Читать книгу How You Are Like Shampoo for College Graduates - Brenda Bence - Страница 18

College Graduate Personal Brand

Positioning Element #1

It’s up to the Audience. It always has been.

— Kate Smith, Singer

When you’re just graduating from college and looking for your first full-time job, let’s face it: It’s hard not to focus on yourself. All you want is to find a job that you love with great people to work with and a steady paycheck. But the surprising truth about using personal branding in your job search is this:

The best way to land the job you want the most is to focus on your Audience.

After all, potential bosses (your personal brand “Audience”) are interested in what you can do for them. How are you going to make their jobs easier? What have you learned in school that the company can benefit from? While it’s human nature to wonder what the company can do for you, showing them what YOU^TM can offer a company is how you land a great job.

One of the most common myths about personal branding is that it’s “all about you.” But think about it: If your brand exists in the minds of your Audience, how can personal branding be all about you? It can’t, and it isn’t. The focus has to be on your Audience. So, the more you learn about your Audience, the more in sync you will be with the interviewer. And the more you learn about what the company needs, the faster you’ll get the great job you really want.

Now, you may be thinking, “Sounds good, Brenda, but I don’t even know where to begin.” Well, the key is to get as much information about the company as possible. In fact, one of the recruiters I interviewed said: “You want to stick out in an interview? Be knowledgeable about the company. You wouldn’t believe how many students know virtually nothing about the company they’re interviewing with. It’s a big mistake.” Some company recruiters told me that college grads have actually walked into an interview and asked, “What does your company do?” How will a recruiter react to that? Your resume will get thrown in the trash!

One of the HR pros I spoke with said: “It isn’t enough in an interview to simply say, ‘You have a job I’m interested in, and I know this is a good company.’ But you’d be surprised how many candidates do exactly that.” Interviewers will see this kind of thinking as lazy, so not knowing about the company just won’t cut it. You need to have a very specific reason for wanting a particular job at a particular company. And the only way you can figure out if a company is right for you is to learn about it. Then, you’ll be prepared to tell your interviewer that reason.

The more you learn about your Audience, the more you’ll have a head start on the interview process because you’ll already know more about the company than most of the other applicants. Bottom line: Your interviewers will remember you if you can give them a detailed reason why you want to work there, if you’ve taken the time to read about the company’s background, and if you’ve learned about the company’s recent news.