Blog

Building a Strong Personal Brand: How to Stand Out in a Competitive Job Market

Building a strong personal brand helps you stand out in a competitive job market. Differentiating yourself shows what you have to offer an employer that others do not.

Creating a strong personal brand positions you as a thought leader in your field. This shows other IT professionals, hiring managers, and recruiters the value you can provide to an organization.

Having a strong personal brand helps form a lasting impression on hiring managers and recruiters. As a result, they likely will contact you about the jobs you apply for or opportunities that fit your skills and experience. These activities can help secure your next position.

Learn how to build a strong personal brand and stand out in a competitive job market.

Create Your Foundation

Build an authentic foundation that shows who you truly are. Purposefully and strategically showcase the value you provide for others.

  • Ensure your brand reflects your values, beliefs, and passions. Include your interests, skills, and credentials.
  • Focus your brand vision on what you want to be known for. Develop it according to your purpose and what you want to accomplish.
  • Create a brand message that you want to communicate to your audience. Ensure it reflects your personal characteristics and traits.

Determine Your Target Audience

Consider the industry professionals you want your personal brand to appeal to. This should include IT professionals, hiring managers, HR professionals, company leaders, and recruiters.

Your personal brand is designed to attract people in your target audience. This means your brand resonates with these individuals and attracts them to you.

Develop an Irresistible Offer

Determine what you want to sell to your target audience. This may solve a certain problem or attain a certain result.

Focus on the value you provide others, such as employers, in exchange for something, such as a desirable job with competitive income, benefits, and perks and an attractive work environment.

Set Your Content Strategy

Create and share content that helps your target audience. This builds trust and positions you as an authority in the IT industry.

  • List topics that would be helpful to your target audience. You can use an online tool such as Google’s Keyword Planner to conduct keyword research and uncover popular topics.
  • Decide which type of content to create and where to publish it. Types of content include blog posts, videos, and infographics. Publication sites include LinkedIn, YouTube, and Quora.
  • Focus on quality and consistency when publishing your content. You might want to start by creating two content types, such as blog posts and videos, and publish them on two platforms, such as LinkedIn and YouTube, and add more later.

Is It Time to Find a New IT Job?

Partner with RightStone to find your next IT role. Visit our job board today.


7 Tips to Start Your IT Career Search

The start of a new year is a great time to start a new job. This may include changing your career to IT.

Starting your IT career search can be challenging. You may be unsure of which path to take or how to enter the field.

Developing a plan to start your IT career search helps you map the steps to reach your goals. Working with a staffing agency that specializes in IT also can be beneficial.

Follow these guidelines to start your IT career search today.

1. Determine Your Career Goals

Understand the type of IT career you want before you begin looking for roles.

  • Focus on your dream job.
  • Include the type, size, and culture of the company you want to work for.
  • Think about the salary, benefits, and perks you desire.
  • Determine the types of jobs that can lead to your dream role.
  • Focus your search on jobs that align with your career path.

2. Update Your LinkedIn Profile

Show you have the qualifications needed for the IT position you desire.

  • Ensure your contact information, profile statement, and profile summary are current.
  • Include your relevant education, skills, work history, and certification.
  • Request endorsements from previous supervisors, managers, colleagues, and coworkers.

3. Create a Digital Portfolio

Use your digital portfolio to display examples of your work.

  • Showcase how your projects benefitted an employer.
  • Include quantitative results from your work.
  • Demonstrate how your skills can add value for your next employer.
  • Include a link to your digital portfolio in your resume and LinkedIn profile.

4. Network

Set up informational interviews with technologists in roles similar to the one you desire.

  • Connect with relevant IT professionals through LinkedIn.
  • Ask if you can talk for 30 minutes about their job, company, and career path.
  • Develop three to five questions that can guide your IT career search.
  • Determine whether a position may be right for you.
  • Find out whether the technologist knows of any job openings or can introduce you to a hiring manager.

5. Apply for Jobs

Customize your resume to the role you desire.

  • Include your relevant education, skills, experience, and certifications.
  • Share your relevant achievements, quantifiable results, and awards.
  • Use keywords from the job posting throughout your resume.
  • Show you are well-qualified for the position.

6. Customize Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter provides information not included in your resume.

  • Discuss whether you are beginning or changing your career.
  • Explain any gaps in your work experience.
  • Show how your qualifications make you stand out from other applicants.
  • Clarify why you are the best candidate for the position.

7. Practice Interviewing

Engage in mock interviews.

  • Research the company you want to work for.
  • Practice answering interview questions.
  • Prepare questions for the interviewer.
  • Monitor your body language.

Partner with an IT Staffing Agency

Partner with a recruiter from RightStone for guidance throughout your IT career search. Visit our job board today.


Here’s Why Gen Z Is Having Difficulty in This Job Market

 

According to a July 2022 report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, approximately 41% of graduates aged 22 to 27 were employed in jobs that did not require a college degree. Many of these graduates are trying to find their fit in the workforce or reevaluate their career goals.

The graduates’ decisions to take on low-paying jobs could impact their long-term financial health. This may have economic consequences for the entire United States.

Discover why Gen Z is having challenges entering the job market and the potential long-term impact on the US economy.


The Pandemic and Gen Z

The coronavirus pandemic caused significant setbacks for Gen Z. The pandemic impacted the time in their lives when Gen Z should be making their marks on the world.

The pandemic-related recession caused Gen Z to struggle to find high-quality jobs. Also, the shift to remote work decreased these graduates’ abilities to make professional connections and find careers that match their skills and interests.

Underemployment and Gen Z

Gen Z’s growing underemployment rate means it likely will take longer for the group to generate wealth. Low-wage employment typically leads to a cycle of turnover and replacement. This moves the labor market to an unfavorable equilibrium.

Underemployed workers typically see slow increases in earnings throughout their careers. The main reason is that low-wage employees work in fields that do not focus on skill development for higher-paying jobs. As a result, not having Gen Z work in jobs that require highly developed skills will adversely impact the long-term growth of the US economy.

Teenage Employees, Millennials, and Gen Z

Teenagers are willing to work for lower wages than college graduates. This makes teenage job seekers more attractive to employers than Gen Z. As a result, more jobs have been filled by teenagers than by Gen Z in the past few years.

Employers who were paying higher wages when the pandemic began preferred to hire millennials over Gen Z. Many millennials had more developed skills and work experience than Gen Z. As a result, more jobs were filled by millennials than by Gen Z in the past few years.

Want Help Filling Your Vacancies?

Partner with RightStone for help filling your IT vacancies. Get started today.