Branding, Self Introduction & LinkedIn
Your Personal Brand
Your personal brand, and knowing yourself well, will be the foundation for your LinkedIn, Self-Introductions, creating a positive first impression, and showing your personality in interviews. The better able you are to express your brand and how you market yourself, the better people will remember you and like you.
Think about what you want people to know about you – how do you want others to describe you and what do you want them to associate with you? If you don’t want to leave your first impression to chance, its up to you to be able to clearly communicate who you are, what you’re about, and where you’re headed.
“First impressions count. Studies agree that interviewers make up their minds about candidates within the first few minutes of meeting.”
7 TIPS TO MAKE A GREAT FIRST IMPRESSION IN YOUR JOB INTERVIEW
Your Personal Brand Pyramid can be used as a blueprint for crystallizing your brand in order to more eloquently describe your value proposition. Use this tool to help you develop your brand.
Need help coming up with ideas for your personal brand? Take the CliftonStrengths assessment! Olin Students can email careers@wustl.edu to request access to the assessment.
Another assessment tool to help you develop your brand is CareerLeader. Every Olin student received an email at the start of their program with access to CareerLeader, titled “Careerleader Access”. Search your email for your code access (*the email was sent to the email you applied to Olin with, likely not a WashU email).
Self-Introduction
In networking and interviews, it’s incredibly important to have a strong personal introduction that is concise, coherent, and clear. This is your first impression and you need it to be a good one! Why? Because it’s widely known that interviewers develop their first impression of candidates within the first 30 seconds and then use the rest of the interview to confirm that initial impression.
Consider how the following prompts might influence your Self – Introduction.
Consider your setting and audience, and how time constraints and circumstances may alter your introduction:
Your LinkedIn profile is another important vehicle for you to tell your story and get noticed by your top choice companies, and is an essential tool for the US job search. More than ever, your LinkedIn presence allows you to expand upon your resume and show more of your personality and professional values. It’s also an opportunity for you to demonstrate your personal brand through your personalized summary and engaging content.
The Power and Purpose of LinkedIn
Here are some of the ways that LinkedIn can support your career plan:
- Helps you build your personal brand and allows you to be discovered by others
- Helps you connect with new people, alumni, and build your professional network
- Provides a place for you to share your work
- Learn news and trends within your industries of interest
- Facilitates your research on companies and industries
- Allows you to search for internships and jobs
Check out our LinkedIn Profile Checklist to ensure you’ve included all the elements, and make a good digital first impression.
If you need step-by-step-guidance to set-up an account for the first time, watch these videos on Linkedin Learning.
LinkedIn Versus Your Resume
Students often ask why they need to use LinkedIn if they already have a good resume. Your resume and LinkedIn are both tools that you will use to share your story and your professional experiences. While your resume focuses more on the facts of your experiences, your Linkedin allows you to elaborate on your story, and make a personal first impression.
Learn more about the difference between your resume and your Linkedin.
LinkedIn + ChatGPT for International Students: Nail Networking Culture
Watch a Linkedin expert, former recruiter, and career world guru explain how to maximize your Linkedin to attract recruiters. This session helps attendees clearly understand how to network with alumni, even if that’s a brand-new experience for you.
From this session you will learn to:
1. Understand the US hiring process – from how recruiters search for talent to how referrals can increase your chances ten-fold
2. Discover sponsorship opportunities – by following the data trail left on LinkedIn and other job sites
3. Develop your networking skills – by getting practice with reaching out to alumni, using the right AI supports to build instant rapport
4. Learn about the bilingual advantage of getting to have TWO Linkedin profiles, one in each language.
