How Personal Branding can give graduates a competitive edge

Introduction/Background
This report will be discussing the importance of personal branding and how it
gives graduates a competitive edge. The information provided will be divided
into sections where it first discusses the current issues and implications before
lastly concluding and providing recommendations for when graduates endure
future employment. Firstly, graduates need to consider the importance of
employability and of being employable before focusing on enhancing their
competitive edge through personal branding. Employability is the skills and
abilities that allow you to be employed according to the Cambridge Dictionary
(2017). However more specifically, with growing competition for jobs
applications, employers look beyond the academic abilities of a potential
employee but more importantly on experience and soft skills as said by
Bachelor (2012), these are skills such as team working, time management,
communication etc. In nowadays and age, the internet dominates the world we
live in, and almost everything we do involves leaving behind a digital footprint.
The use of online websites and social media has revolutionized the way we
communicate with one another and this has filtered through to professional
networking and job opportunities. A professional profile is like having an online
CV to which employers, recruiters and potential business partners have access.
(Hennig 2015)

Current issues
Perhaps the most prevalent issue of Personal Branding is the lack of it and how
people underestimate its importance. In terms of skills, the majority of
businesses place a high value on employees that have a higher-level of skills to
offer and taken from Pearson (2016), 77% of businesses are said to have a larger
availability of job openings to people with a higher range of skills. Since the
economy is always developing and progressing, it is crucial that businesses
adapt to this and having skilled employees who too can adapt is part and parcel
of this. Leadership and management skills are the most desired from employers
and the expectance of these skills has increased a positive 60% every year since
2010 stated by Pearson (2016). If graduates are to lack these skills, then it is
likely that they will miss out on career opportunities and earning a place of a
higher position that allow more control, power and receiving a better income. It is
almost as if a degree is no longer enough, and graduates need to have
developed these range of skills of employability during their time at university to
enhance their competitive advantage. Many university students face the
difficulty of being able to balance academic work, extra-curricular activities and
work experience all at once however students who do manage to engage in the
full university experience demonstrate motivation, efficiency and time
management skills to future employers. Therefore, it does concern many
businesses that there will not be much access to high-skilled employees in the
future. To be accurate an overall 69% of businesses in 2016 were not confident
about this as reported by Pearson (2016).

Another current issue is how the educational system in schools do not implement
the importance of the development of skills need for future employment. Looking
at statistics issued by Pearson (2016) it is evident that there is a lack of practice
of these skills. Many businesses do rely on the school systems to ensure that
students develop these attributes and knowledge to prepare them for their
working lives. Another shocking piece of information is that employers focus
more on a graduates attitudes/character towards work and attitudes for work
before basic literacy and numeracy and qualifications obtained. 37% of
businesses report that they are not satisfied with graduates attitude towards
work and 48% are unhappy with the little resilience and self-management of
young adults. The highest percentage was 56% where businesses were unhappy
with the lack of work experience.
Now focusing on digital personal branding and its importance on having a
competitive edge. LinkedIn is said to have more than 300 million members in
over 200 countries with the top European countries being the United Kingdom,
France, Spain and Italy (Hennig 2016). Graduates need to learn the value that
this advantageous site has for their career. Having an up-to-date professional
profile by where the focus is mainly on past employment and accomplishments is
essential and a digital profile has a more creative spin on the traditional CV.
Many people do not have a professional profile or either have one which has little
information demonstrating the lack of effort they have put in. Due to this,
graduates are less exposed to job opportunities or have a lower chance of
getting the job if they dont have evidence of a professional profile. As stated by
Tombrakos (2012) to earn a living, stay marketable, maintain and expand your
networks and connections, and grow your business having a digital profile is a
must. Employers see employees as ambassadors to their businesses image and
by demonstrating this through a digital profile employers feel that employees will
uphold and validate a companys image.
Graduates need to be aware of just how influential social media is on job
prospects and leaving behind a negative digital footprint. For instance, often
many people have made negative comments by using inappropriate language or
tagged in inappropriate photos or shared a negative post. A survey conducted in
2012 by CareerBuilder.com found that 37% of employers use social media to
screen potential job candidates and 34% decided not to hire a candidate after
viewing their social media profiles (Smith 2013). Graduates need to keep these
following statistics in mind, 97% of recruitment is done using LinkedIn, 48% of
recruiters only post job vacancies on LinkedIn and no other social media site and
lastly an overall 77% of all jobs openings are posted on LinkedIn (Hennig 2016).

