The time has come to start looking for a new project, but you feel like…
How to create a personal brand as an interim manager?
The job market is changing, it’s becoming much more fast-paced and competitive than ever before. As soon as you send your CV off, most employers will look you up to see if you would be a good candidate, keep reading to see how you can stand out among others by building your personal brand.
As an interim manager, you work from one project to the next, so you want to have that next interim assignment ready to start on instead of wasting time between projects. To ensure this, you must work on the development of your personal brand to attract clients.
So, what is personal branding? It is the process of creating an identity as a strategy to position yourself as an expert in the interim market and grow your career. It is a vital way to build your professional reputation and stand out as an attractive candidate. Personal branding can sometimes be viewed by people as a self-promotion campaign, in fact, Forbes has described it as a leadership requirement, which is vital for the role of interim managers. See the tips below on how to get started with your personal brand:
1.Figure out what your brand is
Determine what exactly you do, where you would like your career to go, what your values are and what makes you stand out from other interim managers. This is a vital starting point that will make your personal brand consistent, make sure you are not too specific but also avoid not being specific enough! Remember that your personal brand should represent the value that you can consistently deliver. Think about a trait you have that makes you unique, or suggest a Summarise all these pointers into a short personal statement that will act as an overview on your CV, business cards and social media pages or website.
2. Market yourself through social media
Having an online presence is vital to getting your personal brand out there. There are many social media platforms you could use to do this, LinkedIn is a great tool and extremely valuable for your career. You can display your CV and personal brand through different features on LinkedIn and even post content for your network to see, such as your success stories from previous interim assignments or experiences you have had that relate to your career journey and how you got to where you are today. You could even set up your own personal website so that whenever someone searches up your name on Google it will be the first result to show up and display your personal brand. There are many great website-building software to use that work for people with little to no experience; such as Squarespace, or Wix.
3. Build your network
Networking is a vital strategy to get your name out there within the interim industry and develop your career. However, when networking you need to know what you are saying and how you are portraying yourself, this is where your personal brand comes in. Once you have established your brand you can easily tell people exactly what you can offer them and direct them to your social media profiles for more information about you. Word-of-mouth is also a strong marketing tool you could use to network with people, memorise your personal statement that was discussed above to get your message out there consistently. Alternatively, online networking is just as effective, especially through LinkedIn. Connect with people in the interim industry, and offer to speak on webinars or panels to share your insight on specific topics.
Remember to stay consistent in interim manager business development, update your social media pages or website after each interim assignment you complete, perhaps write up a post for your LinkedIn page summarising your experience, skills you have developed as well as your next steps.
Have you created your personal brand and are ready for your next assignment? We can help you find an interim placement that ticks all your boxes. Contact us via email at [email protected] or click here to view our latest vacancies.