First Impressions Count – Then What Does Your CV Say About Your Personal Brand?

I got an email from Anna Farmery of the Blog and Podcast, The Engaging Brand. I had the pleasure of guesting on The Engaging Brand – Show #019 – Six Pixels of Engagement, back in August and Anna asked me if I would be willing to come back on her Podcast to discuss my views on personal branding (of course I will Anna!). This was all sparked by her Blog post, Where Is Your CV To Attract Talent? And it got me thinking…
We all know the importance of first impressions (namely, you don’t get a second shot to make one), so why do we pay scant attention to things like CVs and resumes in terms of branding them in sync with our personal brands? We all have the same routine: one page, name and contact info at the top, a sentence or two about what we want to do, followed by work experience, education, community work, etc…, etc… all pumped out into a PDF document. So there it is. We’re trying to build a personal brand that demonstrates our unique abilities and yet, like sheep, we all produce the same bland/vanilla document to create a lasting impression on a Human Resources professional who spends all day looking at said same document.
The solution?
I’d love to say, spice it up and make your resume reflect your personal brand. My concern is that an act like that might put you on the outs simply because you decided to “draw outside of the lines.” So here’s my suggestion: don’t go after any job… go after the work you love (and were meant to do). I never met a job description that matched one person perfectly, so instead, leverage your skills and figure out which companies can benefit from what you have to offer and start building a case. Give them a reason to not just meet with you, but to engage you in the conversation.
There are tons of online tools to help you work this out. I’m thinking about places like LinkedIn and MySpace. Give people a chance to read about your skills and “feel” the passion you possess.
Want more? You’ll have to listen to The Engaging Brand. I’ll let you know when Anna and I record.