Market Yourself: Build Your Personal Brand

This exercise should be a valuable tool for job seekers as well as those who have already secured
internships or full-time employment. How will this project benefit you?

 Seeking a Job: This assignment will help you narrow your focus and create a succinct and effective
personal brand statement for future career fairs, networking events, and interviews. What can you
say in 30 seconds at a crowded career fair that will make a recruiter move your résumé into the “yes”
pile? What should you say on the homepage of your personal website to position yourself as a star
candidate?
 Entering Your Summer Internship: You’ll learn more about your industry/company and create a
personal brand story that will help you stand out among your peers
 Entering Full-time Employment: Understanding and developing your personal brand will be a key
part of your professional advancement. When your manager sits down to write your first performance
review, what do you want to be the first thing that pops into their mind?
 Applying/Enrolling in Graduate School: You’ll need to set yourself apart in order to get into the
program of your choice and then, once you are accepted, you can develop a personal brand that will
give you a leg up on fellowships, scholarships and other opportunities that might arise in a
competitive graduate school environment.
 Starting or Working at a Small Business: If you’re planning to start your own venture or work for a
small company after graduation then your personal brand will help you sell yourself - and your
business - to clients, vendors and financers.

Learning Objectives:

 Use the marketing skills and concepts from this course to (a) analyze your target industry and
organization in order to determine key trends, opportunities and threats, (b) understand your own
strengths and weaknesses, (c) develop your personal brand and unique selling proposition (USP)
with respect to your target, (d) and create a tactical plan for achieving your goals.
 More broadly, you will analyze internal and external market factors, discern critical marketing issues,
define marketing objectives and create tactics to achieve those goals.
o Identify relevant sources of information to discern key marketing (job/company/industry)
opportunities and threats.
o Define the needs of the target (in this case, the company or school you are targeting) and
understand their perceptions and buying (in this case, hiring) priorities and processes.
o Develop marketing strategies to address those needs and accomplish stated objectives.

Step 1: Identify Your Target and State Your Objectives For Your Next Career Move

Note: Even if this is not your ultimate goal, please think about the next major step you need to take and when
you will achieve it.

 Identify your specific target industry or field.

 Identify your specific target company, graduate school or organization.
 Identify your specific objective (i.e. your target job/position).
 State the primary reason why you are passionate about this career path.
 What is your timeline for achieving this goal?1
 Identify the three most important skills and attributes your employer requires.2

1
Hint: Be specific!  e.g. “I will complete this task by April 2014.” Not “I will complete this task before I
graduate.”
2
Refer to the Google article. Most employers desire more than technical skills (qualifying criteria), what soft
skill do they require (determining criteria)?

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Step 2: Analyze Yourself (Complete “Strengths and Weaknesses” in your SWOT)

 What benefits can you provide to your target? Why should they buy (hire/select) you over your
competition?
 Use specific examples to support your points (i.e. don’t just say that you have strong leadership
skills, give your target audience a specific reason to believe).

Step 3: Analyze Your Target (Complete “Opportunities and Threats” in your SWOT)

 Use secondary research to support your points.3

 What are the most relevant trends in your target organization and industry?
 Additionally, think about your target’s perceptions about you, your peers and the industry.

Step 4: Develop Your Personal Brand

 Identify Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

o Review your SWOT and choose your most important “Strength.” Make sure it’s relevant to
your target.
o In brand marketing, a USP typically includes both functional and emotional benefits that
differentiate one product from its competitors.
o Provide support and elaborate on your USP in order to give your target a “reason to believe.”
o Create a personal brand positioning statement. This should demonstrate your USP that is
relevant to the target.

