Who Are You
When an interviewer asks “So tell me about yourself?” or “Why do you think you would make a good addition at this company?”, unless you’ve practiced your “speech” over and over again. You might have to think about it. If were speaking honestly, companies do not want to hear about what you did with your friends that weekend or where you went on vacation that summer. A company is trying to figure out if you have any sort of value that they might add to this company.
In our reading the author talked about going to this seminar and how he met a Google representative, her name was Pepper. Pepper had asked everyone at the seminar to talk to a partner and write down 3 things that you would use to describe the other person. The author said he struggled with finding words to truly describe someone he just met, as I am sure most of us would. Pepper then proceeded to tell the group that when she interviewed for Goggle, she asked the man that hired her “Why was she hired?”, and he said that he did not remember much about Pepper or her resume, but that she was just a positive person and thought the company needed more of those kinds of workers. Now, while I think it’s great that Pepper got hired because she is positive, not everyone is hired that way. When you are self- branding you are not just turning in a resume or going in for an interview, employers are looking at everything about you. Employers, in a cynical sense, do not care about your personal life but instead concerned with how you present yourself and how the world perceives you. For example, if you are your friends all decide to go out for a night on the town and your friend is posting pictures all over Facebook or Instagram with you taking shots and looking extremely drunk, your employer might see that and think that you enjoying partying more than you do actually working (which knocks down your point value). I am not saying that all employers will automatically ridicule you for having a picture of you having a drink with one of your friends, but their are limits to what is appropriate.
I think when it comes to self branding and expressing yourself as “brand” to sell to these employers you need more than just a clean cut resume. If i was going to apply for a job at a company, in my case it would be a TV station or production company, i would need to do the following steps.
- Know what I am talking about and be real
I think you need to be real when applying for a job interview, do not lie about skills or hobbies or what you do in your free time just to impress your employer. You need to be real, show them your true self and show them how a person like you would be a great addition to the company, just like Pepper was to Google.
2. Share your story
When your employer sees who you truly are, then you can start to dig in to why you want this job or how you got into this field. Blow them away with your passion and attention to detail of your work.
3. Skills
Now your employer knows how cool you are (although that does not seem very cool to say), they know how much you got started and how much you love what you do, but now its time to sell yourself. Literally. You need to elaborate on all the time and places that you’ve spent working, talk about all the skills that you have grasped through different experience, and show them that you can go above and beyond for the job that is asked of you.
4. Reccomendations and Connections
When applying for a job I do not want my childhood friend or my mom to be my recommendation for the job i want. You need to start developing connections and keep up with those connections throughout your entire career, start to finish. Your employer wants someone that knows how to work with others and that others like working with him. They need to know you are and can be reliable.
Lastly, 5. Your Value
When you sum up all those other four aspects, you need to reiterate how much of a value you are and would be to this company. How much better their company would, they need to hire you because of everything you have to offer and what you can do. Show your worth.
When it comes to personal brands and self-branding, i think it is actually quite simple. You just need to think about what is it that makes your field of employment worthwhile. You need to express who you truly are, but as a business, not as if you were meeting someone in a bar or on a blind date. But as they say, everything takes practice.