How You Are Like Shampoo for College Graduates. Brenda Bence

it’s going to be hard as nails to find a job that keeps you happy and excited? Well, I’m here to tell you: With personal branding, you can do it. If you want the kind of job where you can’t wait to get up in the morning and get to work, personal branding is the answer.

      Defining your college graduate personal brand can be the missing link to helping you find the type of job you’ve been daydreaming about. Knowing who “YOU^TM” are — the trademarked you — will give you a clear edge in your job search. In fact, once you carefully define the college graduate personal brand you want to communicate in interviews, you’ll be able to look at your job search with new meaning and confidence. That’s how you make every moment of your job hunt count. And yes — even though it’s hard to believe — you may actually begin to find interviews fun.

      Yep, personal branding can do all of that, but here’s the scoop: It really is up to you. If you want a great first job out of college that sets you up for success both short-term and long-term, you have to do something about it. If you don’t, I can guarantee you one thing: Nothing will happen.

      Now, I can almost hear you saying, “But Brenda, I don’t have control over whether an interviewer likes me or not. If they decide not to hire me, what can I do?” Even though it may feel like your job search is at the mercy of potential employer “decision-makers” out there, a big part of your job search success is in your control. The key to that control is learning how to master your college graduate personal brand. In How YOU^TM are like Shampoo for College Graduates, we will focus on those fundamental parts of your job search that are in your control.

      My Personal Branding System

      So, let’s recap. Here’s the reality: You already have a personal brand. Every time you’ve gone on an interview or shown up at school or at a meeting, your personal brand was front and center, even though you didn’t know it. Now, it’s time to take control and learn how to manage it. That’s how you will have better success before, during, and after job interviews, and — ultimately — that’s how you’ll land a great position in a company where you want to work.

      How YOU^TM are like Shampoo for College Graduates is a do-it- yourself, no-nonsense guide to getting the job you want through successfully branding yourself. It’s simple, easy to read, and it works. I custom-designed the personal branding system in this book to help graduating students like you take the guesswork out of personal branding. This system will show you exactly how to figure out (1) what your personal brand is and (2) how to use it to get the job you want faster. In this book, I’m going to walk you through my proven step-by- step personal branding process — using exercises and worksheets — to help you define the most powerful college grad personal brand you can possibly have. This system is all about applying it in the real world.

      Most importantly, your brand won’t just stay a nice idea in your head. I mean, think about it: It makes no sense to spend the time defining your brand just to leave it in a drawer while you continue on the same as always, right?

      No, you need a plan to make sure you’re communicating the brand you want to potential employers. That’s how you find your dream job. That’s how you take the steering wheel at the beginning of your career and drive it where you want it to go.

      As you read on, here’s what you’ll learn:

      •How to define your personal brand using the College Graduate Personal Brand Positioning Statement format modeled off of the six core elements used by the most successful name brands in the world. It’s worked for Nike, Starbucks, and McDonald’s, and it will work for YOU^TM, too.

      •How to communicate your personal brand through your College Graduate Personal Brand Marketing Plan so that potential employers will see you as you want to be seen. This will help you master the five most important activities you do throughout your job search that will impact your personal brand — and your ability to get the job you want.

      •How to avoid damaging your college grad personal brand by learning from the mistakes that other grads like you have made during their job search. This is one of the most unique and fun parts of the system — our top 20 most damaging College Graduate Personal Brand Busters^®. Knowing these will help you bypass the most common traps that have prevented other grads from getting the job they wanted. You’ll know what to watch out for before you even get there.

      •Lots of amazing interview success tips and secrets from dozens of college recruiters and human resources experts all across the U.S. that I interviewed for this book. They’ve been in the trenches and have seen it all!

      •How to use the graphic called “The Proven Pathway to Getting YOU^TM a Great Job”. It will guide you kind of like a map as we work through each step of the personal branding system together. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense to you yet. It will — I promise.

      As you read these pages, I hope that you will experience that “ah-ha!” moment that comes from the power of thinking of yourself as a unique personal brand. I hope you’ll see how you can use personal branding to make real changes in your life that can lead to a terrific job with a sweet paycheck, great job satisfaction, and exciting career opportunities.

      Input Equals Output

      How YOU^TM are like Shampoo for College Graduates is an interactive, action-oriented experience, but your personal brand won’t be handed to you on a silver platter. I can guarantee you one thing for sure: What you put in to defining and communicating your college grad personal brand is exactly what you’ll get out of it. As I said, it’s up to you! The more time and energy you give to this process, the faster you will get the job you want.

      I know, I know … you’ve had it with homework. You’re near the end of your time at college, and you want to just put it all on autopilot. But trust me: You’ll be glad that you took your personal brand seriously and followed this process step-by-step. When you’re driving down the street in the new car you bought thanks to your great new job, you’ll be thanking me and patting yourself on the back for making it happen.

      Of course, it isn’t just about a new car that you can buy with your earnings. It’s about finding a job that you love that doesn’t even seem like work. Get ready to feel pumped as you take charge of your college graduate personal brand and become the Brand Manager of YOU^TM.

      1

      The Power of Brands

      Is Google a ‘better’ search engine? Is Red Bull a ‘better’ energy drink? Is Microsoft a ‘better’ operating system? Or did these companies just build better brands?

      — Laura Ries, Media commentator

      A book on personal branding wouldn’t be complete without taking some time to understand the powerful role that brands play in our lives every single day. Not that long ago, a Time magazine article reported that the average American citizen runs across about 3,000 brands per day. When I first heard that, I found it hard to believe! But, then, I stood at a busy intersection in downtown Los Angeles and looked at all of the signs … I drove to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport with hundreds of billboards lining the way … I walked down a grocery store aisle in Philadelphia and saw brand after brand peering down at me. Maybe 3,000 brands per day isn’t all that hard to believe after all!

      Think about it for a second. How many brands have you seen today on can labels, the side of a bus, the top of a taxi, or on the web? No matter where you look, brand names are screaming for your attention. Let’s face it: Brands are everywhere and are such a part of our day-to- day lives that we often don’t even think about them.

      But, if you’re like most of us, you will probably be loyal to at least one or two name brands for the rest of your life. Are you loyal to a favorite brand? Would you consider it out of the question,