The first rule in building your career brand is that you have to be visible. If you’re not present online when people search for you, or for experts in your field, then you become just one of thousands of professionals and in the sea of candidates for new jobs, promotions, consulting gigs and more.
Google displays the first 10 results on page one of the search results when someone searches “Your Name”, but will they find you? If if they do find you, and if every page illustrates your presence in the field, your expertise, what you’ve published, what you’ve accomlished, etc. and you appear (and are) to be an authority in your field, you will have attained instant credibiity that just can’t be communicated in a resume.
That’s the new formula for separating yourself from the crowd in 2016.
What’s changed from prior years? Simple. Anyone can submit a resume on line, and now thousands of people from all over the world do. It’s a literal needle in a haystack to get noticed in that kind of a crowd, which makes it infinitely more difficult for well qualified professinals to be found.
But … doing some simple things online to create digital assets that can easily be found by the search engines changes everything. Now you’re not just a resume in the crowd, you’re a professional who stands out, who has demonstrated expertise, and who is clearly engaged and active in his or her profession.
That becomes a game changer!