9 Tips to Build Your Personal Brand for Career Success

What Is a Personal Brand? 

When we think of Nike, we instantly think of the famous symbol and logo. The brand speaks for itself. Similarly, a personal brand is like a signature part of yourself that people will definitely remember you for — an everlasting impression formed by multiple factors like experience, expertise, competencies, actions and/or achievements within a community, industry or the marketplace at large. In short, personal branding is the story you want to tell people of yourself.

Now, why is personal branding essential? Personal branding helps individuals become conscious of their differences, ultimately allowing them to control their narrative in a way that makes them distinguish themselves from others in order for their career to be a success. Personal branding is also not age-restricted, so that means even people who are not working such as students can have their own personal brand.

Here are a few personal branding tips for university students.

1. What are your personal and professional identities? 

First and foremost, we should identify what our personal and professional identities are. Personal identity is the concept you develop about yourself that evolves over the course of your life, including aspects that you have no control over, such as your place of birth or your skin colour, as well as choices you make in life. A professional identity is typically used in an occupational context, which is how we envision ourselves in a professional setting. 

2. What do you want to be known for? 

This is a fundamental question one must ask themselves before defining your image. What are your style and values? Without a concrete image, you don’t have anything to brand in the first place, much less build a personal brand at work.

3. Who do you want to showcase your knowledge and skills to? 

You attract what you manifest. How you represent yourself is vital. When there is something about yourself that is relatable, you are more likely to build a following. Think ahead — if you were an employer, what kind of employee would you want? Be that employee. Eventually, it will show and future employers will remember you. 

4. What is your desired industry, and which expert should you follow? 

Once you understand yourself, it doesn’t hurt to get to know the experts in your line of work and emulate their positive characteristics. Imitation is, after all, the best form of flattery. This way, you can progress in building your personal brand.

5. Who are the industry-relevant individuals you can interview right now? 

This is also an important tip to do as it will enable you to have more proper insights and expectations of what you might face when building your personal brand. It’s all about practice. Besides getting to understand them better, you can also learn from how they answer questions designed to get a feel of candidates, and how their personal branding comes into play. 

6. Who can you network with regularly and effectively to grow your professional circle? 

Your network can include everyone from loved ones to professional acquaintances. On this note, one of the ways you could make yourself memorable is to hand out business cards. There’s no harm in it and who knows the kind of windows of opportunities it could lead to? Other than that, people who are already in the workforce don’t necessarily have to stop building their personal brands. 

7. Have you considered seeking endorsements on your knowledge and skills? 

Once you’ve added a skill to your profile, you are more likely to get skill endorsements, which are completely different from the typical letter of recommendation. Proof of the validation of your skills by a 1st-degree connection on Linkedin reinforces your value and how you can be an asset to that company. 

8. How do you want to grow your online presence? 

Students, especially, should take note. In this modern era, there is a multitude of ways you can enhance your online presence. Namely, be active and keep your social platforms relevant and up-to-date! Let platforms like LinkedIn be your best friend, and post just enough daily to build a trustworthy online presence. Future employers will see that you are dedicated to your craft.

9. Have you been consistent with personal branding offline?

Align your on-screen persona with your off-screen persona. This is the last among the personal branding tips. Many people might not take online posts at face value as a lot of things can be fabricated online, unfortunately. Take Instagram, for instance. How many of us actually spent a significant portion of our time editing a decent enough picture before deeming it worthy to be uploaded on your feed? If you create a fake image of yourself online, you probably won’t be able to maintain your brand, and one thing employers value is trust. Be honest with yourself and present yourself authentically. This will contribute to building a personal brand for career success.

Pursuing higher education is a great place to start when it comes to developing a professional personal brand. Explore UNITAR’s affordable academic programmes and be equipped with the relevant industry knowledge and skills today.