Moving beyond the classroom, you’re going to be exposed to the “real world”. And in order to land that dream job – or, indeed, any job! – you’ll most likely need to portray yourself in a certain way. The number one point here is simply to be yourself, but you might have heard of a thing called a “personal brand”.

What is a personal brand, and why is it important?

A personal brand is, basically, just your reputation created by you. Factors that influence it include your strengths, your weaknesses, and your values.

Brand is important, because it influences how others perceive you in both the professional and personal spheres. Naturally, this has flow-on effects for employment. A big part of the workforce is who you know, and people will unlikely advocate for you if they don’t appreciate your brand.

In my view, brand has two main components: a physical component (what you wear, face-to-face interaction etc.) and an online component (social media). This is crucial to remember; you’ll want to ensure both components are congruent with each other, and don’t contradict. If you say you’re uninterested in politics in a job interview, but have political messages plastered over your (public) Facebook account, questions will probably be asked.

How not to deal with personal brand

Establishing and maintaining your brand can be difficult – but here are some things not to do.

Creating a brand that isn’t who you are

This is a common thing that people do. It’s not a good idea, and will unlikely end well. If nothing else, trying to be somebody you’re not is tiring – it’s not sustainable.

The adage, “actions speak louder than words” applies here. Typically, people in the professional world care a great deal more about how you act than what you say about yourself. I could say that I’m competent in the coding language Python, but until I show that competence, they’re just words.

Not managing online media appropriately

Don’t get me wrong – I understand. Some people like to show the world private parts of their lives, and that’s absolutely, completely fine – but your employer (or potential employer) doesn’t necessarily need to see those posts. In fact, if you don’t manage your online presence well, you could cost yourself a job.

What can you do now?

That’s all well and good, but what can you actually do about it?

Define your personal brand

This is a vital – and often overlooked – step.

First, I would identify what vision you want to impart on people. You need to make sure this is authentic.

After creating your message, I would list your unique selling points. These are usually strengths that differentiate you from other individuals in your industry, or other potential candidates for a particular job. This could be things like always taking on new challenges, having a positive attitude, and so on. It’s useful to have a good idea of these traits; you can leverage your abilities to become a positive asset to an organisation.

Lastly, you should decide your target audience. Which individuals and employers are you looking to impress with your brand? Target audience is important – it will very likely alter the ways in which you frame yourself and your skills.

Promote yourself

There are many ways of doing this, but the two I’ll detail below are content creation and networking.

Content creation has (arguably) become a lot easier than ever before; many websites now offer professional-looking platforms to create content at cheap prices. This also means it’s an extremely competitive market, as practically anybody with internet access can start creating content.

With a well-defined target audience, however, you can start spreading your message. Methods of content creation can range from blogging, to video production, to writing articles. The options here are limitless, and there are really no confines on what you can write/speak about.

Networking can also be extremely useful. You don’t need to go to every networking event available, of course – that would be tiring, even for the most extroverted people. Networking can be much more subtle than that, and the ways in which you interact with others on a day-to-day basis can make a difference.

I know one person, for example, who landed an internship at a company without going through the application and interview processes at all – and this was merely due to the connection he had built with the company prior.

Personal branding isn’t easy. It can be tiresome, and certainly isn’t something that will necessarily reward you instantly. But it will very likely serve you well at some point in your life, and might be worth considering as you finish up your schooling life.