Building Your Online Career Brand: Five Tools for Job-Seekers

By Dr. Randall S. Hansen Ph.D

Are you still using Monster or CareerBuilder to post your resume or search for jobs? Are you wasting countless hours each day searching for jobs online -- with little or no results for all your efforts? Are you searching for a better way to find a new job or career? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, this article will provide you with the tools to proactively take control of your job-search while using the Web to build your career brand.

What is your career brand? It's a combination of your reputation as a worker combined with a promise of your potential and impact on future employers. Your career brand can start with a resume (if it's a good resume), but goes far beyond traditional job-seeking methods to include a plethora of tools. 

The goal of this article is to help you to understand and use these online branding tools to establish or build your online reputation. Branding guru Dan Schawbel refers to these as your "digital assets." The future of job-hunting -- your future success in job-hunting -- will require establishing and managing your online career brand. 

Career Branding Tools
 

1. LinkedIn profile. If you are a professional -- or an aspiring professional -- you must have a profile on LinkedIn, a business-oriented networking site that consists of millions of experienced professionals from around the world, representing hundreds of industries from more than 200 countries. When you join, you can create a profile that can serve as both a resume and an introduction to your career brand. Once your profile is completed, you then build connections with other members, getting introduced to new people through the people in your network.

2. Personal Website. One of the best ways to build and promote your career brand is by developing a professional Website that showcases your key accomplishments. At a minimum, you should buy a domain name based on your name (for example, mine is RandallSHansen.com) and publish your resume. Even better, publish your career portfolio, content-rich articles, and other keyword-rich materials that will lead prospective employers looking for someone with your qualifications directly to your site. 

3. Twitter account. Every day, more and more individuals and businesses are tweeting information, ideas, links, and more Ð all in under 140 characters per tweet (message). Twitter, a networking and micro-blogging site, enables people to connect and communicate -- developing both a following of people as well as following the tweets of others. Tweeting key information, resources, and other professional advice -- while building a following -- is a very easy way to build your career brand. 

4. Professional blog. If you are a decent writer and can commit to writing regularly, creating a professional blog is a great tool for building your career brand. A blog is a specialized Website that focuses on a particular subject (person, industry, profession) that can include news, analysis, commentary, and links in a variety of formats (including print, audio, images, and video). Showcasing your expertise and knowledge of your industry or profession is an excellent way to build your career brand.

5. Social networking profiles/accounts. Consider joining at least two social-networking sites. One should be a general social-networking site, such as Facebook, and one should be career-specific (which you can find by searching Google -- most professions have multiple networking sites). While social networking is just that -- social -- remember that networking with others (online and off) is one of the most powerful tools of job-hunting as the majority of jobs are filled through referrals, not through responses to job postings. 

 
Final Thoughts
 

There is no question that your future job-search success depends on building and developing your online career brand. Instead of investing wasted hours posting your resume on the major job boards and applying to jobs that may not even exist, use that time instead to focus your energies on following the advice in this article to build your online career brand -- even simply starting with one of these tools and moving to the others as you have more time. 

Employers have been Googling job applicants for years to learn more a out their online career brand, but even more so in the future, employers will treat the Web as one giant database of potential job applicants -- and you'll need to have a strong online brand to be found.

Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...

Many years ago, when one of my friend  worked as a volunteer at a hospital, My friend got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, seeing the colour returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away". Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Create Your Perfect Job

 Looking for the perfect job? Create it! 

Rather than spending hours and days combing the classified ads or online job postings for your ideal job, you just might find it with your current employer.I've done it. My clients and old co-workers have done it. You can, too.To illustrate, here's an example from my career. 

Eight years ago, I worked as an English teacher and teacher trainer for an international firm. I was fairly happy, but always yearned for a job as a writer.One day, I was at headquarters and met up with a textbook writer who had observed my classes the month before. She was doing exactly what I wanted to do, so I questioned her about how I might land a similar job. After a 10-minute conversation (which turned out to be a job interview!), she asked me to proofread some revisions for a new textbook. I happily accepted. 

That proofreading project led to another, which led to a writing assignment, which led to a full-time writing position within weeks. I had created exactly the job I wanted, by finding a need and proving I could fill it.It happens every day. Like the client of mine who went from package courier to sales rep. Or the cashier who became a buyer. Or my friend, who went from receptionist to graphic designer.To create your next job with your current employer, remember these three points:

The job you seek may already be available internally. But you'll never know unless you ask!

If the right job isn't available, it can be created, if you prove to management that you have the right skills and determination. 

Every conversation you have at work is a potential job interview. If enough people in your company know what you want to do, and think you can do it, you just might get the chance... sooner than you think. 

Best of luck to you! 

This guest article about Careers is by my friend and colleague,Kevin Donlin 

Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes. Since 1995, he and his team have provided resumes, cover letters and online job-search assistance to clients in all 50 states and 23 countries.  

Important Lesson to Learn : Always remember those who serve.

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "Fifty cents," replied the waitress.The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it."Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies.. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.