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Branding People?

I firmly believe that people – just like shampoo and other products – are brands, too. Let’s use examples of people we probably all know – starting with celebrities. What do you perceive, think, and feel when you hear the name “Brad Pitt?” What do you perceive, think, and feel when you hear the name “Johnny Depp?” Both of these actors are good-looking leading men, but they create very different perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, don’t they? Now, let’s throw "Jackie Chan" into the picture … you have different perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about him, too, right?
Think of any category of well-known people – how about singers this time? Think about Britney Spears … Madonna … Celine Dion. Again, they’re all very different. That’s because each of these individuals has a very specific personal brand that is absolutely unique and ownable as compared to the others.
"But, wait a minute," you may be saying. "Those people are all celebrities, and they have the money and the means to hire full-time image specialists to manage their personal brands!"
Fair point! But you don’t need that kind of high-priced help to define and communicate your job-seeker personal brand. The personal branding system shared in How YOU™ are like Shampoo for Job Seekers will help you build your personal brand without writing checks to a publicist. It’s designed for the millions of job seekers all around the world who may not be famous and certainly don’t plan on turning their personal brand into a global household name. What you want to do is define yourself in your world in order to achieve your ultimate personal career goal: to land the job of your dreams.
When it comes to job seeking, your personal brand is defined as:

Just as name brands exist in our minds, your job-seeker personal brand exists in the minds of recruiters and potential employers in the way they perceive, think, and feel about you as compared to other candidates. Let’s look carefully at this definition, and focus on three key words: perceive, think, and feel. They’ve been carefully chosen for a reason.

Perceive: Perception is reality in marketing. When it comes to your job-seeker personal brand, it doesn’t matter who you think you are. What matters is how the interviewer perceives you. If your potential employer sees you as very different from who you actually believe you are inside, you’re probably not communicating the personal brand you want. You’ll want to do some work to make sure you’re presenting your best job-seeker personal brand in interviews.

Think: On the one hand, our brains have a lot to do with how we think about brands, so branding is a fairly rational exercise. There are logical reasons we choose one brand over another. The same holds true when using personal branding for a job search – you need to consider what your potential employers will think about you. What are the logical reasons a potential boss would choose you over another candidate?

Feel: On the other hand, branding is also a very emotional process. Stop and think about that one brand you said you were intensely loyal to earlier in this chapter. What is the feeling you have about that brand? Trust? Reliability? We establish connections with name brands, and these connections go far beyond just what the products do for us. We are loyal to these brands based on emotional connections. It’s the same in personal branding. The way potential employers feel about you has a profound influence on your success. The stronger the connections you create before, during, and after your job interviews, the more powerful your personal brand will be throughout your job search process.

Colleagues’ Brands at Work

Still don’t believe the average person has a brand? Think of someone from your current job or your most recent job who you really enjoy working with – the kind of person you look forward to seeing and speaking with every morning. Stop for a moment and consider: How do you perceive this person? How does this person make you feel? What do you think about this person?

Now, consider a different person you work with or have worked with in the past … and let’s be honest … who you really don’t enjoy all that much! It’s that one person who seems to cause you problems and tie your stomach in knots every time you have to work with them. How does this person make you feel? What do you think about this person, and how do you perceive him or her?

Can you see how these people have very different personal brands? And their brands have nothing to do with who they think they are. Their brands exist in your mind, based on how you perceive, think, and feel about them. If they haven’t taken the time to define their best possible personal brand, they may be seriously limiting their success by presenting themselves in a way that differs from how they want to be seen.

Taking YOU ™ On Interviews

We would rather be in the company of somebody we like than in the company of the most superior being of our acquaintance.

– Frank Swinnerton, English critic and novelist

Here’s a startling truth about interviews:

The best, most qualified candidate doesn’t always get the job.
It’s the best interviewee who almost always gets the job.

No matter how great your resume, if you don’t communicate your personal brand effectively in the job interview, there’s a good chance you’ll be out of luck – and, unfortunately, out of a job.

This happens time and again. A great candidate on paper may have trouble getting a job because he or she just isn’t all that good at interviewing. It can be incredibly frustrating to candidates who aren’t chosen when they know their qualifications are perfect for the job. But if they’ve spent more time perfecting their resume than focusing on how to define and communicate the great job-seeker personal brand they want to communicate in their interviews, their qualifications may simply not be enough.

The Likability Factor

Here’s another stark reality: Interviewers hire people they like. In fact, some recruiters estimate that as much as 40% of the hiring decision is based on whether or not you were liked in your interview. If you think about it, this is also the case with name brands. After all, you buy name brands you like, right? The same holds true on the job. Don’t you prefer to work with people you like?
It’s no different with employers. They hire people they believe they will like working with, and YOU™ are no exception. The truth is: Interviewers will hire you because they like you and because you’ve made a connection with them.
This is where Step 2 of our job-seeker personal branding system comes in. It will show you how to intelligently and effectively communicate your personal brand in interviews. It will teach you how to be a great interviewee and to really connect with your interviewers. That’s what personal branding is all about – communicating who YOU™ really are.

