Build your Career Brand

What makes successful companies like Microsoft, McDonald's, Disney and Coca-Cola tick? What makes us buy their products without giving a second thought? Obviously, it is their marketing. To be more specific, it is their brand power.

Branding can be best defined as a promised product value. It is a blend of tangible and intangible features that makes a product unique. However, branding is no more an exclusive domain of products.

You can apply branding for career advancement too to represent your reputation and build a name. While branding yourself, you need to showcase the characteristics that set you apart from the rest. Successful branding depends on how passionate you are about it. So, take some time out to master a few of the very basic tactics and build your career brand.

Identify your building blocks

To begin with, identify your own strengths. List the things you love doing and recollect what triggers your passion for them. Your quest must not end here. You must also focus on how these strengths can expand your horizon. Further, identify other key points and slip them too into your fundamental characteristics.

Such an approach helps you assess the opportunities before you. For instance, you can assess whether or not a particular job is a good fit for you by comparing your underlying characteristics with those of the job.

Promote yourself

Resume is the right starting point to promote oneself. List all your key accomplishments, skills and educational qualifications on your resume. Develop two career portfolios -- a hard copy and a soft copy. Personal websites can make a lot of difference. If you don't have a personal website yet, now is the time to buy a domain and let the world know what you are.

Include all important information like your mission statement, a detailed achievements' list along with samples of work, awards, honours, testimonials and the like. Lay emphasis on awards and other recognitions that depict you as an expert. Nothing is more powerful than time-tested word-of-mouth promotion. Give a brief of your network of contacts such as peers and clients. What your former/present employers say about you adds to the punch.

Strengthen your brand

Once you develop your brand, continue strengthening and protecting it. There will always be competing brands ready to fill any gap you leave open. The more you cultivate your career brand, the more successful you will be.