“Say goodbye to your resume and hello to personal branding”
Connecting with talent is going to be a different game in the 2020s. We have already seen many changes in the last decade when it comes to finding the right people for our organizations and companies.
I went to college in the 90s. Back then, you needed to earn a college degree, an MBA, and be multilingual in order to be successful in life. At that time, submitting a resume was a pre-requisite to applying for a job, and you needed to be skilled at capturing your professional experiences and education in a formal CV. I recall how much time I spent trying to write the perfect CV and how time-consuming it was to try to capture the attention of recruiters with cover letters.
Ever since I started working in the mid-2000s in managerial positions, I have been involved in the process of hiring a significant number of people. For years I focused on reading their resumes before calling them in for an interview. The last eight years has been a different story, however, with regard to the way I have ended up working with people. I haven’t paid attention to a resume or a cover letter since 2012, which actually coincides with the timing of my decision to become a full time entrepreneur.
Today it is very important to highlight what makes you special and unique. How do you do that? You must build a brand called YOU. The main advantage of having a strong brand is that instead of you searching for a job, hiring managers will find you.
Here are some essential keys to developing a personal brand:
- Visibility. A great number of people keep active social media accounts, which includes a brief summary of their current roles, talents, previous work experiences, etc. This gives the observer an insight into a person’s suitability for a given job or collaboration. A well-crafted social profile can be a door opener for attracting amazing opportunities.
- Networking. Many people are at their current jobs thanks to a personal or professional relationship. I can also say that everyone working with me since 2012 has been the result of a referral or the result of a friendship that has ended up in a professional collaboration.
- Creativity. We can be different and make a difference by building a strong narrative that is connected with our personal purpose and the company’s mission and culture.
- Long-Life Learning. To acquire required skills before you need them is a wise decision. This goes both ways, by the way. An employer should make sure to provide the right training to the employee, and the employee should be always searching for knowledge that will be useful when the right opportunity comes and that will match the company’s needs.
I have a feeling that in this technological era the focus will be on PEOPLE, after all. Many will argue that with the rise of artificial intelligence, humans might be displaced from their central roles in the workplace, which will make human capabilities less relevant. I disagree. I believe that values and ethics will take a front seat in organizations, and leadership will be transformed in this new decade. Corporations and organizations will adopt an attitude of commitment toward their human capital, and management will rely on people. This means that they will trust in their people and there will be more of a collaborative culture within companies.
We are all aware that we are in a time of change and that companies will have to adapt to these changes in order to survive. Companies are suffering a crisis of talent on a global level, because it is challenging to find people who have a skillset that is based both in TO BE (values, leadership, commitment, etc.) and TO DO ( technical capabilities, experience, etc.).
In my position as a speaker and mentor, I craft tailor-made programs for companies that want to help employees unleash their potential, and I create programs in game-changing leadership. Due to my experience in this capacity, I have come to the conclusion that consolidating one’s personal brand is the way to develop the talent and the people companies need in this decade. The positive benefits to companies are countless, including gaining employees with confidence, self-esteem, and solid ethical values, the development of natural talents, empathy, self-motivation, the capacity to inspire others, etc. These are all benefits for employees like you, too.
The bottom line is that by focusing on building your personal brand, you will create the life of your dreams and you will be authentic. Be who you are, love who you are, and others will, too.
