Personal branding or wank-word bingo?

I have been listening to enlightened professionals talk about Personal Branding for several years now.

And the discussion usually includes high ideals like being ‘authentic’ or ‘unique’. The aim of course is to communicate our talented, interesting and employable selves as succinctly and successfully as possible.

Sounds perfect. Or does it?

Call me cynical, but I believe that we are simply pandering to yet another trend to package ourselves as a homogeneous, economic thumbnail, perfect for digestion by a recruitment industry that will only muster a 6 second window of vague interest before deciding if a candidate is a good fit. We believe that by distilling ourselves into a few words for attention deficit consumption, we are better understood? Better branded?

I just don’t buy it.

Because in truth we are not branding ourselves honestly. What we are actually doing is branding ourselves in the language that most appeals to the recruitment industry at this moment in time. In keywords that scan well. Then everybody jumps on the same bandwagon and the recruitment industry finds it all a big yawn because they have seen it all before and want to see a new and different approach being used.

It is a subject close to my heart for two reasons.

1. In the last few years, I have been involved in projects and products to objectively match people with jobs. Because unfortunately, recruitment processes have become less rather than more sophisticated, creating a talent shortage that doesn’t really exist. The apparent shortage is getting worse because we do not know how to judge  a person, just their ability to market themselves. Organisations need to stop looking for a perfect candidate and start looking for talented, diverse and colourful individuals who will enjoy the challenge of working in that environment. It is well documented that the hardest and most expensive hiring mistakes are almost always sales people. Because they are very good at saying what you want to hear and presenting themselves in a shiny way that dazzles. And this is what personal branding wants us all to do.

In my experience of over 100 hires, I have made only one wrong hire and my best hires were those I interviewed precisely because their resumes were less than perfect, had gaps or different industries and HR did not want me to waste time on. Because I like to work with real people who are talented but not great at everything and often have some glaring flaws. They are always interesting, humble and willing to work at finding the right solution.

2. Secondly, I have had occasion to redo my CV recently and have plunged in to define my personal brand. It is frustrating to me, because I am driven so strongly by authenticity and I despise the smoke and mirrors that employers and candidates engage in equally. I am a very good marketing person. Great at times. But I will always be a bit poor at playing this game.

Because my real and authentic personal brand is about plain English. It is about being honest, upfront with no politics or bullshit. It is about sharing what I know, helping people if I can and letting them know when I can’t. It is about being inclusive, supportive and collaborative. It is about enjoying what I do, swearing a bit too much (I am English after all) and understanding that life is very short so if it is not fun, change it or do something else. It is about being myself and being proud of the skills and experiences I have acquired through a hard earned career.

I don’t want to dress it up to look like something else….that goes against the very essence of my personal brand.