My career brand
Ok, so you may not like the idea or term career brand, but the way you interact, the work that you produce, and the impressions that you make, tell a story about you.
Let’s sketch out your career brand so that you can visualise and communicate it.
Career Sketching
You don’t need to be artistic to sketch out your story, as you can see from my drawing!
What can be empowering to do is to sketch out a bit about what you do. In this example, I was thinking more about me as a career coach, and the ‘essence’ of what I bring to a career consultation.
Have a go and see what lands on your page.
Discover and uncover
Others tell me that I’m…(speak to people both in and out of work. Be specific, ask them to focus on your skills, your working style, your impact, so that you can uncover more about yourself).
I could spend hours doing…(think about activities that you do where hours can pass by without you realising, or something that comes naturally that you enjoy). It can help to think about when you are at your happiest at work, for example, is it connected to particular groups of people, the environment that you are, the activities that you are involved in or the impact that you make.
What I bring to a role is…(think about your values, energy and motivation).
Career footprints
If you think about the indentations that you make when walking barefoot on the beach, these are momentary impressions. Throughout your career, you leave a multitude of footprints behind that all build up and influence the projects you take on, what you become known for in the workplace and how you focus your career aspirations and goals.
Regularly reflecting on what you have been working on and capturing down what you brought to the project, how it made you feel to be a part of it and the impact and value you brought, both individually, and to a team, can help to understand and pinpoint your career brand.