Articles - The Voice of Job Seekers

Practical and Thoughtful Personal Branding 2024 Looks Like This

One. Original. Thought. This is the best personal branding advice you’ll receive for the rest of this year.

You can find a thousand articles saying to curate articles and share them on your timeline to show thought leadership. Personal branding is based partially on sharing, building relationships and partnerships, and bringing value to people you network with or your audience. I’ve been on Twitter since 2008 but active since 2009, and many users/entrepreneurs are still just sharing.

You chance disagreements. At some point, through diligence and personal growth, your brand will come to fruition—not in how many will follow, but in the quality of those who follow you. It will be in who engages you in deeper conversation, not how many engage you.

The competition between the unemployed, underemployed, and underappreciated is more fierce than ever. It’s time to employ your differentiating superpowers, which are critical in the new job search.

Your brand value

I once worked in an environment where everyone shared everything. People were most proud to share what he or she made from home. One person didn’t share what he or she had but enjoyed what everyone else had brought. One thing bothered everyone: the person invited other people outside of the group to participate in eating but not bringing.

Some wanted to contribute, but others just wanted to know when they could come back to eat. This annoyed most of those who brought things from home to share. I think eventually, in communities online and offline, get at least a bit annoyed when someone doesn’t bring something of their own. It’s also harder to get respect for your brand.

A thought. An original thought.

How will we know you’re unique? Do we know if you’re different? No one wants to follow a clone, and hearing from a clone is more painful.

It’s hard to be seen when you have original content, thoughts, or a video. It takes courage to be seen differently, or to say things no one may not resonate with at first. I know first-hand rejection hurts. And I’ve grown comfortable with discomfort.

Even if it’s slightly different than the next person, you can stand out by delivering it differently. The words can be different. The tone could be different. Changing the way it’s delivered can be seen as refreshing. Your stories are going to be different. That is the game changer and the difference maker. Then your brand will be YOUR brand.

Share. Be honest. Telling the parent the baby is ugly.

One of the best ways to brand yourself is by saying the things no one will say. With political correctness should come tact and thoughtfulness. At the same time, as you start to show the world originality, there will be ugliness. The way you deliver the news is how you may save someone.

And political incorrectness is personal branding at its finest when it costs something or someone. It’s better if it’s truthful, insightful, and sprinkled with a little respect.

I became friends with an executive last year after I told him his LinkedIn profile looked like a bad resume. Although my candor startled him, we have talked several times since. But my tactful way of telling him the baby is ugly resulted in his acceptance of the change in his profile. Good people are genuinely interested in you and will welcome your delivery.

Only art institutes are interested in career curators. Employers are interested in work. Just saying.

Personal branding lesson from Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington’s rehearsals with his big bands were intense as he led them. He incessantly yelled, “Personalize your part! Personalize your part!” At first, it didn’t make sense to me in a big band with several different sections and many layers of any composition.

Within a horn section, you have several horns playing the same note. Depending on the arrangement, some instruments will be louder than others. As I thought about the importance of standing out as a sign of a strong personal brand, I felt the power of Ellington’s statement. It is about personalizing your part in making it different, unique, and special. All of us “own it” in a different way.

Sure, we can do the same thing, share the same message, and play the same song, but we would do it differently.

Yes, find and share your own.

One. Original. Thought. Personalize your part.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

This is The Best Time To Apply To Job Opening

Job openings are not created equal, and to say upfront, there are no rules to publishing job openings. Since companies have come out to say they purposely post “ghost jobs,” we realize we don’t like our job search, um, gamified.

People refer to the Bright.com survey indicating Monday and Tuesday as the best days to apply. But we have to separate how people use it. At least for many people today, the cliche is that the early bird catches the early job opening.

Yeah, but don’t be so sure.

Historically, when job ads were published in the Sunday paper, people were up early to receive the newspaper and would apply. The same principle applies if you know when the platform publishes jobs. I did it along with most Americans. You scoured the Sunday morning job section. If you’re hyper-focused on specific jobs, locations, and salary (many times, salary ranges were included back then), finding the right job may not be as long. Generalists spend up to half a day looking for anything remotely application- or fax-worthy. It’s not being a “generalist.” It’s time-consuming to find what box you’ll fit in.

Today, it would matter as much for some positions.

Companies post jobs on their websites, and if you visit a company you want to work for often, you can see the jobs when they are posted.

LinkedIn and Twitter users will watch their timelines for job postings if their industry connections regularly post. You can create a Twitter account for people and companies posting jobs regularly. The benefit is that you can see the posting in real time if you follow your list.

Many LinkedIn industry-specific groups have members who regularly post on non-specific days. The advantage of finding publications there is you can ask for additional information on the poster, who may have insider information about the job.

You can try “Google Alerts” or “Talkwalker” to assist in finding the jobs you desire. Use Google’s suggestions on search, and alerts can come to your Gmail once a day. Use different titles to fit your skill set, i.e., “salesperson,” “sales associate,” or “sales consultant.”

Last year, I was quoted in a GoBankingRates article about the “best day.” This is relevant because people revert to old-school tactics in a tough job market.

https://www.gobankingrates.com/money/jobs/best-day-of-the-week-to-apply-for-a-job

The professionals I know who are active in this job market are not getting strings of interviews because they applied early. The common thread among them is their strengths match the company’s needs, they have valuable intel about the company’s culture and how they work, they are well informed about company openings relevant to their skill set, and they are connected to many other professionals in the industry.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

How to Hang In There in a Tough Job Market

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Bob McIntosh from the Mass Herald Lowell Career Center hosts me to talk about resilience in the job search. Bob recalls our long-time relationship and different collaborations on podcasts and articles.

Bob works with the career center and has written for other career platforms, such as JobScan and The Balance Money. Follow Bob on LinkedIn for his eloquent career postings.

Conversation highlights:

2:40-9:00 The complexities of modern job searching, including issues like unemployment rates, application processes, and networking.

9:00-14:40 We discuss the merits of side hustles and volunteering to enhance employability and skills.

14:40-17:50 There is a substantial dialogue about using AI tools like ChatGPT for research rather than drafting documents.

18:00-24:00 Audience questions address general and specific challenges, such as job market barriers for autistic individuals and strategic follow-ups for government jobs.

24:00-30:00 The discussion also includes a poll on interview experiences and strategies for dealing with long interview processes.

30:00-40:00 Assessments of industry-specific hiring trends.

40:00-54:30 The latter focuses on older workers, emphasizing their advantages, overcoming technological gaps, and maintaining work-life balance.

54:30-58:00 The session concludes with practical advice, audience interaction, and a commitment to further discussions on older workers.

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