How to build a strong personal brand?

Like it or not, you are already building your personal brand through the clothes you wear, the way you talk and the attitude you display to people around you. So it is much better to intentionally start building a brand that will benefit you in the long term.

It is not too early to start

As soon as you get your A level results, you would be applying to university. By then, if you have already developed a strong personal brand, being able to impress the university admissions officers will be literally peanuts. So starting to think about your personal brand while you are still in JC will put you ahead of the race!

What is your ikigai?

In order to have a strong personal brand, you need to figure out who you are, what your values are and what motivates you. In other words, you need to know your ikigai. Find out more here.

What do you want to be known for?

What are you applying for? Engineering or Social Sciences? Both university courses are polar opposites and require very different skillsets. Your personal brand is how other people perceive you and it should match the course that you are applying for.
Your online profile and resume should be customised with your potential university course or your future employer in mind.

Talk to seniors and professionals

An informational interview is an informal conversation you can have with someone who is in an area of interest to you. It is an effective research tool and you can get insider knowledge on how to land your first job or enter your dream university. It is not a job interview, and the objective is not to find job openings. Neither can your seniors help you enter the university course.
Find out more about Informational Interviews here.

You are a millenial, go online!

There is no better way to showcase your strengths and unique talents than through an online profile. The two main ways adopted by many millenials nowadays is either Linkedin or a website/blog.
For most professionals, Linkedin is the ideal platform for online profiles. Find out more here.
For freelancers who need to showcase a portfolio, a website/blog would be a good platform. But this may involve more work as you need to maintain the website and work on increasing the visibility of your website.
Social media like Facebook and Twitter are also good platforms to showcase your personal brand.
It is better to maintain a professional online presence than to be googled and have embarrassing photos of your younger self being surfaced out. These embarrassing photos may end up being the reason why you were not selected as a scholar in your university application.

Be consistent and be mindful

Your personal brand is not solely your Linkedin profile or your personal statement in your university application. It is also what you wear, how you interact and what you say to people.
So in order to develop a strong personal brand, you will need to ensure that you are consistent in every aspect of your actions and behaviour.
The most common mistake made by many people is to think that you could separate your personal life from your professional life. This is clearly not what employers think, as seen in many high-profile cases where a disgraceful online act done by a person e.g. exhibition of racism, could result in termination of employment.
So it is best to be mindful that social media like Instagram or Twitter is not a place for you to vent your frustrations, especially towards your university or employer.