Information Keeps Your Personal Brand Current

… and allows you to brand yourself as a superior candidate.

Information is power …

The information you use to shape your communications with employers is critical to your success … or lack of success in landing a job.

But the information that most candidates use is lacking … and inferior information brands you as the wrong candidate for the job.

That’s not what you want, is it?

But ask yourself … are you using any of these common but inferior information sources: public information like Google, employer websites and job descriptions?

Instead, if you want to brand yourself as the right candidate for the job, you’ll want to recognize that the information you use makes a difference.

Here are 4 types of information to brand you as the right candidate for the job

1. Superior Information: Superior information is not public, or it wouldn’t be superior. It’s not on Google, on a company’s website or in a job description, because all candidates have access to these sources. Superior information is private, it’s more difficult to get to, but it’s worth it … because it gives you a huge advantage. You’ll find the best information inside the companies where you want to work.
2. Current Information: Information about last years’ problems won’t help you look like a superior candidate, because employers don’t hire people who can solve last year’s problems … they hire people who can solve current and upcoming problems. Publicly available almost always describe old information (exception: PR disasters). Are you using current information, or does your information sources describe last year’s problems?
3. Uncovers Hiring Manager Needs: So you’ve found superior information…but does that information describe the hiring manager’s needs? The employer’s overall needs may or may not affect an individual hiring manager – all hiring managers aren’t focused on solving the same problem. It takes more than just understanding an employer’s needs…the successful candidate goes deeper to understand the needs of the hiring manager.
4. Reflects Hiring Manager Priorities: Just because a hiring manager has a problem, doesn’t mean that it’s the hiring manager’s priority. That problem may represent a minor problem, with a low payback solution. Or that problem may have high payback, but maybe the solution isn’t in this year’s budget. If you present yourself as an expert at solving a hiring manager’s problems, but problems that are not the hiring manager’s priorities, you’ve branded yourself as a superior candidate…for some other hiring manager. Instead, reflect that you’ve solved the hiring manager’s priority problems to brand yourself as the superior candidate for that hiring manager.

You have a choice …

You can use easy to find public information that is inferior and brands you as the wrong candidate for the job.

Or …

You can brand yourself using information that’s tougher to find because it’s private, but brands you as the right candidate that has solved the priority problems of that exact hiring manager.

Which will you choose?