Implications & Recommendations

From the information provided above, there are several implications that can be
made for these issues. Essentially, searching online and through professional
networking sites such as LinkedIn are the best options for when graduates are
job hunting and for employers when recruiting a potential candidate to hire. If
both parties use this as their primary tool for professional networking, then both
will have positive results. Graduates should focus on perfecting their CV and if
they notice that there are insufficient set of skills or not enough work experience
then they should begin to develop this to reach the skills required by employers.

Key skills for them to learn are Communications, leadership and management
and teamworking. Setting up a LinkedIn profile is crucial for this day and age, if
graduates dont have this then it can send a red flag to future employers. They
need to make a successful virtual first impression count.
If a graduate wants to do this, there are different ways to achieve this. Most
importantly, they need to outline their purpose and what they are trying to
achieve. It helps set the pathway for a graduate and will give a clear focus and
narrative in the short-term (The Guardian 2011) and helps to reassure
employers. Additionally, being able to tell a compelling story through a personal
statement for instance what they were encountered with, what they did to
overcome it and what they gained out of it. When telling a story, or listing a set
of skills, graduates should avoid exaggerating or inventing as it could come
across over confident or unreliable. References also need to comply with the set
of skills that graduates boast that they possess. Taking down or removing
inappropriate content theyve been tagged in is essential since employers do
social media screening of candidates.
It is also fundamental that school systems begin to target personal development
and acquire the resources for this. Personal development should be taught and
be a subject in school just as subjects like English, Mathematics or History are to
be taught. However, the department of education in the United Kingdom has
begun to progress in this issue to the extent where award schemes have been
launched for schools for their attainments of the personal development efforts
made by their pupils. Although this is a big step forward, school systems
worldwide should take note of this and as previously mentioned, have personal
development taught as a subject for a higher-skilled work force in the future.

Conclusion
To conclude this report, personal branding is essential for employability in the
21st century. In a world hugely ruled by technology, a digital profile is the easy
and efficient go to employment tool for businesses. Graduates need to take the
time in perfecting and cleaning up their professional profiles and must
understand the concept that it is an ongoing process. Graduates should be
regularly updating their content to increase their competitive edge and further
expanding their skills through throwing themselves at opportunities which are
available to them. When they are begging you to stay, youll know that youve
started to really build your brand (The Guardian 2011)

Bibliography
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dictionary [viewed 19 January 2017]. Available from:
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HENNIG, M., 2015. [viewed 19 January 2017]. Available from:
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SMITH, J., 2013. How social media can help (or hurt) you in your job search. Forbes,
16 April

THE GUARDIAN, 2011. Building your personal brand from scratch: A guide for
graduates | guardian jobs[viewed 20 January 2017]. Available from:
https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/4323040/building-your-personal-brand-fromscratch-a-guide-for-graduates/
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, 2016. Why is employability important - to
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http://www.ed.ac.uk/employability/staff-information/what-why-employabilityimportant/why-students
TOMBRAKOS, J., 2012. 7 reasons you need A vibrant digital profile. Forbes, 30
November
Citations, Quotes & Annotations
BACHELOR, L., 2012. Graduate careers: The importance of employability skills
graduate careers: The importance of employability skills. The Guardian, 8 June
(Bachelor 2012)
CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY, 2017. Employability meaning in the Cambridge English
dictionary [viewed 19 January 2017]. Available from:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/employability
(Cambridge Dictionary 2017)
HENNIG, M., 2015. [viewed 19 January 2017]. Available from:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-excellent-professional-profiles-digital-eramaike-hennig
(Hennig 2015)
PEARSON, 2016. The Right Combination [viewed 19 January 2017]. Available from:
http://learn.solent.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/701403/mod_book/chapter/66548/cbieducation-and-skills-survey2016.pdf
(Pearson 2016)
SMITH, J., 2013. How social media can help (or hurt) you in your job search. Forbes,
16 April
(Smith 2013)
THE GUARDIAN, 2011. Building your personal brand from scratch: A guide for
graduates | guardian jobs[viewed 20 January 2017]. Available from:

https://jobs.theguardian.com/article/4323040/building-your-personal-brand-fromscratch-a-guide-for-graduates/
(The Guardian 2011)
TOMBRAKOS, J., 2012. 7 reasons you need A vibrant digital profile. Forbes, 30
November
(Tombrakos 2012)