Today’s post is written by a colleague at SSP BPI Group in our transition practice based in the Chicago area  – Kathy Lichtenstein. She is one of our Senior Coaches.

What makes you buy Coke rather than Pepsi?  Starbucks vs. Dunking Donuts?  The same thing that makes a company hire one job seeker over another. It’s the power of branding. So before you start your resume or your job interview, it’s important to understand:

a) What your brand is,

b) What it represents and

c) How to package and sell it.

What exactly is a personal brand?  It can be described as many things but it really all boils down to this:

A Brand is the Promise You Make About the Value of Your Product.

In personal branding, it’s the promise you make about YOUR value and what differentiates you from other job seekers competing for the same position.

In the book The Brand Your50 (Reinventing Work):  Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an “Employee” into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment and Passion, Tom Peters says,

Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are the CEOs of our own companies: Me, Inc. You’re not defined by your job title and you’re not confined by your job description.

Most of us aren’t proactive about establishing and building a brand.  While you may be happy and secure in your job right now, you never know when opportunity will knock or things will change.  So remember – if you don’t brand yourself, others will do it for you.

Once you identify and build your brand, it needs to be nurtured, strengthened and protected.  The more you to do strengthen the brand, the more successful you will be to an employer OR in a job search.

So if you don’t have a brand, what are you waiting for?  Just Do It.  Now that’s a brand we can all understand.