Sure, everyone knows what a brand is. Coke, Pepsi, McDonald’s. But that buzzword is getting thrown around a whole lot in career and job search conversations these days, too. And you might be thinking to yourself, “why do I really have to care about this?”

Here’s why: Whether you’re on the job hunt, a student, or gainfully employed, you must think, act, and plan like a business leader. With the surge of social media, you have not only the ability, but you now have the need to manage your own reputation, both online and in real life.

Employers will Google you before they even invite you to an interview. (Your current employer probably has an eye on what you’re doing, too.) And when you interact with people, both online and offline, they’ll build up an image of who you are over time.

And here’s where you come in: You want to be in control of all of those impressions. Why leave your professional reputation to chance, when you can be your own PR guru and manage your image?

Your personal brand is all about who you are and what you want to be known for. And while that’s a pretty broad concept, I’m going to break down the process for building your brand into a few easy steps, which we’ll cover over the next few weeks.

Your first task: Developing your “brand mantra.” Basically, this is the “heart and soul” of your brand, according to branding expert Kevin Keller. It’s the foundation of all of your branding efforts.

It’s not a mission statement (check out Guy Kawasaki’s blog post for the difference)—rather, it’s a quick, simple, and memorable statement describing who you are and what you have to offer. Ivanka Trump is “an American wife, mother, and entrepreneur.” FedEx is “peace of mind.” Disney is “fun family entertainment.” Rick Ross feat. T-Pain is “I’m a BOSS.”

And yes, those are all famous options, but the same basic principles apply for your own brand. Ready for your turn? Here are four simple steps to creating your mantra:

1. Determine Your Emotional Appeal

For starters, think broadly about your personality and how it affects the experience someone will have with you. Are you insanely organized? Do people love working with you for your killer sense of humor?

Make a list of words that best describe these features of your personality. These words are known as emotional modifiers. Hint: They can be as simple as Disney’s “fun.”
Questions to Consider:

How do I make people feel?
How do people benefit by working with me?
What words do others use to describe me?

2. Determine Your Description

Your next step is coming up with a descriptive modifier that brings clarity to the emotional modifier, identifying what or who your brand is for. In Disney’s case, it’s “family.” In Nike’s mantra, “authentic athletic performance,” “authentic” is the emotional appeal, while “athletic” tells you what the brand is for. As an individual, yours might be an industry (“healthcare” or “education”), or it might be a tangible skill (“creative” or “strategic”).
Questions to Consider:

What field or industry am I in (or do I want to be in)?
What are the words I would use to describe my work?
Who is my target audience?

3. Determine Your Function

Lastly, write down what, exactly, you do (or will do). It might be something that directly relates to your career: writing, graphic design, or financial planning, for example. Or, it might be something more broad, like Disney’s “entertainment.” Are you a manager, a creator, an organizer? A connector of people?
Questions to Consider:

What service do I have to offer people?
What do I do that makes me stand out from everyone else?

4. Put it All Together

Finally, look at your three lists of words, and see how you can combine them into a short sentence or phrase—no more than five words. Your brand mantra should communicate clearly who you are, it should be simple and memorable, and it should feel inspiring to you. You might be a “dependable, strategic planner” or “a creative professional connector.” Or, your mantra might be something like, “motivating others to do their best.”

Original from Forbes

You’ve hit a turning point in your career. Whether it’s because your job has slowly become less satisfying over the years, or you woke up one morning and realized you hated going to work, you’ve decided it’s time for a change.

If only you knew what you wanted to do next. Details.

The “I don’t know what I want to do, but I know it’s not this” predicament is confusing at best. Besides the issue of figuring out what you want to do, there’s also reality to consider. You might think you’d make a great marriage counselor, but do you really have the time, energy and means to get the necessary training? Will your career change require you to relocate? How will you convince potential employers that, after 10 years in one career, you have the necessary experience for a new one?

Because the career-change process is complicated, it’s important not to rush into anything. Take time to explore your options and answer all of the questions you have about the career paths you’re considering. Or, as “What Color is Your Parachute?”, the best-selling career guide, puts it:

“Good career choice or career planning postpones the ‘narrowing down’ until it has first broadened your horizons and expanded the number of options you are thinking about. For example, you’re in the newspaper business, but have you ever thought of teaching, or drawing or doing fashion? You first expand your mental horizons, to see all the possibilities, and only then do you start to narrow them down to the particular two or three that interest you the most.”

Once you’ve got a short list of potential careers, it’s time to begin your job search. Here are some quick tips for job searching in a new field.

1. Play the game. As newbie, you’re going to have to put in a lot of footwork. Intensively networking, utilizing technology, honing your interviewing skills — all of these things are important and need to be done.

