Weekend Reading: Getting from College to Career by Lindsey Pollak

February 29, 2008 at 11:53 am | In Book Reviews, Career Development, People, Personal Branding, Success Strategies | 4 Comments
Getting From College to Career

As I say, the time when you should be paying the most attention to your personal brand is in college. During college you are given the most amount of choices and the highest degree of education before you enter “the real world.” Choices, such as what major and minor you want to enlist in, as well as what extra ciricullar activities you want to participate in, internships to apply for and an overarching career path. College is a time when brand discovery is essential and that initial investment will pay off in the long run.

Students have very little support, aside from a few counselors, family members and friends. Classroom experiences cannot mimic what a day on the job is, but rather train your mind to think critically and strategically. There are no classes that are built for preparing students for what awaits them. They say that college prepares you for the rest of your life, but in my opinion, it doesn’t unless you make it. You need to take college for all that it is and soak up as much knowledge as you can in 2-4 years, as well as create a network.Lindsey Pollak

This all leads me to Lindsey Pollak (soon be be married), who is a wonderful woman (that blogs), that sent me a copy of her book recently. I get a lot of books in the mail by authors, but have very little time to give them the review they deserve. I do enjoy books and will always find them valuable, even though eBooks and blogs are taking over (I’m writing a book as well). Before I get into one of my rants, I would like to say that Lindsey’s new book “Getting from College to Career” is perfect for students, who are clueless about their careers and have listened to too much “typical advice.“

Aside from her 2 other books, this one is clearly special. For one it is published by one of the most acclaimed publishers (Harper Collins). Also, there are worksheets, tips and resources in the book that are both helpful and informative.

Here are some of her tips (out of 90 tips!!!!)

  • Associate: It doesn’t matter what your career is because their are associations to support you and introduce you to new people.
  • Intern Early and Often: Internships build your resume, business sense, contacts, and industry knowledge.
  • Minor: You have the opportunity to take courses outside of your major and it’s smart to learn about subjects that may position you for an easier job search.
  • Relax: Your first job isn’t the only one you will ever have, so don’t marry it.
  • Get Carded: Being a student is no excuse not to have a business card.
  • Seek a Mentor: “How can you turn a hero into a real career adviser? Cultivate a mentor.”
  • Follow Every Rainbow: Go to job fairs, search newspaper ads, classifieds, get a referall from your teacher, and use your network.

Want more? Pickup her book today on Amazon.com. I highly recommend it and the fact that I took time to read part of it really means it’s something special and important for college students. If your not a college student, most of the same principles apply anyways.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Personal Branding is About Dedication

February 28, 2008 at 11:10 am | In Personal Branding, Podcasts, Success Strategies | 5 Comments

Note: I have 14 other podcasts on my YouTube channel.

I shot this video when I came home from work. It takes me so much less time to do a podcast, rather than to do a full fledged written post. I also like to switch up how I deliver content, to make things more interesting. After shooting this podcast, I feel that I need to talk even more about how personal branding relates to gen-y in the future. There are so many opportunities and obstacles ahead of the new generation, it is simply amazing.

It’s hard to type the word dedication without putting emotion behind it. That is why I chose to do a podcast. During my talk, I mention a few items that I’ve talked about in prior posts, such as gen-y vs gen-x and “name brand advantage.”

What I really want you to get out of this is that without dedication, your passion won’t cross the success chasm. Life is about delivery and execution and the results and benefits from those actions. Be dedicated to your work and see it through and the results will show.

Honorable mentions of dedicated brands: Monica O’Brien, Cody McKibben, Melanie Lopez, Matt Goldberg, Justin Dickinson, Devin Reams, Dave Fallarm and Dustin Jacobsen

Name Brands Have a Clear Advantage When Developing eBrands

February 27, 2008 at 11:49 am | In Career Development, People, Personal Branding, eBrand | 2 Comments

Everyone starts out as a commodity until they discover their personal brand. A commodity is something that has no differentiating qualities that separate it from others. For people this means that you are just like everyone else. When your first starting off, it’s very hard to breakthrough. Who is going to link to your site, reach out to you or comment on your blog if you don’t have a legitimate “resume.” I hate using the word resume, but it’s still so commonly known and used that you get the point. The media doesn’t care about no name brands because there are far too many experts they can already use for sources. Why should they bother with someone who doesn’t work for a high profile company, nor has done something remarkable?

