Students: Building Your Personal Brand For A Career In Sales And Marketing

Marketing and sales students – this post is just for you!

With leaves changing to fall colours, many companies have been hitting campus with gusto to find the best seniors for upcoming internships and new grad jobs.

The competition on campus between employers is getting hot as the economy picks up and companies’ hiring numbers increase. A shift is starting, where students will have more power as the number of jobs available increases; however, we aren’t quite there yet. As a student, it is important to play a lead role in choosing your first job out of school and selling yourself to your employer(s) of choice.

Your personal brand

You need to build your personal brand as a sales and marketing student because potential employers want to see that you can apply the basic principles of marketing. If you can’t sell or market yourself, why should they trust you to market or sell their products and services?

First, do a branding exercise to understand your unique value to a future employer. Think about how you present yourself both in person at company campus recruiting events or interviews, and in online spaces.

Things you should evaluate include:

·         How you dress

·         The language you use

·         How you can showcase specific accomplishments

·         How you come across to employers – do you seem credible/real?

Your personal brand - online

Your online personality should mirror how you come across in person. Ensure that, if your future employer seeks you out on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook, there is consistency in the things you say you are knowledgeable about or roles you played in extra-curricular activities.

Things like LinkedIn recommendations are very valuable, especially with LinkedIn launching a new student profile option.

In sales and marketing, future employers will likely perform a social media search on their top candidates – think of this as a “reference check.” Make sure that you hide information that future employers don’t need to see (e.g., Facebook photos) and remember that social media is PERMANENT. 

Your personal brand – in person

For in in-person events, network and showcase your personality as well as your interests and skills.

Marketing and sales is a lot about a “fit” in being personable, believable and coachable. When I interview for entry-level marketing roles, I look more for a strong personal impression than wide sales/marketing experience – I can teach you how to be successful, but I can’t teach you how to think critically or have personal credibility.

I want you to highlight your interests, where you think the industry is going, recent highlights at my specific company, and why you believe you fit the company culture. Show you spent some time researching my company online, even talking to past interns or employees, and understanding our culture.

Don’t treat every networking session, interview or online application the same. Most recruiters are very open to telling you the unique parts of their company, so talk to them and ask for a follow-up prep call prior to an interview.

If you don’t meet a recruiter on campus, reach out to them via LinkedIn. Recruiters will highlight great candidates’ applications if you wow them. Consider this reach-out like dating – you only have one opportunity to make that perfect impression that might lead to a relationship (or in this case, a fantastic career)!

Students: As I am now a regular contributor to TalentEgg.ca (Canada's leading job site and career resource for students and new graduates), I will be featuring monthly articles written specifically for students on my blog. I would love your thoughts on what you want to hear about! Please comment below to drive future articles.

Steve Jobs = Apple's Employment Brand

Steve Jobs’ death rocked the world this past week. He dropped out of college after only 1 year & co-created one of the most innovative brands in his parent’s garage in his mere 20s. He followed his heart & focused on what inspired him versus fumbling his way through what he “should do.” Not only was a he a leader that people fought to follow but he created an atmosphere of innovation and doing things differently at Apple. Steve Jobs personified Apple and its employer brand of innovation, leadership, and credibility.  Apple’s employment brand is strong yet they barely publicize what working at the company is like versus some of their major competitors like Google or Microsoft.

Jobs was not a perfect leader. He had his ups and downs and was so headstrong that he was actually fired from Apple, the company he co-created, in 1985. After his very public banishment, he subsequently founded NeXT (a computer platform) that Apple actually purchased in 1996 and brought Jobs to his role as CEO. Jobs was not afraid of the lime light or telling his career stories including the good, bad & the ugly. He drove trust in Apple as a visionary through his innovative thinking and delivery of consistently doing things differently.  With Jobs’ heroic lose to cancer, Apple needs to build on this legacy and expand their employment brand to overcome the loss of their powerful CEO. Time will tell how they do on this mission.

As a reminder of all of the wonderful things Jobs lead & the things he stood for, please see the below quote about allowing innovation to lead your path to great things. If you haven’t yet also watched Jobs’ 1995 commencement address at Stanford, do so here:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
~ Steve Jobs

My Final Thoughts: Do you have an inspirational leader within your company? Do you use them to lead your employment branding efforts & set the tone for greatness within your company culture?

