I've known Dan Schawbel for quite a few years now and he is one of the best when it comes to the art of personal branding. His new book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules of Career Success, distills great advice to all who want move their careers forward.
I really appreciate Dan's answer to the first question. I try remember what makes me special and who the right audience is, daily. Enjoy!
You were one of the first thought leaders to talk about personal
branding. How has it changed over the last 5 years?
Personal
branding is the process by which we unearth what makes us special and then
communicate it to the right audience. You could also say it's what people say
when you're not in the room and how you position yourself in the marketplace.
The basics of personal branding haven't changed but the technology has and we
have to adapt to it in order to build and maintain our careers. The web, and
the media, is a lot more fragmented and competitive now which is the biggest
change from my perspective. Getting publicity is both easier and harder because
the web is more open, there are more channels but that means more competition.
The conversation has changed from five years ago. The conversation used to be
about how to build a brand using social networks five years ago because it was
so new. Today, it's all about standing out in the crowd.
Tell me a little about your partnership with American Express.
I
partnered with American Express to study two different things that are both
related. First, we wanted to know what managers look for when promoting in the
workplace. Second, we wanted to see if millennials and their managers were on
the same page when it came to career success. We surveyed 1,000 millennial
employees and 1,000 of their managers and uncovered some interesting findings.
We found that millennials have a positive view of their managers, while their
managers had a negative view of them. We also uncovered that managers are
looking for an employee with strong soft skills over one with hard skills when
promoting. Another interesting thing was that a lot of companies don't give any
feedback and some don't even have annual performance reviews. Social media
isn't embraced at all in most companies still and managers don't really care if
an employee has social media skills. This will all change in the future as
millennials become managers.
What’s one strategic way to promote yourself inside of a large
organization?
The best way to promote yourself inside of a large organize is
to go above and beyond your job description and expand your responsibilities.
This does a few things for you. First, it takes the load off of your manager so
that they can concentrate on taking on projects that will help them get ahead,
which will in effect get you ahead. Second, people will start perceiving you as
a future leader so you will advance faster than your peers. Third, it will give
you more experience and make you more valuable to your firm. If all you do is
what you did yesterday, it's impossible to get ahead at work.
In your book you detail how social media impacts personal
branding. Has social media made the traditional resume obsolete?
The traditional resume is evolving and will eventually be
displaced by your online presence. You could look at LinkedIn as being the
"new resume" but it's really just your online presence. What does the
internet say about you? The problem with the traditional resume is that
everyone ends up looking the same and it only shows what you've done in the
past. The web is all about what's happening now. Your online presence gives
employers an idea of what you're thinking today and in the future.
What advice would you give to the millennial worker who feels
stuck and overlooked in their current role?
If
you feel stuck there are a number of things you can do to get unstuck. First,
you need to go to your manager and ask for more responsibilities outside of
your current ones. If that doesn't work and you've been at your company for two
years, then try and apply to other positions at your current company. If that
doesn't work, then you have three more options. You could go to graduate
school, which is only a good idea if a degree is required or highly encouraged
in your field. You could quit and start a company but that only works if you've
already been working on it on nights and weekends and have enough money saved
up to pursue it. You can take a job at a different company if you find one or
if a recruiter emails you about one. It really depends on your career
aspirations, how much money you've saved and who is in your network to support
you.
Dan Schawbel is a Gen Y career and workplace expert, the Founder of Millennial
Branding and the author of the new book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin's Press).