Brand Talent Over at Glassdoor

There is a new article over at the Glassdoor blog that I would love to get your comments on.

Almost four years ago I was struck by this idea of Brand Talent. Three years ago Dave Lefkow and I spent an exciting couple of days locked in a beach house, drinking Jack Daniels, trying to develop Brand Talent into a book idea. Dave got smart and decided to go Bacon and get all famous, leaving me to keep muddling this idea over in my head.

Every once in a while I would put something new up about the topic, but overall it just sat there in the corner of my brain. And then about two months ago I was approach by the eponymous Rusty Rueff and asked to be a part of a new blogging adventure over at Glassdoor. I eagerly and gratefully accepted.

That was the easy part. Thinking about what I wanted to write about was of course the much tougher follow-up to acceptance. I wanted to have freedom to cover areas that are interesting to me and (I think) important to job seekers, but also wanted a certain coherence to my arguments at the same time. And I also wanted the topics to help both Glassdoor achieve their objectives, but also help support Dolby as I started to work with my new team over there to create the "next big thing."

One night, during a late writing binge, it struck me that Brand Talent might fit the bill. As I mulled it over, I became more excited about the topic, and am now fully committed to it. I hope that the few readers who haven't abandoned me due to my unpredictable writing schedule will kindly help by reading and leaving comments to drive the discussion forward. If you do, I can promise you a front-row seat at the next unconference, which is indeed going to happen and be focused on the "next big thing." More on that later.

The Glassdoor experience has been wonderful so far. I would heartily recommend reading all the posts. Of course it is no secret that I am a John Sumser partisan, and when he writes things like:

"School did not prepare you for twenty-first century work life. It’s no longer a question of jumping through the right hoops. You can’t get good enough grades. You have to be your own employment agency."

Thus my partisanship becomes even more entrenched. John is exactly right, and I am looking forward to using the venue to riff with all the authors about topics that are near and dead to our talent futures.

Comments

[Debra Feldman]

The comment that in the 21st C, you are your own employment agency hearkens back to Tom Peter's seminal work, the Brand You50, which seems to have been adopted hook, line and sinker by every professed personal branding strategist on the planet.
To put this important concept succinctly, I inform all JobWhiz clients that their network is their long term, future career insurance. Each employee has to proactively seek out contacts that are most likely to provide job leads and career support. No one can expect their career to progress simply by doing their job well. Not only must one learn to graciously and appropriately toot their horn so that influential decision makers become aware of their go-to area of expertise, but they must focus on realizing visibility for their talent both inside their current employer organization, among their professional colleagues, among the recruiting community and disseminating their knowledge on the social networking platforms that are respected and followed by those in their field. For the many who have unexpectedly found themselves in this very competitive job market minus the essential connections, a critical component of successful and accelerated job search results is networking purposefully, initiating introductions, promoting meaningful dialogues and keeping centered on the radar screens of individuals who are hiring decision makers or those on whom hiring managers rely for talent recommendations and personal referrals. @Debra_Feldman