A Brand is what differentiates a product from its competitors. People that want to drive prestigious cars will select Mercedes Benz, whereas those that prioritise safety will opt for Volvo. Toyota also had the reliability section of the market cornered before all the brouhaha over faulty accelerator pedals. And what a blow that has been for their brand. When you spend years building a brand only to have it called into question for the very aspect it is known for, it can have devastating effects.
In order for job-seekers to differentiate themselves from others, they too need to adopt the mindset of a company and think of themselves like products. Employers are the consumer that will ultimately purchase the individual (or product) and the same consumer psychology applies.
Companies have to be certain they are buying the right product at the right price. When people select between car models, they are aware of each model’s Unique Selling Point (USP) – Just to clarify for those unfamiliar to marketing jargon, the USP is that characteristic(s) that distinguishes you from all the other products on the market.
So if you’re a Gen-Y job-seeker reading this post, let me ask you one thing. If you’re graduating from university, with the same degree , same majors and same grades as thousands of other students, why should a company purchase you? …Well it comes down to your USP. Or as an HR professional from an investment bank in Singapore put it at the Gen-Y Conference last year, the “X-Factor”. Consequently your brand should be established on your USP.
So how do you discover your USP or X-Factor? And more importantly, how do you make that visible to employers?
I like to encourage students to conduct two very simple exercises:
1) Firstly, write down all the points that you feel substantiate your value to an employer. Avoid vagueness and exemplify for support.
e.g. Exemplary Communication Skills honed through years of debating, volunteering with the elderly and acting as a youth rep at various international conferences.
2) Secondly ask others – parents, siblings, friends, teachers and anybody else that knows you well enough, what makes you different and valuable. You might be surprised by their answers or it may even corroborate with your own sentiments.
Ideally, in order to build a credible brand, the perception that you have of yourself should equate to the perception others have of you. When this doesn’t occur, it’s clearly a branding issue.
Reverting back to the previous example, Toyota’s brand will continue to suffer indefinitely until they are able to instill confidence in the minds of consumers and remedy the mismatch between inward and outward perceptions.
Once you possess all the necessary qualities that contribute to your unique brand, the next step is to package it nicely, like a cute little Coke bottle for your future employers to see. Branding mechanisms are beyond the scope of this blog post, but I will cover some of the elementary and more sophisticated options in future posts, so stay tuned.
At the end of the day, everybody has a brand. Some are weak, messy and negative while others are strong, focused and positive. In order to stand yourself in good stead for the best graduate positions, make sure you fall into the latter category.
About Andrew C Abraham
Andrew is Founder of Gradkin, a Branding and Networking platform to connect Candidates with Employers. Please share your thoughts on his careers blog . He offers a unique perspective on Gen-Y, being one himself and having recruited and managed this generation. His previous positions in Sales, Communications and Human Resources have given him an insight into understanding what truly motivates this new generation of Millennials.
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