Personal Brand Is Important In a Resume

You can make your resume information and formatting stand out from all the rest submitted for a job by exerting a solid, superior, recognizable personal brand.

Donald Trump was a master of branding, at least for several years, in industries ranging from real estate and beauty pageants to bottled water (Trump Ice). Swimmer Michael Phelps is a better example these days. His individual brand tells us that he is a winner and a person who overcomes obstacles to achieve astounding results where others might fail. Follow these examples in a way that is appropriate to your career in your own life.

Your individual brand should shine through strongly in your resume, which is actually a commercial for your talents and benefits to new employers.

People that watch your personal brand commercial in your resume and cover letter include HR representative, resume screeners on the higher levels of clerical staff, hiring officers, supervisors, department managers, company owners, and personnel recruiters that sift through and scan thousands of resumes each day.

Many of these resumes are loosely written, even by some professional resume writers, lack any kind of pattern that would show a clear personal brand.

Professional resume writers are frequently charging $100 and more per page and crowding everything onto a single page so closely as to be unreadable at 8-9 pt. font size and no figure-ground contrast (print vs. white space). This is not good for branding.

I recently read one such resume in which the worker's education was crowded into the end of the contact information as an afterthought. The margins were only 0.3 inches wide and an electronic resume scanner, with the unfortunate result of a definite discard, would have missed vital information.

The employer is purchasing your time when he or she hires you for a job and you begin working for a company. These hiring authorities want the most for their dollar paid and a uniquely crafted brand, clearly shown in your resume, will help to ensure them that they will receive the top value from your potential contribution to their companies.

It is a presentation that reaches out and grabs the reader by the shoulders in a captivating engagement.

It tells the reader how much more you can do for his or her company than the other they are considering for a job.

1. Good manners under-girded by self-confidence, self-respect, and a high quality product to offer employers (see number 4 below).
2. Forthrightness and discretion. This includes the ability to refrain from engaging with detractors that have secondary motivations in mind and those that may wish to ingratiate themselves to you for secondary gain.
3. Overall proactive personal behaviors and character: Consistency in all settings. You are the same high-quality person no matter where you go or who you are among (unless you are undercover in law enforcement), that being a clearly defined set of values and attitudes, with allowance for areas to be adjusted and improved with experience.
4. A good product to offer employers: Skill sets that are clear and improving with time: e.g., logic, thinking, problem solving, pattern discernment, concentration, memory, ability to see details and the bigger picture; clear communications; ability to use technology and to adapt to new ideas and tech advances; friendliness without gullibility, malleability, or inclinations to gossip. Also included are practical work experience and transferable skills, adequate education either through formal programs or through daily learning, the ability to do a job well, the willingness and desire to advance in position, and others you may be able to identify. You must be productive and help change an employing company by increasing their business income or number of clients served in a positive manner in the non-profit world, etc.

Learning and creating your brand are life long activities that do not stop. You may have several levels of branding throughout your career.

That could be over 100 years for some individuals (I know of a 100-year-old waitress that called in a short local radio broadcast from the diner for years - I already understand that this is not the norm.). Continuous improvement is a vital goal in the world of work in the 21^st century.

Your own brand will become better established, of a higher quality, and more recognizable over time as you learn, incorporate new information and experience, and mature. This does not mean simply aging, however, or simply putting in time on a job.

You must increase your value to employers by helping them attain goals and, yes, to make more money in the for-profit world of work and business. These attributes must be clear in your resume. This requirement is the reason that resumes must focus on achievements and targeted required skills, rather than on job descriptions and on listing the duties of a job.