We asked W. P. Carey Alumni: What tips do you have for students on maintaining their professional brand once they are in their full-time careers?
Here is what they shared:
- Understand How You Are Unique
- Reinforce Your Personal Brand With Every Interaction
- Contribute to the Conversation, Don’t Just Consume
- Consider Your Target Audience
- Keep Building Your LinkedIn Profile and Network
Understand How You Are Unique
Your personal professional brand got you hired, but that doesn’t mean its growth needs to be subsumed by your new employer. Your unique skills, talent, and experience are all part of your professional brand, and ultimately transcend HR departments—they are what will get you the next job, and the one after that (and trust me – there will be other jobs!).
Focus on your uniqueness. What sets you apart? Which skills or experience do you have that others can’t boast? What motivates you? What are your values?
Your answers are part of your professional brand, so define them—and then do what you can to network with like-minded professionals to ensure others know you’re out there!
Linda Scorzo, BS, Finance, CEO, Hiring Indicators
Reinforce Your Personal Brand With Every Interaction
As you develop your career, you first want to establish your personal brand. What are the top five adjectives you want others to use to describe you? Once you have selected those, use them to describe your work as you explain it to others.
For instance, if you want to be known as a high-output individual, you can use that in your resume, cover letters, and as you answer questions from others about your project work. This consistent way of repeating it in different ways will help solidify your personal brand.
Michelle Tinsley, MBA ‘99, COO & Co-Founder, Yellowbird Holdings Inc
Contribute to the Conversation, Don’t Just Consume
In any profession, there is an ongoing dialogue of sharing best practices and also posing questions to the community of professionals. Many people sit back and simply read or consume without contributing new thoughts or questions.
When you do that, you miss out on the opportunity to:
- get your thoughts or questions heard
- put yourself at the top-of-mind in your peer group for your specialization
- deepen your relationships with others as you work together to hone your thoughts and solutions in collaboration with one another.
No matter how small the thought or question, get started today, create, and contribute!
Karen Chontofalsky, MBA ‘09, Career Coach & Resume Writer, Nerdy Girl Career Coach
Consider Your Target Audience
For those looking to take charge of their career, consider who your brand is attracting—more importantly, who you want it to attract. If no one is reaching out to your standards/desires, consider adding or removing something from your brand to pique your desired audience’s interest. Experts often say your brand is what others say about you when you’re not around—it’s often not as bad or good as you think; own it.
Juan Kingsbury, BS, Global Business, Marketing ‘04, Talent Strategist, Career Blindspot
Keep Building Your LinkedIn Profile and Network
Want to know how to grow your professional brand once you’re working full time? Easy. Simply build out your LinkedIn profile and grow your network connections:
- Put as much detail as possible in your about section, including keywords you want to be found for when people are searching for these keywords.
- Treat your experience section like your resume; again, put as much detail as possible so that when people search for keywords, they will find you.
- Add your skills with keywords you’d want to be identified with.
- Add your education and certifications. Today, certifications can set you apart as an expert in your field. Very often, online courses are free to take and earn certifications. LinkedIn offers certifications you can add to your profile as well.
- Send connection requests to fellow employees and anyone you meet in the industry. Go to industry events and relevant Meetup groups, and connect on LinkedIn with the people you meet.
Marsh Sutherland, MBA, Business Process Engineering & Marketing, Sr. Technical Recruiter, Ocient
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