The Brand is the Message

In Down and Out in a New Economy, Gershon discusses the shift from viewing yourself as a property to be owned by an employer, to viewing yourself as a business to be marketed to the employer, and ultimately gain from the experience of working there. She states that,

“When you are a business, you see yourself as a bundle of skills, assets, qualities, experiences, and relationships.”

I agree that in today’s job marketplace, especially in communications, self-branding is extremely important and essential to appearing professional. Everything from my online presence, to my portfolio of work, previous job experiences, and skills, personality and beliefs, to the visual element of my resume and other visual materials presented.

I am a very visual and creative person and would ideally like to work within marketing for a artistically oriented company. Because of this, I would like to have all the aspects above aligned in both visuals and content. It’s important for me to have a creative edge with cohesive fonts, colors, logos, photos, and video across my portfolio of work rather than just a basic black and white resume. On personal level, I am passionate about being eco-conscious, animals, and the Earth in general, and to reflect this I have incorporated greens and blues into my visuals. In addition to visuals and digital presence, I see networking and creating quality connections in person as an impactful branding move.

I think that navigating the line between a brand and oneself can be difficult, because putting so many pieces of your life out there for potential employers to see can feel like over-exposure. This is especially true in an industry like communications, because employers definitely look at your personal blogs, social media, and whatever else they can find that represents you. While it is important to present an authentic view of who you are, it should also be a more polished, carefully curated, and professional image of who you are. This means not posting anything on any public forum that doesn’t align with both your brand and what you want employers to see. In addition, I aspire to work for a company aligned with my goals of helping nonprofit or community based projects.

The current job market has become more about the quality ideas you can provide the employer, and the learning experiences they can offer you. Branding is the catalyst to making this happen.