How Personal Branding Will Help You Land Your Ideal Job: A Quick And Easy Guide

You actually want to work. You know your stuff. Maybe you even have experience. You keep hearing that there are jobs to be had. So why isn't anyone hiring you yet? It shouldn’t be this hard to get the job you want.

You’re right. There are two aspects to this problem. First, the people combing through the resumes and applications aren't the ones who are going to do the hiring. They're the gatekeepers spoon feeding candidates to the hirers based on a checklist of “ideal qualifications.” Sometimes they're not even human.

Second, you’re banking your hopes on a resume that is trying to (a) conform to prescribed ideals and (b) stand out from the crowd. It's really hard to conform and stand out at the same time, and the result is often that neither is done effectively

Of course your're frustrated. Hiring managers and gatekeepers are frustrated, too (well, maybe not the robot ones… but who knows? ). The system is broken. This is coming from someone who has been both a hiring manager and a frustrated job seeker.

Luckily, your author is also a marketer… and when I realized that what I was actually doing was trying to sell my self as a solution to someone else's problem is when things clicked. I literally landed my dream job six weeks later.

It turns out, my problem wasn't a system problem,  it was a branding problem. And here's how you fix a branding problem:

1.       Create a site where you control the story about how your experience, skills and personality can help the person who is looking to hire you. (You can see how I used the blog in this site to do that around copywriting and content marketing lefthandedwriter.com/blog/category/Marketing)

2.       Use this content to scatter breadcrumbs on social media leading back to your site.

3.       When you apply for a job, list your site and your social handles at the top of your resume with your address and phone number. (A linktree account makes this even easier)

(I'll be doing deeper dives into each of these three steps in future articles, so follow me on your social media platforms of choice of you want to know more)

If you aren't intentionally crafting your brand story, then all an employer has to go on is the dots of data on your resume, background check and social media search. They won't have the context that led to those blips on the radar. And they'll connect those dots with assumptions based on other people they know.

You could get lumped in with their best friend or the kid who bullied them in middle school. Leaving that to chance is no recipe for success.

But, if you have a site that showcases your knowledge, your talents and the philosophy behind your approach to solving their problems, they don't have to guess or assume. Better yet, if they feel like they know who you are and what you bring to the table, your interview is a simple matter of affirming you are who they think you are.

There might be people who are turned off by your style or your approach… and that's awesome. Do you really want to work for someone who doesn't like what makes you you? Then why even waste time with an interview.

Someone will like the way you do things. And you only need one person to say yes.

There is only one of you, and you can only actively pursue one job at a time. There are thousands of recruiters looking for someone like you. Make their job easier, and you'll be rewarded.

Taking control of your personal brand  takes you from a frustrated commodity to a standout performer in control of your own destiny.

Stay tuned for a deeper dive into this subject.