5 ways to raise your career profile
Getting your name and accomplishments in front of decision-makers is a challenge. Here are five ways to raise your profile and market yourself effectively in your industry or region. Almost everything you’ll do here is about sharing yourself – not self-promotion.
1. Focus on your accomplishments and results, rather than your job duties. Put numbers to anything that you can.
Let’s say your job involved managing a Twitter account. Which item will get more attention on your resume or LinkedIn profile?
Posted content on Twitter and did industry chats.
Increased Twitter engagement by 22% through organic content strategy and weekly leadership of industry chats.
It can be hard to quantify things after you leave a role, so spend a little time each week tracking these metrics and crunching them. It also helps you at performance evaluation time.
2. Write articles and columns to share insights and ideas. They make great clips and help establish your reputation as an expert. Find a general-interest or niche publication that would be a good fit and submit something in your area of expertise. For example, I published two communications-oriented articles in magazines serving summer camp directors.
3. Speak at industry events and conferences. Organizers are always looking for speakers who can offer solutions or an unusual twist on a problem. Don’t promote or pitch your services, but focus on your audience’s needs. Do you have a challenging situation that you can turn into a case study with positive results? Starting with breakout group panels is a great starting point. Offering to moderate a panel is another good way to get yourself in front of the organizers, especially if you’re new to the organization or industry.
4. Set up a small consulting gig on the side, as big or as little as you want. One client a month means that after a year you can have 12 references and testimonials to talk about why you’re great.
5. Do something to help other people in your line of work. Start a support group, networking club, or roundtable discussions. Share jobs and offer advice to entry-level people in your industry. People really remember the positive things you do. For example, I created a weekly marketing and communications jobs list for my state — not to raise my profile, but because there wasn’t anything like it out there. The side benefits that came around later included getting my name out there on LinkedIn every week, plus creating new relationships with amazing people I would never have met otherwise.