Don’t let 2013 happen to you.
Take charge of these 5 practical personal career branding tips to help you stand out from your competition.
Clean Up Your Work Space
Make a more practical, performance focused work environment. Whether you employ the Feng Shui ideas from a friend or master it really does not matter. Most people which really means all of us know that our current work or home based work environment needs to be more conducive to what we are trying to achieve. If you work and are conducing a job search at home get the clutter out, organize your files and improve your ability to function. It is your home based business and the office that you will conduct most of your job search from so make it better, cleaner and more motivating to you.
Be An Early Adopter – Of Good Ideas!
Don’t just improve Your Linked In profile with some conventional wisdom you’ve heard through the proverbial grapevine. Be an early adopter. For example, Linked In recently added keyword oriented endorsements. Most people I talked to have said “I’ve seen those showing up so what am I supposed to do with them?” I say if LinkedIn thinks it’s pretty important and your peers and competitors are starting to do it then you need to create those habits NOW. Be an early adopter of good ideas like this on social media especially LinkedIn. Create a habit of proactive response to change vs. an old, backwards looking skeptical wait and see attitude. Act young not old. Career progression in 2013 means you must adapt quickly and not look out of date with your skills, habits and online activities.
Emphasize Business on Social Media
Just today the Wall Street Journal featured a report on how universities need to and are now trying to help protect students from toxic Google results http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2012/12/17/colleges-pay-to-protect-students-from-toxic-google-results/?mod=WSJ_Careers_At_Work. That’s pretty funny. To students especially we have said this over and over again for the last seven plus years. It’s nice to see that university career development offices figured out something many of my colleagues and career coaches have known for a long time. Everybody does not need to be on Facebook or Twitter but if you are use it as a business and start de-emphasizing your personal content on these platforms unless you are trying to build your brand or using for your company. Create powerful profile information and be active on Linked In through Groups, Postings and Network Interactions. Chit chatting about politics and prejudices of the day on social media when you should be working may be the most unproductive thing you do during the day. Treat social media more like business media in 2013.
If You Want to Catch a Cold
Would it be better to train with under performers and lazy people if you were trying to win a gold medal? Do what many Olympic athletes in the US do. They train with their competition. They hang out with top performers. The avoid the detours and negative attitudes of low performers. If you want to advance in your career or career search start looking for fellow “professionals” who stretch you to do things you don’t want to do but need to do. How should you set goals? To progress in your career you must seek out professionals in your field and who you admire. It’s so important to find people who are not just wanting to do what you want to do professionally but who are doing something similar. What you will find is most employed, engaged and happy employees want to help you. Most happy, focused and committed executives want to give back. So hang out with and find connections on Linked In to people who are happy to help. But if want to catch a cold hang out with people who are with cold!
Protect Your Health
Realize that every point in your life your body and mind need to be fed. In career transition or in career progression people focus so much on “getting a job” or handling the crisis of the day to day they do not realize that physical and, yes, mental health need attention. Create a healthy food, lifestyle and an environment that is conducive to health. For years I have seen entry-level to executives jeopardize their health to reach their career goals. That makes no sense to me. Both mental and physical health must be a priority for any career progression in 2013. Back up your commitment to health with your commitment to “look” the part of the executive or career professional you want to be.