths or even setting career goals then why not book an appointment with one of our consultants to discuss this further?