What are the best ways to help your client create a personal brand and resume for a career change?

Aligning on goals is key to avoiding burnout when it comes to personal branding. Getting crystal clear on what you want to be known for, who needs to know you exist, and how you can help them is crucial.

While its important to assess their strengths and interests, i believe the first question we need to dive deeper into is 'the why'. Why does one want to make a career transition? because transitions are never easy, and there will be obstacles coming your way, and the only thing that would help to stay the course is a strong why. Because its not logic that drives us to do things that are challenging, but its always a bigger cause, that pushes us to overcome obstacles. And knowing the why gives clarity, which immensely helps in ensuring that we take the actions on a daily basis, and fall in love with the process, so that the outcome is bound to happen.

"Making a career change centered around your personal brand requires thinking beyond the pursuit of job titles that enhance your reputation, but following a path that allows you to become more of who you are. A personal branded career requires carefully considering your true intrinsic character, personal values, strengths, and aspirations. The late Steve Jobs serves as a classic example of someone who crafted a career around his personal brand. When people think of Apple, they typically associate it with Steve Jobs, who personified the face of Apple. When people think of you – what do they envision?"

As a Career Transition Coach, this is my expertise and what I truly love to do! When I work with clients, I steer away from assessments and instead ask them the questions they wouldn’t be able to ask themselves so I can hear the answers they wouldn’t naturally tell me. I always say we can’t do this work for ourselves - we are much too bias. I ask questions that make them think of their experience in a different way. This helps me evaluate not just their skills, but their passions and interests which eventually lead me to define the key areas they should explore for their career.

Compelling personal brand and resume is all about being authentic and genuine. It's about communicating your unique value proposition to the world in a way that resonates with your target audience. And the best way to do that is to start by understanding who you are as a person, what you're passionate about, and what you're good at.

One of the key things here, will be to focus on transferable skills. Many professionals wanting to make the transition sometimes dont realise that they have skills, which may not be directly relevant, but are very much applicable to the new role. So while customising resume for the new role, the transferable skills can be highligted rigthly, to enphasize the suitability to the role.

No matter what skills or experience you have or don't have, you need to find a way to tell your story in a compelling way that will get you in the door. Skills and experience are important but they may not be enough to help you stand out. Your experiences, perspective and career story are a big part of who you are and why you are worth considering.

The unique value proposition (UVP) is the heart of the brand. Questions I ask clients to get clarity on their UVP include: What makes you stand out from your peers? How are you unique? What is that talent that you take for granted that comes easily to you? What are you most complimented on? The differentiator is how we stand out from everyone else and often I've found that the things that make us different: our cultural heritage, our unique perspective, our past expertise, or life experiences are the things we want to bring forward to get to the heart of our differentiation.

Value propositions are defined by employers, reflecting job demands and challenges. It’s definition and perception come from the potential employer, framed within the scope of tasks at hand or challenges ahead. I've noticed many PhDs stumble when transitioning from academia, where they're celebrated, to the professional world, becoming contributors rather than stars. For PhD job seekers, the key is understanding their desired role and finding the unique employers who value their expertise. It's vital to align their particular talents with an employer’s needs, creating a potent value proposition for transformational results.

I would like you to know that understanding your ROI for employers is essential. Most candidates, however, disqualify themselves by not fully understanding the role's perspective (the leadership and communication perspectives of a CBDO are very different from those of a CEO). Your priorities, and management style may need to change when shifting levels or functions. Your communication style, brand, accomplishments, and examples must align and reflect your desired role.

When you think of your online presence, think of it as a billboard by which you are communicating who you are, what makes you unique, how you add value, etc. When you think of it as something so large as a billboard, you will be more intentional in how you build that online presence. Your online presence also include the photos you tag yourself in and those are also an important aspect of your brand.

Having a professional online presence goes beyond a glittering profile with qualifications and credentials. By all means interact, engage, share and comment actively with contents, posts and articles that speaks. Building connections and networking with likeminded individuals i.e. on LinkedIn takes time but it helps widen one's reach exponentially. Be intentional about learning and growing with others through shared experiences, perspectives, insights etc. The sense of universality forms support systems that can vastly improve one's self image, awareness and confidence as well as strengthen one's professional online presence.

Our resume should not be a description of the tasks that we'd performed at work. Rather, it should highlight our accomplishments and achievements so as to draw the hiring manager or recruiter’s attention to our skills and potential contributions; how we can add value to the org. Present succinctly with clear and concise statements using impactful action verbs i.e. created, managed, solved etc as well as buzzwords i.e. details oriented, initiative, team player etc. Most importantly, align/customise our Resume closely to keywords in JDs showcasing ourselves competitively as a good fit for the job i.e. our knowledge, skills, competencies etc. Finally, be mindful that accomplishments and words chosen are factual and not exaggerated.

Also note that the structure of your resume should be adapted to showcase the best of your brilliance. Everyone does not have to use the chronological format. There is a format called Functional that is way more effective for folks with mutiple areas of expertise or a choppy work history. There is also a hybrid format that combines both. Be creative! Don't follow the "structure" if it does not serve you. By standing out in a favorable way you will get more attention drawn to your resume.

Since the Interview prep is for career change interview, I always say to my clients that it is important to prepare compelling stories and structure their responses around examples that showcase their newly learnt skills and project experiences.

Absolutely, till resume and cover letters, the story remains one dimensional, and with interview its becomes a multi dimenisonal interaction. And so it becomes extremely important to communicate value, in every step of the process, by getting the stories right and making them relevant with repect to the context. And the intention of preparing well for interviews is also to make the interviewers fall in love with you as a potential candidate, which eventually helps you to negotiate your value, in terms of salary and other benefits easily.

Your salary expectations are key to your personal brand, personal impact, and future opportunities. You need to know what you offer and be prepared to defend your value based on what you bring to the table. How you entered the hiring process (application, search, or referral) also matters and will be reflected in your perceived value. People with higher salaries are literally perceived to be more valuable, and will be given more influence and more promotions.

When we prepare a resume for a client, we ask about the skills they may have. I had a client who I created a wonderful resume for a Quality Control job interview. The employer asked my client to express her ability with manufacturing tools. After my client described her experience, the interviewer requested to put it in writing in her resume, and she will be hire for the position. May sure we don't forget to ask about any abilities they may have with tools!