9 Ways to Develop Your Personal Brand

Having a personal brand is key when it comes to standing out against other candidates and making your name one that recruiters will remember. When searching for your next pharma job, developing your personal brand will help recruiters to understand who you are, what you stand for, the value you can bring to their organisation, and what you have that other candidates don’t.

In today’s highly competitive job market, having loads of experience and qualifications isn’t always enough. There could be hundreds of candidates with the same qualifications as you, applying for the same roles as you. The biggest challenge for candidates today is how to stand out from the crowd, and how to prove your value beyond listing your accomplishments in a CV.

In this article, we outline 9 things you can do to develop your personal brand and to keep it at the forefront of all your job search activities…

List Your Strengths

Start by writing a list of what you think your strengths are, and then ask people who know you what they think. Once you have this list, identify your biggest achievements and the things that you think will set you apart. Your list should be a mixture of your personal traits, soft and hard skills and experience, and should create a clear image of who you are.

Outline Your Goals

Once you’ve got a list of your strengths, think about the things that are missing, and what you’d like to add to that list. This will help you to think about your goals, not only in terms of the job title you want, but also the types of projects you want to work on, the types of people you want to work with, and the skills you want to develop.

Create a Career Vision Statement

Using the above lists, write down 2-3 sentences containing keywords that tell people who you are, what you stand for, and your main goals. Don’t hide behind job titles and qualifications, for example:

“I am a Life Science graduate working as a Clinical Research Associate (CRA)”

This doesn’t say anything about you, and there will probably be hundreds of other candidates saying the same. Make it more personal. If you’re a Life Science graduate, what do you specialise in? If you’re a CRA, what types of trials do you work on? Which therapeutic areas do you want to move into? What difference do you want to make?

Review Your Social Media Accounts

All your social media accounts should reflect your professional, personal brand. On each account, go through your profiles and think like a recruiter. What impressions do they give? Are they positive, and do they reflect your brand?

Remove anything that doesn’t positively add to your brand and consider creating accounts specifically for professional use. According to information taken from The Manifest Recruitment 2020 Survey, 90% of employers factor a candidate’s social media accounts into their hiring decisions, with 79% having rejected a candidate based on their social media content. With these statistics, you can’t afford not to pay attention to your online reputation. 

Read our article on social media mistakes to avoid for more tips.

Create Some Business Cards

Create business cards to carry with you all the time. Include a professional photo that’s consistent with your social media accounts, a professional email address, and your career vision statement. Keep them up to date and make sure the information you include is consistent with what you write in applications and online.

Create a Personal Website

80% of HR professionals say that having a personal website is important when it comes to evaluating candidates. Having a personal website gives you the space to bring together all the different aspects of your personal brand. You can include examples of your previous work, testimonials, links to your social media pages, and even a blog that’s filled with topics you’re passionate about. You can also use your website to host an online version of your CV, but remember to follow our tips on uploading your CV online safely.

Build Up a Network of Like-Minded People

The people you have in your network on places like LinkedIn can also represent who you are. Think about the people who are engaging with your posts and whose posts you’re engaging with and ask yourself what these interactions say about you. Grow your network with people who share your values and goals and make the most of events about causes you care about. Use your network for help and guidance but remember to give this back to your connections too to develop long-lasting relationships.

Be Authentic

If you create a brand that isn’t true to who you are, you’ll likely end up working at an organisation with values that don’t align with your own, in an environment you find hard to thrive in. Lying to get a job will only get you so far, so instead take the time to develop an authentic brand that you can evolve over time.

Be Consistent…

Work on your personal brand even when you aren’t job searching. Writing one blog post a week before a job interview won’t be as impressive as a catalogue full of informative and well-developed posts that you’ve been building up over time.

Demonstrate your commitment and authenticity by keeping consistent with all parts of your brand – it will be worth it in the long run!

Visit PharmiWeb.Jobs for more careers advice or to start your job search.