Career Advisory postgraduate studies – after the tenth weekend
What shows up in Google when you type in your name? Whether you are aware of it or not – you have your own personal brand. The question is: do you get a second chance at a first impression? Additionally, ask yourself: do you want your online reputation to live life of its own? Or maybe it’s worth controlling the narrative? With the proliferation of social media and the development of technology, it is extremely important to adopt a personal branding strategy – Personal Branding has never been so important. But how do you build it consciously? This question was answered by Anna Zadrożna and Anna Mady during the tenth weekend of Career Advisory postgraduate studies.
Personal Branding
The power of Personal Branding – a.k.a. Executive Identity – is the difference between “Who are you?” and “Thank you for being here” in your career. Executive Identity influences the way you stand out from the “competitors”, as well as your earning potential, incoming offers from the market, or how long it takes you to find a job. And Executive Identity is influenced by:
- the level of competence = what you are good at
- communication skills = in person, online (incl. writing emails)
- visibility on the market = network, reputation, online, media
Anna Zadrożna pointed out the importance of evaluating yourself (and/or your client) in terms of competence in an objective manner. Why? Because a study of more than 3 600 leaders who occupied different positions in different industries showed that – relatively to leaders at a lower level – leaders at a higher level significantly overestimated their competencies (compared to the perceptions of others). In fact, such pattern applied to 19 of the 20 competencies tested by the researchers, including emotional self-awareness, proper self-assessment, credibility and managerial performance. Only 10-15% of the respondents assessed themselves correctly!
Personal Branding Model
Since 2010, more than 10 000 people have contacted Career Angels – giving us access to:
- a very large amount of data
- numerous “behind the scenes” stories that the headhunter / recruiter / HR will never know about due to the nature of the relationship.
In addition, 40% of our clients return to us after 2, 7 or 10 years.
This gives us a unique opportunity to observe the career trajectory of those who have achieved “success”. We added quotation mark because everyone defines it differently!
The Career Angels team has analysed the career paths of successful (but also failed) individuals to understand what exactly makes up success or lack of it – this is how the Personal Branding Model was created, which details the following areas:
- goals and strategies
- competences
- public speaking
- written communication
- online presence
- reputation
- savoir-vivre
- networking
Creating a consistent personal brand does not happen overnight. During the meeting, students not only worked on their own assessment and strategy, but also saw how to work with clients in this area. Anna Mady also shared the “Personal Branding Kit”.
Reflections after the tenth weekend
“This meeting helped me understand the importance of Personal Branding”
“I really enjoyed the “fear setting” exercise”
“I found The Personal Branding Model very interesting. I’m glad I was able to test it on myself – to see where I am and which area is worth working on”
“Looking at the model provides a lot of information and shows where I am right now and where I want to be”
“The Personal Branding Model is a great tool to get a bird’s eye view of someone’s career”
“The Personal Branding Model tool is interesting and useful because it shows where someone is in their career and what can be changed or improved. I also tried it myself and came up with interesting results”
“I liked the client case studies presented because they illustrated well what challenges a career consultant faces”
“Personal Branding makes up an organisation’s Employer Branding; I think it is worth fighting for internal ambassadors”
“I have to admit that, at first, the scenario of asking questions in the areas from the Personal Branding Model was not quite clear to me, but thanks to our work with examples, everything became clearer”
PS. Read more about previous meetings:
– first
– second
– third
– fourth
– fifth
– sixth
– seventh
– eighth
– ninth
Are you interested in this field and don’t want to wait until our next edition?
Follow the information about our courses – including in-house – on this page:
https://careerangels.eu/become-a-career-consultant/
