Rory Cullen, Kaizen Software Developer

A few months ago, when I was not working on a million projects, I volunteered to speak to one of my networking groups.  After some delays on my end, it is now slated for next week.  The topic is one of my hobbies, “Personal Branding.”  If you have been reading this blog, you know that this is one of my frequent topics.

I became involved in Personal Branding about 15 months ago when I started thinking about a career shift.  In doing my research on “the modern job search” and career techniques, I found that Branding was a common topic.  The concept of selling yourself as a brand is a relatively recent phenomenon (10+ years), but an interesting approach that appealed to me due to the leveraging of the Internet and social media.

Anyway, I incorporated much of what I learned into my own job search over the past year, and feel that it has certainly contributed to a more successful online presence.  I have some doubts about my own branding attempts, but I certainly have been consistent across my online interactions.  If nothing more, it has given me something to write about this year!

I spent the past two days putting together my materials for my talk, including building a “deck,” as my former colleagues used to say (that’s PowerPoint by the way).  Today, as I was commenting on a blog post about Branding, I had to revisit my big dilemma for my presentation.  The majority of the bloggers on Personal Branding are in Generation Y, and the lower part of Generation X.  They are under 40, tech savvy, and raised in a different world than the people I will be speaking to.  I think this is going to have a huge impact on the conversation we will have next week.

No matter where it is defined, Personal Branding is most often described as an intersection of your passion and what you do best.  It also needs to be something that has value to an organization.  Generation Y and Millennials (basically, anyone under 30) were raised by their parents to believe they can do anything they want.  Hence, they may actually be pursuing careers in areas based on passion, rather than on what might be “a good job with good benefits.”  It’s easy to write your branding statement when you are doing what you love.

“Blog about Guitar Hero” – Some dude
“Super-Tweeter about FaceBook stuff” – Cyber dude

The group I am speaking to is likely ages 35-65, unemployed or underemployed.  Solidly GenX and Boomers.  They have probably spent large portions of their careers working for a single company for 10-20 years.  They have been defined by that company’s brand.  These folks were not raised like the younger folks.  They fell (or were pushed) into those careers, or companies, where benefits were good, and prospects bright…or at least predictable.  Passion was secondary.  In fact, they are doing the same now.  If I had a nickel for every person I have heard say, “I was in finance, but I’m looking to get into healthcare,” I’d have a lot of nickels.  I have a feeling they didn’t all just become passionate about healthcare overnight.  Feel free to insert “Green jobs” in place of healthcare!  Again, they are pursuing the stable role, the safe path.

So, on Friday, I will be telling them about Personal Branding.  I will be suggesting that they focus on the intersection of their passion and what they are good at.  I will then wait for someone to say, “This is just my job, not my passion.”  I doubt I’ll hear the real truth, which may be, “I’m neither passionate nor good at my chosen career, but it’s too late to change now!”

Welcome to Personal Branding for the aged!

On a personal note, I love programming, and I’m getting better at it everyday.  I think I caught that Benjamin Button disease, because I’m getting more Millennial by the day!