Top Ten Steps for Building Your Personal Brand to Start Your Career

1) Asses what “skills” you gained at your internships/job (not tasks completed).

•  This is your value to future employers.  Adapt these skills to their needs.
  
  

2) List the projects you completed while at your internship/job in order to develop case studies of your work.

• Skills learned applied to tasks given = value to future employer 
  
  

3) Own your name: www.YourName.com

• Register your name’s domain at: Register.com, GoDaddy.com, etc.
  
  

4) Create an online website to house your accomplishments, i.e. AngeloScialfa.com.

• Weebly.com, Wix.com, etc. are easy to use and have great templates. 
  
  

5) Create a personal logo and/or "look" for yourself with specific color, design, font, etc. for your website, business cards and letterhead.

•  Hire a designer to help create the look. 
  
• Or possibly hire another student so he can build his portfolio.
  
  

6) Create a strong LinkedIn profile, 100%. 

• Use a Business/Professional profile picture only.
• Be sure to include your contact information. 
• Do not accept invitations to connect from friends unless they are in the same field -- this is not Facebook.
  
  

7) Ensure that Twitter, Facebook and all other personal social media accounts are “clean.”

• Create a second Twitter for business.  If you use your personal account be sure old tweets are “clean” as well. 
• Close Facebook until you get a job, or at least clean it and stop posting.
  
  

8) Do NOT text a prospective employer.

9) Check email at least four (4) times per day. 

• Businesses use email, and if you are not responsive, employers will believe that behavior is indicative of your work ethic.
  
  

10) Want to get through to the decision maker?  Send a letter via snail mail!