Bring On the Heavy Interview Artillery

Yes, I know that interviews are stressful, but there is an entire arsenal of things you can do to feel more confident and master the interview process. The upcoming chapters will outline the five core activities that are designed to help you have non-stop successful interview experiences and – yes – walk away from interviewers knowing that you were “liked.” This is how to make sure the best parts of YOU™ are communicated in the strongest way possible to potential employers. And that, of course, leads to your ultimate objective: an inspiring, exciting new job.

" That’s what personal branding is all about – communicating who YOU™ really are. "

Don’t Fake It! If you truly don’t know the answer to a question, absolutely avoid making something up. How’s that going to help the “authentic” YOU™? Tell the interviewer you’re not sure of the answer, and volunteer to find out so that you can call the interviewer back as soon as possible with a response. Explain that you’d rather do the research to find out more than to answer in a way that might be misleading. Most interviewers won’t see this as a negative; they may even see it as a sign of integrity.

Another caution about “faking it” is to pretend you understand a question when you really don’t. You shouldn’t feel badly about asking the interviewer to repeat or clarify a particular question. You might think you’ll look “stupid” by doing so, but the truth is you’ll only look stupid if you answer the question in a way that doesn’t make sense.

React to Your Reactions. If your nerves cause you to get a bit tongue-tied during an interview, don’t be afraid to acknowledge it, make a joke, and move on. You could simply say something like, “Wow! I guess my nerves got the better of me there for a moment!” There’s nothing wrong with being honest about feeling some nervousness in an interview situation – everyone does. As long as your nerves don’t prevent you from effectively communicating your job-seeker personal brand, a small acknowledgement here or there won’t do YOU™ any serious damage.

Bring On the Heavy Interview Artillery

Write It Down. As mentioned in the Actions chapter, immediately after the interview – while the experience is fresh – find a quiet space and “unload your mind,” writing down all you can remember from the interview. Just write and write and write. Don’t think about how well the interview went until you have all of your memories down on paper. Then, and only then, ask yourself: How effectively did I manage my Reactions? How well did I answer any difficult questions? Did I keep my cool? What Reactions can I work on improving for my next interview? This is how you continue to improve your Reactions over time.

Use Every Experience to Improve. If things didn’t go exactly as you planned, don’t be too hard on yourself. Just focus on what you did well and what you can improve on in the future. Remember: No one is perfect. The key is to learn from your mistakes, figure out what you would do better the next time, and add it to your Marketing Plan as something to work on.

Don’t Let a Rejection Get You Down. If you get a “no” response after an interview, that’s okay. In fact, look at it as a way to save you time and money. Why? Because you can now focus on other target companies or jobs where you have more potential. Nora Bammann of The Kroger Company says: “Rejections are tough but (a) you got interview practice, and (b) you can use the experience to further refine your job search criteria.”
When a “no” happens, take the time to evaluate what you would have liked the most about that position and what you would have liked the least. You can then use this information as you continue to hone in on the best companies and jobs for YOU™. It can also help you to come up with better questions to ask in future interviews. Think about what retired professional basketball player Michael Jordan said: “I’ve missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot ... and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” The truth is that we learn the most, and uncover what we need to improve upon, primarily through failing.

A “No” Can Still Be a Connection. Don’t throw away any of the information about your interviewer! You never know what can happen from the connections you make during an interview. You may be called in for a different job with that same company at a later date, or the interviewer may get a new position elsewhere and remember you.
Here’s a personal example of how important this is: When I was looking for my very first job right out of college, I interviewed with a company that was offering a position I really wanted. After a couple of (what I thought were good) interviews, I was told the crushing news: I didn’t get the job. I was incredibly disappointed, but I resigned myself to the bad news and wrote a thank you note anyway to the person who would have been my boss. In the note, I said I was very interested in the company and that I’d like to be considered for any future openings. One month later, the person who had just been hired for that original job was fired. One phone call and one more interview later, I got the job. I learned firsthand that a “no” doesn’t have to be forever. So, hold on to your interviewers’ information – you never know when it might come in handy again.

Ask for Feedback. If you receive a “no,” use it as an opportunity to learn how you could increase your chances the next time. If you feel comfortable with it, ask your interviewer politely if he or she would be willing to share a reason or two why you were turned down. You can explain, of course, that this will help you to improve in your next interview. You might ask if there was anything in particular from your interview or perhaps something about your background or experience that drove the decision. Would they consider you for any other jobs where your qualifications might be appropriate? This is a great example of how you can succeed by failing – just like Michael Jordan.

Don’t Relax Too Much in a Second Interview. If you get called back for a second or third interview, it’s easy to get lulled into believing you’re just a signature away from “You’re hired!” But this can be dangerous. Most HR experts agree that it’s actually in follow-up interviews that a large number of candidates fall out of the hiring pool. Remember: Be watchful about communicating your job-seeker personal brand in every interview, not just the first or second one. Once you have the formal hiring letter and you’ve signed it and sent it in, consider yourself hired; until then, it’s key to keep a steady course and never stop communicating YOU™.

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