“I’m having difficulty delivering my personal brand statement because I feel like I’m bragging and that’s hard for me,” said Marc during our video interview coaching session. Marc is an accomplished senior executive being pursued by Fortune 100 and global growth-focused companies alike. The experience of feeling like a personal brand statement is bragging is common for job seekers, entrepreneurs and professionals at all levels.
Focus on accomplishments
Everyone has accomplishments whether you’ve been in the workforce for 2 years or 20+ years. The key to crafting a compelling personal brand statement, that will also work as the answer to “Tell Me About Yourself”, the #1 toughest interview question, is to focus on your career accomplishments. Think about facts, figures, numbers, percentages and results (e.g. $50MM revenue contribution, exceeded quota by 130%, delivered project 6 mos. ahead of scheduled, etc)
Concise and clear
Focus your personal brand statement on accomplishments in your most recent position first. Next, tie in your former career experience and results and finally connect how your results and skills will provide to a future employer. Understanding much of today’s population has a short attention span combined with a “what can you do for me?” mentality, the best job search personal brand statement is under 30 seconds and wraps up with how you can help them.
Be careful of arrogance
Loving yourself is something to be celebrated, as are your accomplishments. The way you deliver your personal brand statement can sound arrogant if filled with too many accomplishments, too much ego or, dare I say, too much self-love. As a proponent of self-love and believer in building your own brand, I hesitate to say hold back at all. There are those out there that already blow their own horn so loud others look at them and wonder what all the noise is about. The best way to walk the fine line of an accomplishment-filled personal brand delivered without a hint of arrogance is to practice, practice, and practice more.