Thursday News Day: Employment Branding

As I’m currently consulting in Europe for clients, I was inspired to discuss global campus recruiting in this week’s articles. Despite my BEST goggle searches, I didn’t find any relevant articles about global employment branding or campus recruiting … this of course inspired next week’s post about campus recruiting and global best practices. For this week’s article (as it is Thursday News Day!) I have included a good piece about employment branding as knowing the basic principles in building your EVP (employee value proposition) will help set you up for understanding global best practices for campus recruiting.

Employment Branding:

 “Employment Branding: The only long term Recruitment Strategy”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  Dr. John Sullivan

-          Publishing date: Jan 7, 2008

-          Link: http://bit.ly/Wfj0a

Though this article is a couple of years old, it really highlights the basic principles of employment branding and those principles haven’t changed. The way you execute on your brand has evolved but this is a good introductory read to the key components of and long term benefits of employment branding. The author quotes that typically companies only spend 5% of their budgets on employment branding… which camp do you fall into?

I hope you read over this solid employment branding article so that in my next few posts about campus recruiting & global recruiting, you understand the benefit of having a EVP prior to hitting campus. Shockingly, I found very few other articles about campus recruiting unless they were tied to a company as a pitch document. Looks like I found a new wealth of things to write about! Stay posted over the next few weeks for posts on campus recruiting & global student behaviours.

Thursday News Day: Recruitment 3.0 - Are You Ready?

This week’s news comes from www.ere.net – one of my favourite websites for articles about recruiting, sourcing, social media & overall HR issues. Whenever I need supporting information about training hiring managers or what’s happening in the market place, this is one of my go-to resources.

This week’s theme:

Recruiting & SOCIAL MEDIA:

 “Facebook’s Tag Suggestions Raise HR Issues”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  John Zappe

-          Publishing date: June 14, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/j5eWGV

This article discusses current flack on Facebook’s facial recognition software & the HR implications. The article quotes that as “84 percent of U.S. recruiters think it is proper to consider personal data posted online when evaluating a candidate” there are huge implications to this new picture tagging.  It comes as no surprise that professors and career counselors are cautioning students about the privacy settings & photos they post on social media sites.  This facial recognition technology is further complicating the problem as people can be “tagged” in photos that are not an actual picture of themselves, yet, a hiring decision may be formed based on such photos.

Read this article as a recruiter for understanding the technology fully. As a candidate, read on to find out the importance in opting out of this feature on Facebook.


 “A Vision for the Future of Recruitment: Recruitment 3.0”

-          Featured on: www.ere.net

-          Writer:  Matthew Jeffery & Amy McKee

-          Publishing date: June 14, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/jcgRSF

This article is one of the BEST summaries I have seen about the changing recruiting landscape. It states that recruiting is going through a “a fundamental seismic shift... A change that will see many traditional recruiters falling behind and being replaced by new, differently skilled recruiters, ready for the challenges of Recruitment 3.0.”  The global race for talent is reaching new levels & the way to secure that talent is changing. Companies need to focus on the 90% of candidates who are not active job hunters and must use social networking & nontraditional sourcing methods to reach them.  

This is an absolutely fantastic article outlining the current evolutionary landscape that is Recruiting 3.0. It is a great tool for HR managers to educate senior leadership about the changing game called recruiting.

Happy reading! Thoughts on the article about Recruitment 3.0?

Thursday News Day: Online Interactions

During the current controversy surrounding sharing of information via Twitter and other social media sites (versus super injunctions being adhered to by traditional media outlets), this week’s theme is consumers interacting with online content.  Social media is creating clashes between old-media law and social media sharing realities. More details to come as this debate plays out during the current revolution of information sharing.

WOM via SOCIAL MEDIA:


 “Group seeks ideas to improve quality of web comments”

-          Featured in: CBC News

-          Writer:  Dan Misener

-          Publishing date: May 25, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/ilZ6fO

This opinion piece by Dan Misener discusses how comment sections of websites and blogs are typically off topic & unconstructive. An initiative, by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation (makers of the Firefox web browser) and the Knight Foundation, called Beyond Comment Threads is aiming to “re-imagine online news comments.” The author discusses if the root of the problem is“a technical problem? Or a human behaviour problem?”

