Soon to be College Graduates-----DON’T PANIC, create your BRAND!!
So, it is January of your final semester. What is ahead? Spring Break, FINAL EXAMS and GRADUATION!!!! Anything else??
Oh yeah, find a job.
But wait, there is something you are leaving out…… PREPARING for your interviews!! It’s the biggest final exam you will ever have. Let’s explore how not to PANIC and build the message of YOU as the first step in your interview preparation!
A personal branding statement should be unique to you.
In 1-2 sentences it should persuasively state your WHY, your VALUE proposition, and how you can SERVE a company. Embrace the fact that you will be a new graduate! Don’t worry about your relative lack of experience. Hiring Managers will be looking for talent! To highlight your talent, start with a well-crafted branding statement of YOU.
Here are 4 ideas for you to consider:
Think through and determine your strengths. Examples of strengths may be your intellectual curiosity, your ability to lead groups of people, your ability to solve problems, etc. The examples are limitless as they are unique to each individual. These strengths are an innate part of you that have developed from your life experiences. This is a fun exercise which requires you to be brutally honest with yourself. Self-assessment can be troubling for some so take a deep breath and identify what your strengths really are!
Capture your strengths on paper. There is value in literally in putting pen to paper! Make a list of the words that describe your professional and personal strengths. Being totally honest, let your gut guide you to what words you write down. You want to feel the words as they are written. Don’t try to edit at this point, just write the words down. Don’t overthink this exercise, so I recommend that you designate an unusual amount time, say 27 or 17 minutes. The unusual or random time limit will focus you on the task and help guide you along the way.
EDIT EDIT EDIT!! Hopefully you have written down many words. Remember, a solid personal branding statement should be 1-2 sentences that persuasively demonstrate your value to any organization. Briefly, it describes who you professionally are and why you matter to an organization. Now edit down the list of words and create a statement that you feel captures you at your core best!
Find an interview coach that will help enlighten you to the interview process and guide you through it. A good interview coach will help you craft the best Branding Statement of YOU!
In a future blog, I will discuss how to refine your branding statement and utilize it to the fullest in the context of an actual job interview. Refining this statement and then using key elements of it during certain interview questions will accentuate your specific value to the hiring manager.
So why should you have a personal branding statement? Simply put, it creates your own unique, personal tagline that can be used throughout the entire interview process to positively separate you from all others. Your personal branding statement gives you additional depth as a candidate that is interwoven throughout the interview.
As we have written in previous blogs, separating yourself from the competition is a very good thing----after all you are competing to earn a job….one spot, one winner, period! Use your Personal Branding Statement to help the hiring manager know why they should choose you for that one spot!