Information Keeps Your Personal Brand Current - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Information Keeps Your Personal Brand Current - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career and allows you to brand yourself as a superior candidate. Information is power The information you use to shape your communications with employers is critical to your success or lack of success in landing a job. But the information that most candidates use is lacking and inferior information brands you as the wrong candidate for the job. Thats not what you want, is it? But ask yourself are you using any of these common but inferior information sources: public information like Google, employer websites and job descriptions? Instead, if you want to brand yourself as the right candidate for the job, youll want to recognize that the information you use makes a difference. Here are 4 types of information to brand you as the right candidate for the job Superior Information: Superior information is not public, or it wouldnt be superior. Its not on Google, on a companys website or in a job description, because all candidates have access to these sources. Superior information is private, its more difficult to get to, but its worth it because it gives you a huge advantage. Youll find the best information inside the companies where you want to work. Current Information: Information about last years problems wont help you look like a superior candidate, because employers dont hire people who can solve last years problems they hire people who can solve current and upcoming problems. Publicly available almost always describe old information (exception: PR disasters). Are you using current information, or does your information sources describe last years problems? Uncovers Hiring Manager Needs:  So youve found superior informationbut does that information describe the hiring managers needs? The employers overall needs may or may not affect an individual hiring manager all hiring managers arent focused on solving the same problem. It takes more than just understanding an employers needsthe successful candidate goes deeper to understand the needs of the hiring manager. Reflects Hiring Manager Priorities: Just because a hiring manager has a problem, doesnt mean that its the hiring managers priority. That problem may represent a minor problem, with a low payback solution. Or that problem may have high payback, but maybe the solution isnt in this years budget. If you present yourself as an expert at solving a hiring managers problems, but problems that are not the hiring managers priorities, youve branded yourself as a superior candidatefor some other hiring manager. Instead, reflect that youve solved the hiring managers priority problems to brand yourself as the superior candidate for that hiring manager. You have a choice You can use easy to find public information that is inferior and brands you as the wrong candidate for the job. Or You can brand yourself using information thats tougher to find because its private, but brands you as the right candidate that has solved the priority problems of that exact hiring manager. Which will you choose? Author: Phil Rosenberg is President of http://www.reCareered.com, a leading job search information website and gives complimentary job search webinars at http://ResumeWebinar.com. Phil also runs the Career Central group, one of Linkedin’s largest groups for job seekers and has built one of the 20 largest personal networks on Linkedin globally.