What's your personal brand?

One of the latest trends in writing resumes, LinkedIn profiles, cover letters and other career communications is personal branding. This is a process whereby you create a personal branding statement that showcases your unique selling proposition (USP).
Think of your branding statement as the overriding theme of your resume … the theme that pulls all of your experience together under one umbrella and clearly communicates, "This is who I am and this is the value I bring to your organization."
To create your own personal brand, follow these steps:
1. Define your career objective.
2. Identify your top 3-5 skills, qualifications and achievements that support your objective.
3. Clarify your success traits as they relate to your objective.
4. Combine the highlights of that information to write your personal branding statement – a single sentence, phrase or tagline that communicates your unique value.
Branding statements can be presented in a number of different formats and structures. Here are a few examples to help you formulate your own:
LOGISTICS MANAGER optimizing advanced technology to enhance productivity, efficiency and quality.
Electronics Engineering Professional: Designing best-in-class product engineering solutions for aerospace, defense and commercial markets
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL Developing Curriculum & Instructional Materials for Classroom, Online & Video Training
FIELD OPERATIONS MANAGER Champion of People, Projects & Resources who Consistently Exceeds Performance & Financial Objectives
In today’s world of online job search, LinkedIn is a must for every job seeker. Therefore, you must transition your personal brand statement from your resume to your LinkedIn profile where there is a 120-character limit. This may require you to edit your brand statement in order to fit into the allocated space.
It is essential that your resume and your profile “match” closely so that there is consistency around your brand on all of your job search communications. In fact, you can even include it in your cover letters, email signature block and any other documents. Let your personal brand lead the way throughout your job search process.