Your Personal Brand Workbook

In today’s job market, as a graduating college senior launching a career or a junior looking for an internship it’s tough to stand out. A strong GPA and lots of extracurricular activities won’t guarantee you’ll land the job you want, or that you’ll even land the interview. There are many qualified candidates out there. You need to stand out. As a career-launch coach I know this: the secret to standing out is to impress hiring managers and recruiters with the unique you—in person, on paper, and online. You need to create career marketing tools that will make the authentic you come through. It all starts with building your personal brand.

What is a brand? W hat is a personal brand?
Your college/university is a brand. Do you search on Google instead of bing? Drink Bud Lite not Miller Lite? Prefer to shop REI rather than at Sports Authority? Chose an iPhone 6 over a Samsung 5? If so, you are buying brands. What is a brand?

A brand is more than a logo, tagline or slogan. It is the meaning a product, service, business or organization creates in the marketplace to differentiate itself from others.

Got it. But, what does the term personal brand mean? What it means and what it means to both you and potential employers is vague. That’s because it’s become a job search buzzword. It’s trendy to say you have a personal brand. It sounds important, but it’s an ambiguous term and therefore not helpful. I don’t like the term but, I also know it’s not going away anytime soon. In this workbook, I provide a useable definition to the term, and then guide you through defining your personal brand in ways that will help you in your job search.