Personal branding is a powerful tool for students. So, whether you’re applying for university, work experience, or graduate jobs, these personal branding tips will help.
Personal branding is becoming an increasingly important factor when it comes to finding your first job. And not just among employers. With such a competitive market, more universities are checking students’ online presence during the selection process.
Additionally, personal branding helps students to set themselves apart when looking for work. From summer jobs for students to internships, having a strong personal brand spotlights your technical and soft skills. In fact, students as young as 14 or 15 are recommended to start building a personal brand.
In this guide, we cover everything you need to know about personal branding. You’ll learn what it is, why it’s important, and some personal branding tips for students and graduates in the UK.
What Is Personal Branding?
There’s a common misconception that personal branding is for seasoned professionals or brands. However, personal branding is just as important for students and graduates. We’ll explain why.
Professional services network PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) describes personal branding as “what you’re known for and how people experience you. It’s about bringing who you are to what you do and how you do it.” In short, your public persona.
As a student, you most likely have limited work experience to showcase on your CV or professional networking profiles. As such, you need to think out of the box to market your skills, values, and motivations. That’s where your personal brand comes in. It defines who you are as a person and professional, your behaviour, your career goals, and even your style. These days, most of this is done online and is known as a digital personal brand.
While it’s common practice for colleges in the US to check applicants’ social media and online presence, this is less common in the UK. Having said that, some UK universities do check students’ social media profiles as part of the selection process. This is where having a strong online presence, or personal brand, can pay off.
In a nutshell, your personal brand is your online presence. It’s your reputation and how you present yourself as a professional to the world. As you take the next steps in your education or career, your personal brand will show employers and universities who you are.
Personal Branding Tips: Why is Personal Branding Important?
So, why is personal branding important for students? There are many advantages to building a personal brand as a student or graduate. We’ve compiled a list of 5 key benefits.
Create an online presence
Building a digital personal brand allows you to start slowly building an online presence. As you build your online persona, people in your network get to know you. The content you post and share online will reflect your personality and career aspirations. Since it can take time to create an online presence, starting as a student will put you ahead of the packGain visibility
Once you have created an online presence, you will begin to gain visibility. This means more people will see your LinkedIn profile, engage with your posts, and join your circle. By gaining visibility, you dramatically increase your chances of being spotted by the employer of your dreams.
A word of advice, though. Employers (and sometimes universities) often use social media as the deciding factor when choosing between candidates. Therefore, ensure your profile showcases your personal brand and keep your personal social media accounts private.
Build a professional network online
It can take years to build a professional network. However, the benefits are huge. Your professional network can help you to find job opportunities, offer career advice, and recommend you to employers. What’s more, you are more likely to get noticed by the right people if you surround yourself with like-minded professionals.
The earlier you build a personal brand and start creating a network, the better. This will give you a competitive edge when applying for jobs or further education.
Highlight your soft skills and technical skills
Your personal branding on LinkedIn should highlight your skills. For instance, while you may lack technical skills in your career path of choice, you have plenty of soft skills to emphasise. As you create your personal branding, make sure that you showcase the real-life skills you learned at school. Ensuring they are relevant to your brand and target audience.
Stand out in a competitive market
As the job market becomes increasingly tough for students and graduates, personal branding can set you apart. In fact, personal branding for graduates can help you land your first role. Not only does it show your commitment to your future, but it demonstrates that you’re proactive. This is an asset to employers.
While most students and fresh graduates will just be starting to figure out how to market themselves, you’ll already have an online presence. For example, engaging with a company online before applying for a position will significantly increase your odds. What’s more, it shows the employer that you are serious about working with them. This is much more effective than blindly sending your CV to hundreds of companies.
Personal Branding Tips: How to Identify your Personal Brand as a Student
Now comes the hard part; identifying your personal brand. To help you, we’ve put together 6 personal branding tips for students.
1. Define your personal brand statement
The key to successful digital personal branding is consistency. Remember, your message should be the same across LinkedIn, your CV, and your elevator pitch used for job interviews and networking. Furthermore, make sure your graduate portfolio is aligned if you have one.
Generally speaking, a personal brand statement should mention your education, work experience, values, and goals. If you’re stuck, research personal branding examples to get inspiration. Having said that, remember that your personal brand statement should be 100% authentic and original. To help you nail down your statement, try breaking it down into your values, motivators, skills, experiences, and goals.
Here’s an example of a personal brand statement for a fashion sportswear student called Debbie.
- Values: sustainable fashion and fitness
- Motivators: upcycling fabrics in innovative ways
- Specialised skill: blending performance and athleisure wear
- Experience: a work experience placement in the design department of a fitness apparel start up
- Goals: work with big fitness brands to create sustainable collections
“Hi, I’m Debbie and I’m a second-year BA Hons Fashion Sportwear student at London College of Fashion. My passion for sustainable fashion and fitness drives me to come up with innovative ways to upcycle fitness apparel. My goal is to work with big brands to create sustainable fitness apparel that blends performance with athleisure.”
2. Choose a professional platform
While it’s possible to build your personal brand on TikTok or Instagram, LinkedIn is the quickest and most well-known professional platform. LinkedIn allows you to gain insight into the companies and sectors you’re interested in breaking into. What’s more, almost every employer checks a candidate’s LinkedIn profile after receiving their CV.
Twitter is also a great way to engage with thought leaders and employers online. The first step is to update your Twitter profile or start a new professional one. Then, follow relevant employers and influencers. Finally, start engaging and posting regularly.
3. Perfect your profile
To gain traction, your LinkedIn profile should be up-to-date. Follow our checklist below to make sure your profile is ready for action.
- Upload a professional photo with a clear background
- Complete your profile, including your full education background and work experience
- Create a professional email address and an email signature that shows your contact details, online portfolio, website, or professional social media accounts
- Make your brand statement your tagline. You may need to shorten it to one or two lines.
- Use LinkedIn’s Creator option to upload any featured articles or work that you want to show off
- Ask university lecturers, teachers, or previous employers to write you a recommendation on your LinkedIn profile, focusing on your soft skills
4. Connect and engage
Once your profile is ready, it’s time to build your network. Start by following companies, thought leaders, and professional pages in your field. Now you can engage with their posts. More importantly, you can reach out via a direct message to ask for mentorship or work experience.
Posting regularly will help you to gain visibility. If you’re stuck for ideas, try posting about your degree, your internship, when you hand in coursework, and university projects. Additionally, share news and updates about your extracurricular activities.
A word of caution: Always ask employers before posting about internships and work experience.
Alternatively, you can create your own content such as articles about industry trends or case studies in your field. In a nutshell, the key is to regularly post content that is consistent with your personal brand.
5. Keep your CV up-to-date
As you build your personal brand, it’s important to keep updating your CV. This means adding courses you have taken, such as LinkedIn courses and professional short courses. You can even include networking events, volunteering, or working abroad experiences.
Final Thoughts
We hope you found these personal branding tips for students helpful. Personal branding is a great tool for students and graduates to prepare for the future. It’s an opportunity to build an online presence, hone your skills, and stand out in a competitive job market. The first step is to define how you want to present yourself online. Remember, your personal brand should be authentic and reflect your values and goals.
Looking for your dream job? Be sure to check out our dedicated Student and Graduate Jobs Board for fantastic opportunities in your area.
Our website has a wealth of useful resources for graduate jobseekers, including CV writing tips and advice on writing an impactful cover letter. If you have specific questions, feel free to contact us or sign up for the free Developing a Student email newsletter with the form below.
