For people who’ve built careers in industries like hospitality, travel and entertainment, to name a few, the ripple effects of the pandemic have felt more like tidal waves.
Being out of work is one thing. Being out of work in a shrinking industry is another. Many professionals are being forced to change career lanes, adjusting their professional brand along the way.
Did you know that a professional brand helps you stand out from the crowd? It’s what makes an employer want to hire — or a client want to work with — you over anyone else. Because you’ve curated that brand over time, both online and in person, it’s something to celebrate, and not casually toss aside.
The good news is you don’t have to start from scratch. Whether you’re considering a career shift by choice or circumstance, there are plenty of ways to update your professional brand in a way that reflects your unique value.
Maximize Transferable Skills
What made you good in your hospitality position? Were you good at listening, really listening, to hotel guests’ needs and wants? Did you respond in a timely way? Demonstrate professionalism? Make guests feel appreciated?
These are valuable customer service skills, applicable across most industries. Good sales reps use these skills with their clients. Teachers use these skills with their students. Human resource professionals use these skills when they interview, onboard and train new employees.
Transferable skills can help you bridge the gap between one career and the next. Think outside the box, or in this case, outside the context of a single career.
Consider this small sampling of transferable skills:
Creating actionable ideas
Anticipating problems before they occur
Observing and discovering
Researching, testing, evaluating results
Setting and meeting deadlines
Projecting/forecasting
Identifying resources
Motivating a team
Communicating clearly, both verbally and in writing
Working effectively under pressure
Persuading others
Extracting critical information
Developing a budget
Managing conflict
Creating innovative solutions to complex challenges
How many of these skills apply to you? What others can you add to this list? And finally, which are most important to incorporate into your professional brand?
Start with Direction, Circle Back to Value
Just as you can’t draw a map until you identify your destination, you can’t effectively reshape your professional brand until you can envision a clear career path.
Focusing on the direction of your career will help you identify the basics of your brand. And remember, it’s not just about you. It’s about organizational fit, matching the talents, skills and experience you offer that companies or organizations might need.
Once created, explore your value proposition through the lens of careers you’re considering. Look at typical job posts in these fields to learn what most of them look for in candidates. How does the value you bring line up with a career in real estate, versus a career in architecture design? Your professional brand is about you, but without tying it to the value it brings others, it will fall into a vacuum.
It’s up to you to connect the dots between what you offer and how it will help a prospective employer, and articulate it in a way that makes them think, “We need that; tell me more.”
Related: Interviewing? Focus on Relevance
One client in the middle of a career change called us after hanging up with a recruiter who told him there were several other candidates in line for a position he really wanted. Since most of the other candidates had prior experience in this industry, his hopes of even being called in for an interview were completely deflated. He already assumed defeat.
We recommended our client follow up with the recruiter by sending an email listing five things that were special and unique about him — and how each of these things would help the potential employer.
Three days later, the recruiter called with an invitation to meet the hiring manager and interview for the position.
Tweaking Your Professional Brand: Evolution versus Reinvention
Think of all the changes you’ve made over the course of your life to date. Maybe you gained or lost a lot of weight. Earned a degree. Became a parent. Lost a parent. Overcame an addiction or survived a traumatic event. Learned a new skill. Moved.
With wisdom and life experience, you continually become a more evolved version of yourself. At the core of your essence, you’re still you.
The same holds true for your professional brand.
Step one involves being open to change. To exploring new opportunities … and an enhanced version of yourself.
Imagine yourself in your new career. Does it feel natural? If at first, the answer is no, see if the discomfort is linked to its newness or to actual misalignment. Rely on your intuition, which often sends quiet signals worth noting.
Take the exercise a step further. What would make you excel in your new career? If you were making a career change from accountant to interior designer, for example, what makes you a talented interior designer? Your answers become part of your evolving professional brand.
Changing career lanes is a sign of growth and vitality. You’re bringing your breadth of experience to something new, challenging, and exciting, and offering it in a way that helps someone or something else. Celebrate the evolution of you and your professional brand and the amazing new doors it might open.
As you tweak your professional brand, focus on what you’re building, not on what you might be shedding. Your cumulative experience allows you to offer a deeper and wider perspective.
That, in itself, is an incredible asset that most employers will appreciate. It’s what sets you apart. And isn’t that what a professional brand is all about?
Ready to begin the next chapter in your professional story?
We can help you take the first step.
Learn more about our Career Coaching services.