Emerging trends like outsourcing, growth of multinational corporations (MNCs), technological advancements, globalization, innovation, social media and workforce diversity have increased the need and importance of personal branding. In personal branding skills, abilities and outcomes matter the most.Fresh graduates seeking for better job in the market need to efficiently use their skills and knowledge. It is important for them to expand their contacts to establish industry recognition and find a dream job. In a country like ours, there is difficultly for employers to find the right candidates due to the gap in skills. Hence, it is important for graduates to use personal branding to bridge this gap.
Here are five key elements to focus on to develop your personal brand:
1) Self assessment: It is important for graduates to identify their strengths and weaknesses. They can consult their facilitators, college/ universities, family and even their friends to know more about themselves. After identifying oneself, they should then focus on their strengths and search job accordingly.
2) Personal Vision, mission, goals and objectives: Graduates should establish their personal vision, mission, goals and objectives related to their career. Vision statement helps to create a mental picture of what an individual wants to achieve over time and mission statement is solely the statement of purpose of an individual. Goals are the expected or desired outcome of a planning process. Whereas objectives are precise targets (quantitative or qualitative) that is necessary to achieve goals.
3) Identification of target audience: Graduates should identify their target audience (employers). Firstly, graduates should consult their career plan and begin researching. After that they should identify their probable employers, find out more about them and monitor their performance.
4) Positioning: Graduates need to pay attention to details that are crucial to their career growth. Graduates should update their resume before entering the market. They need to become active in social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to connect to their mentors or professional circle. Graduates these days are also advised to build their own website. Blogging is also one of the popular tools to brand oneself. Career consultants also advise graduates to publish their views.
5) Establishing career network: Graduates must be connected to their circle of network and be sure to keep co-workers, colleagues, clients and friends updated about what they are doing. This help in creating a personal network.
Graduates should review their personal brand frequently. The way personal brand is portrayed should be revised time and again because market requirements are never the same. They should not forget to highlight their achievements and should always focus on improvising their personal brand for greater success in their career.
The writer is Assistant Manager, Business
Development at LCCI Nepal, an International Training and Certification Company. She can be reached at aagya@lccinepal.
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