Part 2: Brand Yourself

This is Part 2 of a 5-part series on Interviewing. You can start from the beginning here.

Today, who you are online is just as, if not more important than, who you are in real life. It can be leveraged to help, or hurt you in landing an interview. The proliferation of social media has made it easier now than ever for people to know who you are before you enter the room. As a result, you’ll want to make sure that who you are online, is in line with your morals and values in real life.

At a minimum, you’ll want to have a Linkedin and Twitter account. (we’ll go over why in the next article). You’ll also want to sign up for the industry specific social media accounts, where the current leaders and influencers of the industry are. If you’re in tech, you’d create profiles on AngelList, Devpost, or ProductHunt, for example.

Like Rodney Gainous Jr, You’ll want your appearance to be consistent, so anywhere you post, you’re recognized. This helps establish and grow your social capital, and lead your brand towards ubiquity. To accomplish this, you’ll want to have the same photo, and name as much as possible.

You’ll also want to be able to describe yourself and interests in one sentence, and 3–5 sentences, as most social sites require you to post a bio and headline. A writer at Sprout wrote a great article on Social Media Branding that can be found here.

In addition to brushing up your social profiles, you’ll also want to update your resume as well. Resume etiquette is a large topic that I won’t cover here, but there are many articles and templates that can help you get started.

Once your brand has been established, the next step is getting yourself in front of these companies.