I like this article as it challenges the way consumers interact with your web content.  I look forward to seeing the outcome of this online challenge & may make changes in the way you can comment on my blog as a result!

“No internet in 1/5 Canadian homes: Among households with internet, 54 per cent connect with multiple devices”

-          Featured in: CBC News

-          Writer:  not identified

-          Publishing date: May 25, 2011

-          Link: http://bit.ly/jXLjOW

Strong article outlining the demographics of Canadians using the internet, mobile devices, and tablets.  Love the Canadian breakdown as articles typically showcase American statistics. The article breaks down demographics such as urban and rural as well as provincial breakdowns. Knowing where your target market is and how they access the internet can absolutely affect how they interact with your brand.

“Why do women avoid check-in services?”

-          Featured in: The Globe & Mail

-          Writer:  Amber MacArthur

-          Publishing date: May 20, 2011

-           Link: http://bit.ly/lwP6JU

I often speak about LBS (location based services) and how at first glance they seem very ‘stalker-ish.’ I think many women feel the same way about letting the world know where they are at any given time.  The article quotes that “17.6 per cent of smart phone owners in the U.S. use location-based services;” however, of LBS users from Canada, Germany, Japan, the UK, and the US, “77% of women are freaked out about using tools such as Foursquare.”

I like this article, written by a woman, on her views on LBS – review if you are trying to use LBS and have a target market of females.

Happy Reading!

Series 1: Post 4: Overview of Foursquare

Foursquare usage is growing by the minute. It is a geolocation social network that you, as a marketer or recruiter, need to know about! Read on to find out more in this 2 part post about what Foursquare is and in part 2 learn the Do's and Don'ts of using Foursquare, which, as a true trend setter should be a part of your millennial recruiting strategy.

Foursquare is one of the fastest growing geolocation social networks. Geolocation is the practice of determining the GPS location of a person and this site allows users to “check-in” at locations, earn badges for multiple check-ins, see where friends have checked-in, and leave tips/photos about certain locations.  2010 represented a year of 3400% growth for Foursquare and it now finds itself with 5 million current users and 381,576,305 checkins and counting. Crazy! Not many Brand Marketers and Recruiters are not fully using this technology.  Some notable brands utilizing Foursquare to build brand awareness and encourage consumer loyalty include Starbucks, InStyle, and People.

Few recruiters are taking advantage of this medium as part of their employment branding strategy.  There isn’t a lot of research or case studies on this topic so it’s an opportunity for recruiters to be real trend setters.  Foursquare is best used in combination with Twitter & Facebook as it can push “updates/check-ins/tips/photos” associated with a check-in to these other social mediums and thus has WOM (word of mouth) potential.   Check in culture extends your message when someone tries to check in, approximately 30% of their network immediately sees that message.

Getting badges and being rewarded for everyday activities is a true 2011 trend and it will continue to grow.  See some cool examples below.  A badge I don’t have but think is pretty cool is the Starbucks Barista badge. Starbucks has worked closely with foursquare to reward local users with the special badge, which is earned by checking into 5 separate Starbucks. By showing this Foursquare badge at the counter, “baristas” get discounts on their purchase – essentially like an old school stamp card; however, this information is held on your smart phone and doesn’t clog up your wallet. This badge rewards current loyal customers, fosters new ones, and allows Starbucks to differentiate itself in a crowded market. Remember there is always a flip side as bad news always travels faster than good news so ensure you have an active listening strategy on these social media sites and address negative tips or feedback ASAP.  Companies can work together with foursquare to create unique badges or have “specials” associated with a check-in at their store, restaurant, or site. Foursquare has amazing tracking abilities for brands to see the number of users checking in and other habits so company’s can better understand their users and target tips/offerings.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this post containing Do's and Don'ts of Foursquare that build onto your new knowledge of this platform coming on Wedneseday February 9, 2011! I just had so many ideas after a ton of research that I had to break my post into 2 to keep your attention!

Photos Credits