Who is Jim?Personal Brand Jim

Take Jim (I’m using this name as an example). Jim just graduated from college, and after discovering his brand, he is setting out to become a well-known internet marketer that specializes in providing services to small businesses. Jim creates a blog, adding an about page listing internships, his college, some technical skills that he has gathered and his LinkedIn profile. Jim has high hopes and expects a lot of attention to his blog because he feels that he can provide value and that he can turn this value into clients. Jim is so confident that he doesn’t reach out to anyone, comment on any blogs, or even tells people that it exists. Jim types his name in Google “Jim Peters” and views over 290,000 results, of which none are him nor his blog. Jim realizes his mistake and quickly makes use of his beginners toolkit. He is so passionate that he spends the next few months building his eBrand, in hopes that his dreams will come true.

Jim is the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company

A press release goes out, announcing Jim’s blog to the world, through a few wire services. After his first post explaining who he is (people already know him around the world), the type of content he will write and a podcast interview with Forbes.com, he receives 2,000 subscribers. Jim goes to his corporate website and also notices that his blog is linked on the homepage. He starts receiving messages in his inbox from people he has never heard of, all wanting his help. One asks “could you please get me a job” and another says “can you link to my site.” Jim isn’t worrying about a thing and his PR department has taken the liberty to promote his blog internally and externally. He lays back in his chair and says to himself “boy I thought blogging was strenuous.”

Conclusions

I blogged about this idea of a push and pull strategy when you build an eBrand. Basically, when your already known, it’s far easier to develop and maintain your brand. If you are an executive for a company, your company will promote you, knowing that you wouldn’t have time to do it yourself. When you take your brand and place it on the internet, many people won’t bother with you unless you are unique or hold a high professional status. If you don’t have a name brand, then you have to work VERY HARD, make the right connections, and offer something special. I started off with nothing and went through “pledging” to build my eBrand online and then teach others how to do it as well. The people who get the attention online already have the attention, just like the people that are on the NY Times best sellers list will just become more popular. Executives at big brand companies are just going to be more recognized with eBranding. The rest of us need to spend long days building our futures, so that we can have that luxury someday.

Executives and Celebrities that BlogJonathan Schwartz Executive Blog

The Branding Galaxy: Product, Corporate, eBrand, Professional, Personal, Social, and Employment

February 26, 2008 at 11:50 am | In Personal Branding, eBrand, human branding | 8 Comments
The Personal Branding Ecosystem

Brands were originally developed as labels of ownership: name, term, design, symbol (Wikipedia). Branding is the art of developing brands, which sounds simple, but if you have noticed, it’s evolved quite a bit this century. No longer are we just concerned about product brands, which are items we purchase either for need or luxury. Corporate brands are the embodiment of those product brands, so we tend to care about the total perceived value and reputation of them as well. Oh wait, then you have personal branding (of course), which forces us to consider each individual person who represents a company.

In December of 2007, 20% of the entire world had an internet connection. That is over 1.3 billion users, which is simply incredible, especially because the growth was over 250%. As advertising dollars and attention is drawn to the internet, our personal brands are now digitize and in online form, which we consider an eBrand. An eBrand, as discussed a few posts ago,represents the face you want to show to the world online, whether it is a blog, traditional website, existence on a social network or all three.

In order for organizations to recruit online in this new web 2.0 world, they have to switch gears and provide their own eBrand in the form of an employment brand. Employment branding is complicated for companies, especially Fortune 500 companies who are used to traditional methods, such as offering jobs through portals. This type of branding is about providing an online experience for potential candidates, employees and everyone else. It is used to attract talent, retain it and shine the entire organization in good light. Smart companies are successful in this area by providing a unique experience, consisting of video’s that showcase what it’s like to work there, a Facebook network and group, a Ning network, a blog written by an HR executive or team and others.

I would like to introduce everyone to what I call “social branding.” A social brand (social branding) is one that thrives and connects through social media and networks. It may be a quick instance, such as a “Tweet” on Twitter, a blog post, or even writing on someone’s wall in Facebook. Social branding is how you are judge as you hold conversations using social media platforms. It starts with your avatar (which should be a picture of you), and then the messages you type and your about page, along with your color scheme and overall design.

Personal branding takes into account professional branding. Professional branding is how you display yourself in a work setting. We all act somewhat differently when we are at work because there is a corporate culture and you know what you can and cannot get away with based on a few days at work. Startups and marketing/PR firms typically allow you to wear jeans and a dress shirt and if you are an engineer like my roommate, you can even wear a t-shirt to work. If you work for a Fortune 500 company and are customer-facing, then it’s required that you wear a suit and tie.

Lastly, and yes I’ve posted about this before, there is human branding. Human branding isn’t related to personal branding, but I mention it so people don’t get confused. Human branding is when you burn a symbol on your skin as a way of showing loyalty (some fraternities) or love for a particular group (band) or symbol (skull).

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