4 Easy Ways to Create a Personal Brand that Gets You Noticed By Hiring Managers
Posted November 3rd, 2015
When you’re applying for jobs, you’re essentially packaging yourself as a commodity to hiring managers. As a candidate, your product is yourself, and to attract hiring managers, you have to create a brand for your product that makes your strengths and what makes you different from your competitors instantly recognizable. Check out these easy ways to create a personal brand that will get you noticed by hiring managers.
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Develop a Consistent Image
Determine what your personal brand is and stick to it. Narrow down your top traits that set you apart and focus on communicating them. In theory, it seems like the more positive qualities, the better – but in reality, that simply dilutes your personal brand. Combine your area of expertise, main soft skill, and unique voice into a consistent image that you utilize when networking, writing in discussion forums, publishing blog posts, or applying for jobs. Your goal is for anyone who’s made contact with you to remember your image.
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Have a Social Media Presence
Social media is tool used for networking, recruitment, and screening of candidates. It’s important for all job seekers to have a strong social media presence, but especially for the IT industry where you need to show your real-life understanding of strategic technology use. Create social media accounts with a professional focus, and use them to share your portfolio, participate in industry forums, and simply make yourself visible to hiring managers in the same industry.
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Optimize Keywords for Search Engines
Search engines play a major role for in the hiring process: Google for helping hiring managers to learn more about candidates who have applied; LinkedIn for finding qualified prospective candidates for recruitment; and applicant tracking systems that filter out qualified resumes based on keyword settings. Think like a search engine and include keywords in any materials, profiles, etc. that coincide with your personal brand and that hiring managers are likely to be entering. When you try to be overly creative, you risk not being noticed at all because you’re not using the most common terms.
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Create a Personal Website
The very structure of resumes, cover letters, and applications limits just how much of your personal brand you can communicate. Give hiring managers a more comprehensive view of your talents and personality with a personal website. You’ll hold the utmost control in the message you broadcast. You can ensure that hiring managers you direct to your website are learning the most pertinent information about you as a candidate, as well as the ones that stumble across it passively for recruiting.
Attract the attention of hiring managers and get your next IT job with the help of Bayside Solutions. We’re a staffing firm with a focus on personal service and have been providing the top opportunities in Northern California and nationwide for our candidates since 2001. Ready to get started with Bayside? Search our available jobs now.