< Begin filling out your Personal Branding Assignment on the next page. Please only hand in the
pages from the Cover Page through the end (i.e. don’t hand in the pages with instructions). >

3
Refer to “Research Resources” on the Learn@UW lecture site under the content browser.

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 (Note: do not hand in the first two instruction pages, just pages 3-7)

Building Your Personal Brand

Cover Page

Your Name:

Discussion Section:

Discussion Section Day and Time:

Your TA’s Name:

Your Year:

Your Major:

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Step 1: Identify Your Target and State Your Objectives For Your Next Career Move

Target Industry/Field:

Target Company/Program/Organization:

Target Job/Position:

Primary reason why are you passionate about this goal:

Specific Date for achieving this goal:

Employer perception of top 3 requirements for success:

Step 2: Analyze Yourself (Complete “Strengths and Weaknesses” in your SWOT)

Strengths Weaknesses
List in Order of Importance to Your Target

1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

References/Rationale/Support:4 What will you do this semester to

1. address your top 3 weaknesses?5 When
will you accomplish this?
2.
1.
3.
2.
3.

4
Each item should correspond with the number listed in your Strengths above. The same goes for the
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats sections.
5
Think about how these weaknesses are relevant to your target and what you can specifically do to begin to
address them. Consider campus and online resources that might help you.

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Step 3: Analyze Your Target (Complete “Opportunities and Threats” in your SWOT)

Opportunities Threats
List in Order of Importance to Your Target

1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.

References/Rationale/Support: What can you do to mitigate the top 3

1. threats that you have identified? When
will you accomplish this?
2.
1.
3.
2.
3.

Note: check out One Source, Business Source Complete for company/industry data. See online videos.

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 Step 5: Develop Your Personal Brand

4A: Unique Selling Proposition (USP)6:

4B: Demonstrate your USP with a STAR story:7

Hint for Part 4B: STAR Story Framework

This is a great opportunity to practice the STAR format for interviews. This is by far the most commonly used
behavioral interview framework used by major corporations. If you’re not already familiar with STAR Stores,
you might want to take a few minutes to learn more. Briefly, the STAR format is:8

1. Situation: Open with a brief description of the Situation and context of the story (who, what, where,
when, how).
2. Task: Explain the Task you had to complete highlighting any specific challenges or constraint (eg.
deadlines, costs, other issues).
3. Action: Describe the specific Actions that you took to complete the task. These should highlight
desirable traits without needing to state them (initiative, intelligence, dedication, leadership,
understanding, etc.)
4. Result: Close with the result of your efforts. Include figures to quantify the result if possible.

This is where you practice communicating your USP.

Anyone can claim “I am a good leader”. Demonstrating how you have used leadership skills to benefit your
organization is far more powerful than an empty claim. Example: As president of XYZ organization I created
and managed a team to develop and execute a fundraiser that exceeded our financial goals by 20%”.

Complete your story:

Situation

Task

Action

Result

6
Refer back to your “Strengths” and your USP.
7
Refer to the “Hint” on page 3.
8
"STAR Interview Questions Mastery." UpgradeRealitycom. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
http://www.upgradereality.com/star-model/

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4C: My Personal Brand Positioning Statement:9

Hint for Part 4C: Personal Brand Positioning Statement

 Introduce yourself (your brand).

 Identify your target.
 Clearly state your USP.
 Identify relevant trends in your target industry and/or company (opportunities and threats).
 Provide support for your USP – give your target a “reason to believe.”
 Explain how your USP provides benefits/relevance to your target – give them a reason to care.

Sample Personal Brand Positioning Statement and format:

My name is < your name > and I’m very interested in working for < target organization >. I
understand that the biggest issue(s) in < industry and/or company > are < discuss trend(s) from
SWOT - O’s and T’s > and I believe that < my USP > can be a valuable asset. My < elaborate on my
USP – the “reason to believe” (STAR story)> can help < target organization > because < relevance
of my USP to the target >.

This is just an example – try to come up with a conversational statement that is authentic to you.

Complete your personal brand positioning statement: (Note: this is your “elevator speech- you should be
able to deliver this comfortably in 2-3 minutes. Follow the suggested format)

9
Refer to the “Hint” on page 3.

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