My Brand
In Ilana Gershon’s book Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find (Or Don’t Find) Work Today she discusses the importance of creating a professional brand for yourself when looking for a career. Gershon describes a personal brand as “three or four words that capture your essence” (Gershon 24). According to Gershon, job seekers must “manage themselves as though they are businesses” (25) and all the well-known business have memorable and unique brands. Your brand shows potential employers your unique traits and how those traits make you a good employee, regardless of context. Gershon remind readers “you are not supposed to be hardworking only when you are in a workplace where you like your co workers a lot and you have a task to do that you find fascinating” (27). The three or four words you choose for your brand need to be applicable to any situation. Being a team player, but only in certain situations is not going to get you hired.
I believe that personal branding is effective because it helps job seekers to be consistent in their representations of themselves. Creating a professional brand for myself is very essential because I want to go into the field of digital marketing. The three words I would use to describe my brand would be: patient, logical, open-minded. These traits have helped me excel in all of the vastly different jobs I have had. I can apply these traits to my future career goals. Because I want to work in the digital marketing field, I need create an online brand that is consistent on all platforms and represents myself professionally. I would like who I “am” and what my “brand” to become one in the same because I believe that your brand should be an extension of yourself. I don’t want to have a professional identity that is completely separate from my personal identity.
Gershon, Ilana. Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find (or Don’t Find) Work Today. The University of Chicago Press, 2017.
