Rory Cullen, Kaizen Software Developer

I have a great opportunity coming up.  I have volunteered to speak about personal branding for one of the networking groups I meet with every week or two.  I have been researching and applying personal branding to my own job search for over a year now, and feel pretty passionate about its effectiveness, although I don’t really have too much solid feedback yet.  There is a lot to personal branding, but the basics involve coming up with a unique value proposition that people can equate to you.  In addition, it’s all about a consistent message associated with your name.  Basically, think of yourself as a brand.  I say Geico, you think gecko, and “so easy a caveman can do it”.  I say Nike, you can see the “Swoosh” symbol, maybe Tiger Woods, maybe Michael Jordan, maybe excellence because of those associations.  Branding is marketing, and all job searchers need to become marketers nowadays.

In some ways, this is an extremely difficult task, and in others, it’s quite simple.  It’s certainly the type of thing that you can ease into.  Here’s tip #1:  Use the same name whenever you need to refer to yourself.  Resume, business card, LinkedIn, Facebook.  Don’t be “Bill” in one place, and “William” in another.  People will fail to connect because you can’t be found easily.

So how does this affect me today?  Well, here in the northeast, we recently came off a beautiful weekend of temperatures in the 80s and 90s.  This usually starts me thinking about shaving my beard for the summer.  I have been a seasonal beardie for about four or five years, usually dropping the beard in May, and bringing it back in December.  I spend a lot of time outside in the winter skiing or snowshoeing, and it makes a big difference.  Usually, this is not a really important decision.  I might shave on a Friday, so I have the weekend to get a little color on my face and not seem so pale.  It’s rarely very long or unkempt, so the change is relatively minor in some ways.  However, how does this affect my personal brand?

I have met a lot of new people in the past six months.  And if they were to describe me, they might mention that I have a beard.  In fact, it might be one of the few differentiating factors in my appearance that they would use.  (Hopefully “balding” would not be a factor.)  I have been on TV twice in the past six weeks or so…with a beard.  My business cards have my picture on them…with a beard.

I think you get the point.  This is not just a personal hygiene issue; this is a branding issue.

Case in point:  I went to a networking meeting last week.  No less than three people in the room, out of 20, commented on the fact that I wasn’t wearing a tie.  As it turns out, I had successfully branded myself as a guy who wears a tie to networking meetings, even though it isn’t necessary.  I just figured I’m better off overdressed, than underdressed.  At least one of those guys I didn’t recognize at all, but he recognized me.  In some way, that is good.  At least I’m not the guy who wore shorts and crocs to the meeting, right?  Who looks more professional?  Again, it became part of my personal brand.  Too bad though, as I don’t own that many ties!

Thankfully, we’ve hit a spell of cooler weather, so my decision is put off for a few days at least.  However, soon enough, I’ll have hit the point of no return.  Once the weather is warm, and I have started to get some sun on my face, I may not be able to shave at all without going through a brief period of having a two-toned face.

I have quite a few business cards with my picture left over.  Do I save them for December?  The whole point of having your picture on your card is to make it easy for people to remember you.  Does it make any sense if you have to say, “Yeah, I shaved” every time you hand one out?  Will they make a note on the back?  “Looks like this guy, but with no beard.”  Not likely.  In fact, I’ll seem stupid for handing out a card with a picture that doesn’t really look like me at all.

Maybe I’m making a mountain out of a molehill here.  Ironically enough, I have always felt like I should shave for an interview anyway.  For some reason, it seems more professional.  My career consultant says it doesn’t matter, but who knows?  Does it make me look older?  Like I’m hiding something?  Like a guy who is balding and trying to make up for it?  These are the things I’m facing.

So many decisions to make.  I guess I’ll go brush my teeth, at least that’s an easy decision.

Just the beard...