to other candidates.
Just as name brands exist in our minds, your personal brand as a college grad exists in the minds of recruiters and potential bosses in the way they perceive, think, and feel about you when they compare you to other candidates. Let’s dive deeper into this definition, and focus on three key words: perceive, think, and feel. They’ve been carefully chosen for a reason.
Perceive: In marketing, the way you perceive something is reality. When it comes to your college grad personal brand, it doesn’t matter who you think you are. What matters instead is how the interviewer perceives you. If a potential boss sees you as very different from who you actually believe you are inside, you’re probably not communicating the personal brand you want. You’ll need to do some work to make sure you’re presenting your best possible brand in interviews.
Think: On the one hand, our brains have a lot to do with how we think about brands, so branding is a fairly rational exercise. There are some good solid reasons we choose one brand over another. The same holds true when it comes to personal branding for a job search — you need to consider what your potential employers will think about you. What are the reasons a potential boss might believe you are better for the job than another candidate?
Feel: On the other hand, branding is also a very emotional process. Stop and consider that one brand from earlier in this chapter that you said you are intensely loyal to. What do you feel when you think about that brand? Trust? Reliability? We establish relationships with name brands, and these relationships are based on much more than just what the products do for us. We’re loyal to these brands because of the emotional connection we have with them. It’s the same in personal branding. The way recruiters and potential bosses feel about you can make or break your success.
Here’s the stark reality: Interviewers hire people they like. In fact, some recruiters estimate that as much as 40% of the hiring decision is based on whether or not you were liked in your interview. If you think about it, this is also the case with name brands. After all, you buy name brands you like, right? The same holds true on the job. Don’t you prefer being around people you like, and, if the hiring decision were up to you, wouldn’t you hire someone you’d like to spend time with?
It’s no different with employers. They hire people they believe they’ll like working with, and YOUTM are no exception. The truth is: Interviewers will hire you because they like you and because you’ve made a connection with them. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you’ll be hired if you’re completely unable to do the job, but even if your skills aren’t as good as someone else’s, you could get hired if you hit it off with the recruiter.
The stronger the connections you create before, during, and after your job interviews, the more powerful your personal brand will be throughout your entire job search process.
Your Professors’ Brands
Still don’t believe the average person has a brand? Think of your favorite professor — the one teacher you actually looked forward to listening to. Stop for a second and consider: How do you perceive that professor? How does he or she make you feel? What are your thoughts about him or her?
Now, consider a different prof you’ve had … and let’s be honest … who you really didn’t enjoy listening to all that much! It was that one instructor who was so boring that you almost needed intravenous caffeine just to stay awake. Or maybe it was a teacher who was an incredibly hard grader. Just the thought of turning in a paper to this professor tied your stomach into knots. How does this person make you feel? What do you think about this teacher, and how do you perceive him or her?
Can you see how these teachers have very different personal brands? And their brands have nothing to do with who they think they are. Their brands exist in your mind, based on how you perceive, think, and feel about them.
Taking Control of YOU™
Now, apply this thinking to you and your job search. As I said earlier, you already have a personal brand even if you didn’t think you needed or wanted one. Your college grad personal brand may be out there doing its thing, creating perceptions about YOUTM without you even being aware of it. Recruiters may think and feel about you in ways that aren’t at all how you want to be perceived, just like Alfred Nobel before he created his prizes.
Most people I’ve met find this idea pretty exciting … and a little bit scary. They don’t like the idea that their personal brand may be running wild — maybe even preventing them from getting the job they want — without knowing what to do about it.
So, how do you take control of YOUTM during your job hunt if your college grad personal brand exists in the minds of your potential bosses? What can you do to make sure your personal brand is what you want it to be in interviews and beyond? And how do you want potential bosses to perceive, think, and feel about you? What steps can you take to make your personal brand something that is definable and that you can own? Then, how can you communicate that brand effectively — before, during, and after a job interview?
That’s a lot of questions, but these are exactly the ones we’ll answer as you move through the steps of our college graduate personal branding system. Once you carefully define your personal brand and put it to work, you’ll truly be able to stick out from the pack of other job applicants. And, just like you pay more for a Starbucks coffee than you pay for a standard cup of coffee at a local café, you can also create a premium-image personal brand for yourself that brings you a better job, higher starting salary, nicer perks, and — in the end — a great start to a more satisfying career.
Think of it this way: Your personal brand in the job search process is what you want to stand for in the minds of potential future bosses. Who is _________TM? Write your name in the blank, and let’s get started!
Step 1: Define It
2
Defining Your Personal Brand
I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.
— Lily Tomlin, Actress and comedian
Now, you know you can’t touch your personal brand because it exists in the minds of others. So, if you can’t touch your brand, how can you take charge of it in a way that actually helps you get the job you want as you get ready to leave college? It may seem like an incredibly tough challenge, but name brands have been successfully created in the minds of millions of consumers for years and years. You can absolutely take control of your college graduate personal brand, too. Just like smart marketers have helped buyers choose one brand over another, you can use the same strategies to help company recruiters choose you over the next candidate. The key is to do what all great brands out there do as a first step: Define it.
Fact: Every name brand you know and love uses six “positioning elements” to carefully define that brand. It doesn’t even matter if the people in charge of managing those brands know about these elements. Trust me: All six are a big part of what makes the brand tick, and
