Personal branding: How to Look Back on your Work History to Create a Killer Resume
Building your personal brand to a form that appeals to employers will help you get hired and get paid more when you do get hired. Your employers will percieve you as being a better asset for the company and will see you as indispensable. The first thing employers see about you is your cover letter and resume, which is why I am going to explain how to go over two aspects of your resume to improve your personal branding.
Work history
“Work history” does not mean dusting off your resume, nor updating your LinkedIn page; it means looking back at the jobs you’ve had, the projects you’ve worked on, and the people you’ve worked with.
Throughout your work life, you’ve been exposed to many work opportunities, situations, and challenges. What you’ve enjoyed, what you’ve been successful at, and what you have continued to choose to do all play a role in where your personal brand stands right now.
Taking stock of your entire work history will give you a sense of the beginning of the arc of your personal brand. What you’ve done up to this point is the launching pad for what you will do in the future.
Work history to-do list
- List all the jobs you have ever had.
- List all big projects you have worked on in the last five years.
- List all leadership positions you have held in the last five years.
- List all public speaking opportunities you have had.
- How would you describe yourself?
- How would you describe what you do?
- What are the areas you have worked in?
- Which areas have you enjoyed the most?
- What areas would you consider yourself an expert in?
Current Interests
The work history you’ve just assembled is a good starting point for your personal branding, but it is only that—a starting point. Whether you are in a job or a position that you enjoy, between positions, or looking to build your personal brand so that you can move to a new position you will enjoy more, the next step is to figure out your current interest set.
When you ask people what they are interested in, it is a lucky person who is able to say that what they are interested in is what they do at their job. Is this the case for you? If so, congratulations, and prepare to figure out how you can grow in that area. More likely, you’re not doing exactly what you would list out as what you’re interested in. Personal branding is not about completely changing what it is that you do. Nor is it a way of shifting within your field or using your current work as a springboard into the future.
When you think about your current interests, don’t just limit them to what you are interested in as part of your work life. Take this opportunity to expand into what you are interested in outside of work. In the process of building your personal brand, you can often set the stage for working some of your interests from outside of your work life into your personal brand, and eventually into the work that you do.
Current interests to-do list
- What are the most interesting projects you’ve worked on recently?
- What about them was interesting to you?
- What interests do you have outside of work?
- Which of these interests would you like to incorporate into your future work?
- If you could be working on anything right now, what would it be?
Think about your personal brand
When you do all of these things, think about your personal brand and how that effects how other people view you. There are lots of online resources about personal branding, but if you’re serious about getting that killer job then you should pick up a few books on Amazon or in a bookstore:
What is Personal Branding?
by Jim Kukral & Murray Newlands
About the Author: This is a guest post by Murray Newlands. Murray is an online marketing expert who founded Influence People, a San Francisco-based online marketing and blogger outreach consulting firm. Jim Kukral and Murray Newlands recently wrote What is Personal Branding? How to Create a Memorable & Powerful Brand that Sells YOU! to help people learn how to market themselves.
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I’ve always struggled with making my resume pop! hopefully these tips will help me with that.
When you ask people what they are interested in, it is a lucky person who is able to say that what they are interested in is what they do at their job. Is this the case for you? If so, congratulations, and prepare to figure out how you can grow in that area.
Interesting. It’s funny, but I used to look out for standard resume’s to ensure that people were conservative and not too off the wall. Nowadays, I look for something a bit different. People really need to express themselves with their resume. It is so boring reading resume after resume where the people are pretty much educated the same.
A great resume is extremely valuable in today’s day of jobs being hard to come by. Great guest post Murray. Thanks.
- Robert
Great points. Making a killer resume is important especially with the added competition out there.
A interesting & informative resume helps a lot in recent market situation. People trying in a various way to do that. I love your point ‘Current interests to-do list’, hope that get great benefit for expressing, Thanks.