As a result of these eight factors, there are three perspectives for any self-brand: ideal self-brand, perceived self-brand, and actual self-brand. These concepts are illustrated through these questions: For a given position/career path, what are the ideal set of attributes sought by the employer? For a given position/career path, what is the perceived self-brand of each candidate by the employer? For a given position/career path, what is the actual set of attributes that you possess? With gap analysis, each person can determine the difference between the ideal self-brand sought, the perceived self-brand, and the actual self-brand. Then, a person should narrow these gaps–such as enrolling in a course to learn more about total quality marketing or better devising a social media profile.
The Steps in Self-Branding
Self-branding does not involve one step, a haphazard number of steps, or a one-time effort. Self-branding must be systematic, thorough, consistent across all communications media, and continuous. See, for example, Byrne and Gallagher (2015) and Paradiso (2015).
Figure 3 presents a detailed, systematic self-branding process that should be a major part of one’s career planning–throughout the stages of one’s career. At the center are the major steps to follow; to the left and right are suggestions related to self-branding during three specific steps in the process.
The first step in the self-branding process, sometimes overlooked, involves conducting a critical self-assessment. In a way, this is a personal SWOT (strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats) analysis. During this step, it is imperative that we be honest with ourselves! The subsequent steps should not be done until self-assessment is completed.
Table 1 consists of 31 of the most important questions to be addressed during our thorough self-assessment. EACH of these questions is essential; since people are sometimes impatient, there may be a tendency to skip or downplay some questions. Furthermore, self-assessment should be a regular activity, such as an annual self-audit. And it should be done at every stage of our career.
Next, there should be serious research on job trends occurring in the marketplace, as well as research on specific career paths. Such research can be a guide in choosing among specific jobs, job functions, career paths, the attributes that employers desire, and much more. According to research by the Institute for the Future (2011), these are ten of the skills that employers will most desire in 2020: sense making, social intelligence, novel and adaptive thinking, cross-cultural competency, computational thinking, new media literacy, transdisciplinary, design mindset, cognitive load management, and virtual collaboration. At this point, we are ready to determine current and future career goals.
The position (job) involved sets the expectation boundaries for the target audience(s). For instance, the expectations for a marketing analyst, a brand manager, and a chief marketing officer differ significantly–as do the perceived self-brands. The stage in the career affects the audience’s perceived self-brand for us in a slightly different way. It is expected that we enhance the attributes associated with our self-brand as we move through career stages and that we “grow” over time. Recommendations from employers, colleagues, peers, and others affect our perceived self-brand. That is why recommendations at LinkedIn can be so valuable. Our portrayal in social media has two dimensions: (1) information that is controlled/provided by us and (2) information that is controlled/provided by others.
At the skill-building step, all of the previous steps are reviewed; and the person determines what specific strengths and weaknesses need to be enhanced. To do this, we need to realize what is required for specific career paths and to focus on our points of distinction.