Storytelling for Career-Changers
Personal branding and storytelling for career-changers
If you’re changing careers, you’ll need to know how to market yourself in your new industry. Employers will want to know what motivated you to retrain, what skills and experience you bring from your previous career, and the unique value you offer. At the same time, you’ll want to grow your network and connect with the right people—people in your new field with whom you can exchange knowledge, ideas, and maybe even job opportunities.
The way you market yourself is known as your personal brand. It’s a form of storytelling; the narrative that draws links between your past career and your new one, and sets you apart as an expert in your new field. But what exactly is a personal brand, and how can you get better at telling your career-change story?
A personal brand is essentially your presence, both online and off, that represents your values and expertise within your chosen industry. You build your personal brand through the content you share—for example, articles you’ve written yourself or come across online, status updates, or images—and how you describe yourself, for example, in your LinkedIn summary, on your portfolio “About” page, or your Twitter bio.
It’s not just about what you write and post online, though; it’s also embodied in the story you tell about yourself. This is especially important when speaking with recruiters, employers, or potential clients. This aspect of personal branding is known as storytelling, and it’s an important technique to master!
You can learn all about how to build your personal brand in this guide, written in collaboration with branding expert Brittni Bowering. For more advice on how to craft your signature career-change story, be sure to watch the event recording at the top of this page.
Want more career-change advice? Check out these articles:
Featured presenters
Hendrikje Wagner
Career Specialist at CareerFoundry
Before becoming a CareerFoundry mentor, Hendrikje worked in sales for fifteen years and put all kinds of presentation, storytelling, and sales techniques into practice. In addition to working with students, Hendrikje is currently building a startup as a co-founder, and consults about business storytelling. As a passionate storyteller, Hendrikje wants to help her students define their stories and be confident about their career change.
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