2. Identify your edge. Since you won’t be able to rest on your experience, it’s important to identify other selling points that will make you stand out to employers. Everybody is smart, everybody works hard, everybody has a good degree — differentiate yourself from all of the others by having an edge. If you have global expertise, call it out. If you have outstanding and demonstrated interpersonal skills, let interviewers know that you will connect with and take care of their clients.

3. Be willing to move. Flexibility can go a long way when breaking into a new career. Expanding your geography will also expand your opportunities.

4. Speak to your passion. Know what is important to you — what really gives you that sense of accomplishment — what gets you out of bed in the morning. Hiring managers will see your passion and how it relates to their business, and they want to hire that. Given the amount of self-reflection career change usually requires, rattling off a list of things that make you tick shouldn’t be too hard.

5. Have a solid methodology. Like in any job search, you’ll need a game plan. Organize your time, your contacts, your approach, and conduct your job search in a planned and thoughtful manner. Then be ready to toss aside your plan, and be able to react to that last minute call.

Original from Careerbuilder

As discussed in my previous post, your personal value proposition (PVP) is why an employer should hire you or promote you over someone else. It’s the foundation of your career strategy.

A product’s value proposition only works if it’s true, if the business has the organizational competencies needed to deliver the value proposition. Likewise, a PVP only works if it’s true — if you have the strengths required. So the first step in developing a winning value proposition is self-appraisal to assess your strengths.

Is it possible to come up with new insights about strengths? Here’s someone who did just that.

Pallab (name has been changed) was a marketing Vice President at a Fortune 100 company that acquired his company two years earlier. Before the acquisition, Pallab was one of the top ten people in an 8,000-person organization. In the new organization, he was one of the top 300 in a company with 100,000 people. He had less autonomy and was uncertain about his future. He wasn’t happy.

He needed a new career strategy. Not sure what to target or how best to present himself, he focused on identifying strengths and building a powerful PVP on those strengths.

Pallab first thought he’d emphasize his experience with marketing and growth, especially in emerging markets. But it wasn’t convincing. It wasn’t clear what made him good at that. It sounded like what others might say. What made him special?

After a couple of frustrating months at this, Pallab looked in an unconventional direction. Searching through his personal work history, he discovered empathy. His talent at understanding others was where he landed when he asked himself where his biggest successes had come from. Empathy had helped him imagine new products, create business relationships, and build productive teams. It was important, and few others in his field could match it.

Pallab began an aggressive job search. He mentioned empathy on his resume and how that led to accomplishments in his work. He led with empathy in discussions with prospective employers. He showed empathy in the way he conducted his side of the interviews — good listening skills and the ability to understand what others were saying. Empathy affected the way he presented himself and how he described his past accomplishments.

Pallab found an exciting new position. The CEO who hired him “realized he needed someone with empathy to fit his work style.” He’d founded the company and steered its substantial growth. He had very clear views on most issues. Most of his direct reports were reluctant to question his ideas, but he knew he needed to be challenged in the right way. Pallab made him comfortable they could establish a productive working relationship.

Certainly, there were other reasons — Pallab’s overseas experience, marketing know-how, and thorough preparation before each meeting — but empathy is what made him stand out. If he hadn’t recognized that about himself and emphasized it, the CEO might not have realized that’s what he needed and that Pallab was the man to provide it.

When you start thinking about your PVP, follow Pallab’s example. Don’t ignore conventional characteristics and strengths, but emphasize what makes you distinctive and how that leads to your success at work. Take these five steps:

1. List your strengths. The concrete skills and knowledge you’ve acquired through work experience and education may come to mind first. The softer intrinsic strengths may be less obvious but more fundamental. Look back to your earlier jobs and to your time at school. What did you enjoy most? What were you best at? Your current job may hold clues. Pay attention. Look for surprises.

2. Ask others for input. Ask current or former colleagues for honest feedback without pulling punches. They may mention strengths you don’t recognize, raise questions about the strengths you do mention, or ask questions that lead you to imagine new strengths. Get the ball rolling by asking questions like these: What am I best at? What strengths might I build on? What are my weaknesses? What jobs should I avoid? What jobs should I target?

3. Revisit past feedback. Reread your old performance appraisals or recall coaching from supervisors, even if it’s about a different kind of position.

4. “Hire” yourself. Think about hiring yourself for your current job, as if you didn’t already have it. Ask yourself why you would — or would not — be hired for this job.

5. Revisit your strength list. Return to your first list of strengths, and modify it to reflect what else you’ve learned. Categorize and rank that list. Be specific. Generic strengths are easy to state. They’re seldom helpful. Specific strengths are credible. They will naturally target you to some opportunities.

A successful career strategy stands on the shoulders of a strong PVP. The PVP stands on distinctive strengths. How do you think about your strengths? What role does that thinking play in your career strategy?

Original from Harvard Business Review