How personal branding is changing the way students stand out in their job search.
There is a desperately-needed paradigm shift in higher education.
You work tirelessly for four years, studying, honing your skills, earning degrees and certifications. At the end of all this, you are expected to condense this experience and collection of qualifications into a single resume page and hit the streets with it.
Did you know that a typical recruiter sees an average of 118 resumes for each job opening? As a job seeker, it is paramount that you find ways to get that recruiter to pause and focus in on your profile. But what’s the secret?
If you don’t have a sound strategy to communicate your unique value, you will fail to to win a recruiter’s attention. You’ll never get the opportunity to demonstrate why you’re the best choice for a position, and your dream job will remain just that: a dream.
There is definitely no shortage of advice out there about how to be successful after high school:
“Score high on your SAT so you get in a good college.”
“Make good grades and graduate with a high GPA.”
“Focus on the technical skills you need to guarantee success.”
These are all good tips, but this approach is definitely not all it takes.
A study from the Carnegie Institute revealed that 85% of your success in a career, or in landing your dream job, is dependent upon your ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead.
Ironically only 15% of your success comes from technical skills--the quantifiable areas of expertise measured through tests and certifications.
“The fact is, resumes are essentially a commodity.”
I’m teaching the Fascination program at the Kingwood College student leadership retreat.
My passion has always been to design and build strategies for business brands. In my experience teaching seasoned professionals how to incorporate Sally Hogshead’s Fascination Advantage system into their personal and corporate branding, I kept hearing the same thing after clients reviewed their Fascination Advantage profiles: “I wish I would have had this knowledge in school. Can you imagine how far I’d be in my career by now?”
I realized that by introducing students to the Fascination Advantage system, they could develop the tools and confidence they need at the beginning of their careers, rather than later at a point of mid-career reflection.
My newfound passion, and focus as a Fascinate Certified Advisor, has been to help students develop their personal brands. Over the last year I have been fortunate enough to introduce the system at six different college campuses across Texas.
The primary tool I use to guide students through developing a personal brand is the How to Fascinate self-study program, One Hour Personal Brand™ Kit for Students. This product builds on the information in your Fascination Advantage Complete profile, and, in less than an hour, guides you through the first steps of building a personal brand to use to reach your goals in the next phase of your life.
The kit includes a pdf workbook and video that walks you through the steps to develop your own unique tagline, your Anthem. You can use your Anthem on your resume, LinkedIn summary and as a framework for developing answers to interview or application questions. In less than an hour you will feel more confident and assured about how to present yourself and realize the career you imagined.
“On average, the students’ confidence level increased by 70% after learning about how to apply the Fascination Advantage system.”
The reality is, when you’re looking for a job, 62% of your success is dependent on having an impressive interview. The biggest challenges for students are:
Lack of confidence
Being able to articulate their unique value
Interviewer distraction
Peer competition
Being seen as a commodity
After each session that I held last year I polled my students to evaluate their confidence levels. I was blown away to learn that on average, the students’ confidence level increased by 70% after learning about how to apply the Fascination Advantage system.
After completing the Fascination Advantage assessment and One Hour Personal Brand program, students had the understanding, strategy and tools to:
Captivate an interviewer’s attention
Be memorable amidst peer competition
Discover the competitive advantages that distinguishes them throughout their entire career.
The Fascination Advantage system shows students a new way of seeing themselves. Based on the neuroscience of fascination and the fundamentals of branding, students discover their most valuable communication traits, and learn how to articulate it to the world. They develop authentic confidence and begin to build a personal brand that is impossible to resist.
The best part of this program is the fact we don’t try to fix students. We show them the unique value that lies within their personality. You can stop trying to be better than everyone and just be more of who you already are.
“85% of your success in a career, or in landing your dream job, is dependent upon your ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead.”
Being you is your very own competitive advantage.
Are you a school administrator or parent who knows a student who will be interviewing for a job or internship this Spring? I invite you to purchase the One-Hour Personal Brand™ Kit for Students and give me a call or email if you’re interested in hosting a Student Branding workshop.
Ron Bloomingkemper is a a brand strategist, graphic designer and Certified Fascinate Advisor.
