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Brand yourself and achieve your goals

Posted on • Achieve, Career planning, Career Readiness stages, CVs and applications, Interviews and assessments

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.

If you’re ready to apply for jobs, internships or further study, you’re at the ‘Achieve’ career readiness stage. ‘Selling yourself’, or convincingly matching your unique skills and qualities to the needs of the outside world, is a useful life skill. Nearly all of us are unsure of how to go about our ‘personal branding’ when we start. But this becomes easier once you take practical steps to build your personal brand step by step. To kick off, watch the talk Selling your personal brand with PwC given to OU students by Andrew from global consulting company PwC. We have some really useful tools and activities to help you tackle some of the tasks Andrew mentions in his video:

  1. “I’ve never applied for a job before.”

Learn the words to describe your skills that make employers take notice. Take note of the key words based on research and complete an ‘Employability skills audit’. You’ll be surprised how much you have to offer.

  1. “After a break from work I made a number of applications without success.”

Once you know ‘who you’re selling’ and have the right words, build your confidence in your CV, application, and interview skills. Take part in our regular live careers skills workshops to build your confidence to market your personal brand.

  1. “I don’t know where the best place is to find vacancies”

Remember to keep your mind open to roles, sectors, and organisations you may not have considered but which are a great match for you. A designer can work in IT, and an IT specialist for a design company. A human resources person could work in a marketing agency and a marketing specialist for a human resources advisory company. Browse OpportunityHub regularly and keep up to date with the latest opportunities from the inclusive employers the OU works with.

  1. “I get so nervous about job interviews.”

Get the ‘words, music and dance right’ to make the first impression you intend to. See the ‘Interview preparation checklist’ on page 133 of Your Career Planning Guide. Also work out whether, when and how to disclose any disabilities in ‘Reasonable adjustments in the recruitment process’ on page 155.

  1. “I had interviewed well, and he was going to offer me a position. I still can’t believe it is happening, this really is a dream come true.”

Practice – in front of the mirror, to family members, your cat or dog… or using our Interview360 tool which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to practice video interviews by asking you questions based on your CV against the clock.

Developing your ‘personal brand’ is closely associated with the ‘Achieve’ career readiness stage. Find out more about the Discover, Explore and Progress stages and use our intelligent self-diagnostic Career Readiness Pulse to work out your own career readiness and identify your next steps.

Careers and Employability Services
Mathew Lloyd is a Development Coordinator in the OU’s Careers and Employability Services. He supports careers-related activity both within the service and across the University, helping students to achieve their ambitions and fulfil their potential. Explore the rest of our blog for more articles from your careers team.