Welcome back everybody! I hope you all had a lovely Spring Break! To celebrate being back at Elon, this week’s CUPID Blog will be dedicated to the discussion of personal branding and the importance of creating your own personalized design for professional success. To begin, Jamie Rice will be discussing her experience with personal branding within the context of both personal and professional development.
“Personal branding is a concept that can often be misinterpreted as a way to cheat the system or as an unnecessary investment. However, with the popularity of the online world as a means of researching future employers and employees, developing a personal brand that is consistent across multiple platforms is integral to success.
So what exactly is personal branding? I would describe it as a presentation of who someone is as a person. It is not lying, and it is not manipulative. It should be a demonstration of someone’s core values and should help them achieve their specific goals. I am going to focus on the ways that a résumé can affect your personal brand, but it is important to realize that Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, as well as an online portfolio are all other areas where these visual principles related to branding can also be integrated.
We have been discussing this concept at length in my ENG 282: CUPID Studio class, and we have looked at successful branding in companies like Apple in order to get an idea of a good brand. For example, look at these commercials and think about the concept of visual identity, values, and differentiation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lfmlKYZ-vU
What do you notice?
First, all of these commercials utilize the same shots and style, and they all end with the Apple logo. Did you notice that they never actually mentioned the name of their company? That is because they do not have to. They have created such a strong visual message that we know that the combination of this style with the apple at the end of the commercial symbolizes a product created by Apple. Second, all of the commercials were consistent with one another and differentiated their product from everything else on the market. They created a simple message: Our product is the iPhone, there is nothing like it, and it is very simple to use.
Now, how can we apply this to personal branding? Well much like the visual style of the commercial created a memorable brand and logo, the visual design of résumés can provide a similar identity through the use of a personal logo, creative organization scheme, and a signature color.
A traditional résumé like the one above is successful because it is clean, has an interesting visual style, but is not too flashy. However, is important to think about the purpose of your résumé. For example, if you were applying for a job to be a graphic designer then it would be beneficial to take advantage of your skills to create a résumé with a strong visual design.
If you were a applying for a job as an accountant, a résumé with a large amount of graphics and stylistic choices would appear out of place. It is important to think about what your audience will want from you and how that translates to your message.
I have currently been applying for editing jobs in publishing so I have been checking my résumé meticulously to make sure that it is very clean and completely free of any grammatical errors or wording issues, while also demonstrating through its style that I understand how to create a simple and aesthetically pleasing page.
Finally, you should never lie about who you are through your brand. Do not imitate a résumé style that you hate because you think it will get you a job. You will only be doing yourself a disservice because you will not get hired for a job that fits you. The real key to creating a good personal brand through your résumé is to understand your goals and then decide how to present them accurately. How do you feel about the way your résumé currently represents your personal brand?
Below are some websites, which present some interesting résumé ideas:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/631/01/
http://jobmob.co.il/blog/beautiful-résumé-ideas-that-work/
http://webdesignledger.com/inspiration/25-intelligent-résumé-ideas“
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