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Copyright © 2010 by Joshua Waldman Published by Come Recommended 7707 White Cliff Terrace Derwood, MD 20855 E-mail: pr@comerecommended.com All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the author or publisher. Special thanks to the entire Come Recommended team for editing and publishing this e-book.

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A FEW WORDS FROM JOSHUA… Having a powerful and consistent personal brand puts you one step closer to landing your dream job. Some job seekers still think in terms of the old job market paradigm. The old paradigm said most companies post to job boards, had full-time recruiters who carefully selected candidates and expected employees to stay for at least five years. The realities of the new job market have shifted the job seeker’s paradigm on its head. Now, most jobs never even see the light of a public posting. Many companies have laid off corporate recruiters leaving hiring up to the line manager, who doesn’t even get paid for that task. And candidates are not expected to stay in any one job for more than two years. The only thing consistent from job to job in your career is You. Your brand is going to stay with you until you retire. Oh, it will change and adapt. But You will still be recognizable. If anything is important for your job search, then personal branding is the most critical and most overlooked step. By reading and following the suggestions in this book, you have already differentiated yourself from the other 299 people applying to your dream job.

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Best of luck to you! Regards, Joshua Waldman, Author-Speaker-Trainer Career Enlightenment LLC (503) 985-6741 http://CareerEnlightenment.com On Twitter: @JoshuaWaldman Connect with me on LinkedIn: /in/JoshuaWaldman

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INTRODUCTION Monday was another busy day for Rebecca. Her company, Widgets Inc., was growing quickly, and she was given the task of screening candidates for the new project management position. When they gave her a pile of 50 résumés, they said, “Send us four qualified prospects, we’ll do the rest.” She sighed and thought, “Are you serious?” and began skimming résumés and making piles. Most of the résumés landed in the “no” pile. They were poorly formatted, or the language didn’t seem to apply to the open position. Some résumés landed in the “maybe” pile. These were résumés that seemed to fit the requirements, but just seemed….well…not quite right. Finally, a trickle of résumés landed in the “yes” pile. These résumés caught her eye, they were easy to read and something just felt right about them. Once she was done with her big stack, she wanted to make sure her recommendations were good. So she took the five names in the “yes” pile and Googled them.

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Sam’s name came up, and his Facebook profile showed him beer bonging through a long pipe at what seemed to be a college toga party. Next. Jenna’s name came up and her personal blog appeared. She seemed to be an armature photographer and had written many articles on how she wished she could just quit her corporate job and photograph full-time. Next. Finally, Lily’s name came up and her LinkedIn profile had the same exact message as her résumé. There was a link to her Twitter account, and the topics she tweeted about recently showed a passionate and bright project manager. So Rebecca emailed her to schedule a phone call. Lily responded promptly and made the call on time. Pass. We may not even be aware of it. Most people don’t know it exists. Corporate execs call it “image.” But today, most people refer to the way we are perceived as personal branding. And nothing about your appearance or behavior is insignificant when it comes to your brand.

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The oldest brand in the business world is the red triangle of Bass Ale, which is about 300 years old. Though there is nothing unique or particularly fascinating about a red triangle, however, people associate a unique and reliable beer drinking experience when they see it, with images of a comfortable and dimly lit British pub. The question for most job seekers to ask is, what emotions or associations come up when people think about you? How do the colors on your business card hurt or help my image? If you’re late to a call, how does that effect your brand? You might not have a red triangle with 300 years of brand association. But you do have a name and a face, neither of which you can change, at least not too often or on a small budget. Twenty years ago, airlines called customers “passengers.” Career centers called customers “clients.” Our society has been commercialized. We tend to see things in terms of business. Buying and selling. And personal image, character, even personality are now seen in terms of branding. Just like Crest Toothpaste is a brand, so is your name. So welcome to the age of the personal brand, where those who manage their brands win and those who deny they have a brand simply have a bad-looking brand. Where inconsistencies in how you are perceived leave you in the proverbial “maybe” pile. And loyalties begin and end with the individual, not the collective.

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In 1997, Tom Peters wrote an article called "Brand You" for Fast Company, where he said these famous words. He said, "You don't belong to any company for life, and your chief affiliation isn't to any particular function. You're not defined by your job title, and you're not confined by your job description." With the average time in the company being about two years, and with the freely available tools of the Internet, personal branding these days is just a given. You have to do it and it's inescapable because by ignoring it, your brand is ignorance. We are no longer entitled to a job nor can we sit on our hands and blame the economy for not having one. And we are expected to be just as picky about who we work for, as employers are picky about who work for them. Branding yourself is the only way to create a contiguous message beyond the confines of a single employer throughout the lifetime of your career. Remember, not doing anything is a choice, so let's make a proactive choice and define what our brand is. Because leaving it up to Google or Facebook to sell yourself for the next job, that might not be the best strategy. So you have a common name like James Smith. Or, you haven't done anything online and you don't think they can find anything about you? Think again.

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Don’t Be a Commodity, Be a Personality If we really think about the job situation for what it is, then several important key facts become clear. First, right now, there is a lot of competition. For each job, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that 600 people are competing for it. Second, with limited jobs and high competition, some very qualified people are willing to accept lower-paying jobs. This, in effect, trickles down from the Harvard MBAs to the rest of us. Finally, we realize that companies are cheap when it comes to who they employ. They want to hire the cheapest person possible, and seem to be willing to sacrifice certain qualifications to get them. So here we are. Looking for a job with 599 other people applying to the same position. Many of these people are more experienced, educated or qualified than us. They are willing to take less pay to alleviate their financial troubles. Sound familiar? If you’ve studied economics, you see a commodity situation. Essentially the same product, oversaturated market, or the lowest price possible. The job seeking winners are people who take the discussion, and perception, away from just skills, qualifications or education, and bring it to the realm of personality. Your personality is the ONLY thing that no one else can compete with.

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And this fact alone makes the case for creating and building a strong brand. Think about it, if your car was on empty, needing gas, and there were two gas stations across the street from each other, same price for gas—which one do you choose? In this book, we will give you practical, step-by-step, tools you can use right away so that you can begin to understand your personal brand, and communicate it effectively. Just like with Lily and Rebecca in the story, the more consistent you can be, the better. And to be consistent, you need to be authentic.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Joshua Waldman is founder of Career Enlightenment LLC, a highly sought out blog and career consulting agency based out of Portland, OR. His blog, Career Enlightenment, has been featured on top career websites such as Brazen Careerist and Careerealism.com and is frequently used as a resource for the Wall Street Journal’s Career Blog. Joshua’s expertise in internet marketing, business consulting, and job seeking was developed through years of both corporate- and solo-business experience. As an MBA consultant and entrepreneur, he teaches technology and marketing skills that help businesses grow and job seekers get noticed. He actively contributes to Careerealism.com and provides webinars and trainings for job seekers and College Career Counselors around the country as a way of helping the HR world understand and embrace the new dynamics fueling recruiting, online networking and hiring practices.

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The Career Enlightenment Blog The Career Enlightenment blog is a valuable resource for job seekers looking for comprehensive information about conducting a job search online. Joshua Waldman, along with other guest writers, explore practical applications of The New Job Search. Explore our Articles section to see our range of topics. Feedback If you have any feedback or any questions please email or call Career Enlightenment. No matter is too small. E-mail: joshua@careerenlightenment.com

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