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Headlines abound with the promise of a looming recession, yet even experts aren’t 100% certain if a severe economic downturn is imminent. Regardless of the headlines, the Great Resignation continues. Bloomberg notes that 4.4 million people quit their jobs in April 2022 alone, and around one-third of all workers say they’re considering doing the same within a year.
What does this mean if you’re considering job-jumping, too? First, you’re certainly not alone in your desire to capitalize on this moment in time and move up in your career. Secondly, if hiring slows down in your sector as a result of recession rumors, you’ll face stiffer competition for the best available jobs, which means you’ll need to rethink your personal branding strategy to ensure that you stand out from the herd.
Before worries of a deep recession emerged, job candidates didn’t have to be quite as concerned about honing their personal brand for strong differentiation. Just a few months ago, the labor market belonged to the applicants. Today, that’s starting to shift in some segments of the economy. Employers can afford to be a little choosier now that they have more candidates competing for fewer slots.
That doesn’t mean you have to give up your dreams of moving on and snagging a more lucrative and meaningful position. You can absolutely move ahead, you just need to revisit the way that you’re branding yourself to potential employers. Otherwise, they may overlook you because they won’t understand why they should choose you—especially if your skills and experience are identical to those of many other job seekers.
Below are some ways to bolster your authentic personal brand to showcase your compelling skills, talents and potential.
1. Illustrate your value.
Hiring managers are scouring résumés in unique ways. Instead of skimming the surface and checking all the boxes, CVs have become illustrative roadmaps showing not just a candidate’s history but also their potential value.
It’s easy to quantify your value, but it can be hard to know how to demonstrate your ability to fill a team’s gaps with your knowledge and skills. It’s not impossible, though. You can make your application more meaningful by concentrating on showing proof of your success.
To quantify, simply add relevant numbers to your work history, such as “managed a $500,000 portfolio of clients” rather than “managed a portfolio of clients.” Another approach is to put your duties in context: “Wrote 10 standard operating procedures that reduced redundancies by 25% in the department.” But to show the quality of your value, personal branding is key. Your distinctive adjectives and attributes will help to illustrate the benefits of working with you, like a picture that goes from black-and-white to full color, thanks to vivid words.
You must also revamp your LinkedIn profile with value-boosting elements. An article from Harvard Business Review explains that many employers and recruiters search social media and online forums for “passive candidates.” By improving the overall impressiveness of your social footprint, you could end up being courted by an organization looking for the value you clearly offer thanks to your personal brand refresh.
2. Highlight your technical skills.
Whether you’re in a tech role or not, the hiring market puts a premium on tech savvy. The tech hiring market is continuing to get a little tighter with firms looking for best-of-best applicants. This means you can’t just list the coding languages and systems you know and expect interviews. You have to show that you have a broad understanding of the multiple moving pieces of technology to guide your problem-solving, and you need to be able to translate the impact of tech into human benefits.
Sahana Naik, consulting director at technology solutions firm Propel, recommends that tech skills need to be discussed in tandem with the human side of the workplace. That’s why it’s equally important to examine an organization’s culture before applying or interviewing. She explains that due diligence will help you present the attitude and aptitude likely to fit within the company culture.
“A tech professional who speaks similar vocabulary, has the willingness to adapt and can challenge the status quo becomes valuable to the hiring manager,” says Naik. “Being able to think outside the parameters of the traditional engineering mindset displays willingness to adapt.”
Even if you only dabble in tech, consider starting a tech-related blog or making contributions to the development or open-source communities. That way, when employers and hiring managers look you up online (which they will), your expansive tech knowledge and interest will be on display. It’s never a bad thing in a digital age to have some technical expertise and comfort level. Besides, it will help flesh out your personal brand and position you as someone who embraces future-forward thinking.
3. Wear your varied experiences with pride.
An interesting thing tends to happen during a recession: Employers become less interested in hiring specialists and more interested in Jack/Jill-of-all-trades professionals. It's easy to see why. Someone who can wear multiple hats is more adaptable and can serve in numerous capacities. That’s essential in a period of economic uncertainty, particularly if the company is growing or moving to adopt more agile processes.
Career coach Nader Mowlaee encourages candidates with diverse jobs to brand themselves as being somewhat of a “Swiss Army knife.”
“When you’re considering developing your personal brand, you must be aware that you could come across as a risky hire if you don’t clearly define your purpose in a team and your mission as a whole,” says Mowlaee. As with all effective personal branding, “You cannot send mixed signals. Instead, you must own the fact that you are a generalist and someone who performs multiple tasks well.”
The good news is that you no longer have to pull together five different résumés. You must be able to tell a story that shows how these seemingly disparate experiences and skills deliver value. This can be done by presenting personal-branding themes throughout your résumé. For example, perhaps all the jobs you’ve had included an element of sales or customer service. On your résumé and during conversations with possible employers, you can play up your unique approach to that role.
You may have given your personal brand an overhaul before the pandemic. Now, it’s time to revisit it yet again, reflecting on what you’ve learned about yourself since 2020 and how your special strengths are valuable to today’s workplace. The hiring climate has shifted, and your brand needs to remain relevant—but it also needs to remain absolutely true for you.
William Arruda is a keynote speaker, co-founder of CareerBlast.TV and co-creator of the Personal Brand Power Audit - a complimentary quiz that helps you measure the strength of personal brand.
