Practical analysis for investment professionals
20 November 2014

Why Personal Branding Matters to Your Career Now

If you have attempted a job search in the past few years, or even if you haven’t, you probably heard stories about corporate recruiters and hiring managers receiving hundreds of resumes and CVs for individual job openings. The stories have died down some in the past year or so as employers and job seekers accept this as a new reality. Meanwhile, when headhunters are tasked with the recruiting responsibility, they are given orders to find candidates who have already succeeded in positions exactly equivalent to the one they are filling. This environment is understandably very daunting for individuals seeking to switch careers.

Even after establishing a basic technical competence in a new career, convincing others — recruiters and hiring managers, in particular — to see you as well-suited for that new career can be a very difficult challenge.

This is why personal branding and self-marketing are essential career management strategies for those who expect to remain professionally mobile going forward. Personal branding and self-marketing are subtly different concepts. Self-marketing is an important strategy at the time of making a career switch. It refers to creating and managing marketing assets — such as your resume or CV, personal business cards, and your executive biography — and to conducting a precise sales campaign in which you pitch yourself as the immediate solution to a specific problem. Personal branding is more a long-term strategy. You need to establish and reinforce your brand over time for its influence to bring about and facilitate transitions to new career opportunities.

Personal branding is not new, but it has taken on a distinct buzz in the past few years. Like networking and most other career management strategies, personal branding can be most impactful if you start doing it well before you need to take advantage of its benefits. Here are a few personal branding resources from CFA Institute that you might want to check out:

And some more from around the web:

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All posts are the opinion of the author. As such, they should not be construed as investment advice, nor do the opinions expressed necessarily reflect the views of CFA Institute or the author’s employer.

Image credit: ©iStockPhoto.com/erhui1979

About the Author(s)
Julia VanDeren

Julia VanDeren, manager, career services at CFA Institute, serves as the subject matter expert in career management skills, curating and developing career resources for members and program candidates. Previously, she served CFA Institute as career services representative, managing the CFA Institute JobLine (now Career Center) and Career Centre (now Career Tools) resources. VanDeren holds a BA from the University of Virginia and an MPA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

2 thoughts on “Why Personal Branding Matters to Your Career Now”

  1. Yes, true indeed! Just as companies have their own brand to attract loyal customers, job seekers also have their own. They should know how to build their career with a good brand in their resume. Thank you for your insights on this matter!… I would like to hear more of this…

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