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You’re probably already aware, but it’s important to remember that your personal brand and professional reputation plays a big part in your career development and growth. It doesn’t just matter when you’re employed, but also has a big part to play in your job search process as well. The effort you take to manage your brand (both in-person and online) can make a huge difference in a job search. But if you don’t know where to start when it comes to building a strong professional reputation, it can seem like something you have little to no control over. That’s definitely not the case. There’s a lot you can do the proactively build that brand and grow your career.

In this four-part series, we’re going to explore how your personal brand will directly impact your power generation career. To start off, we’ll dive into what being helpful means for your brand and for your reputation as an employee, a coworker, and as an energy professional.

Be Helpful at Work

It’s safe to say that being seen as a helpful colleague will make you more popular among your coworkers as well as with your manager. But what does it mean to be helpful at work? It’s not always possible to take on tasks or cover for others given your own commitments. But what it does mean, especially in the power industry, is offering advice where it’s relevant, being upfront and honest about your commitments, not overcommitting if you cannot follow through on those promises, and also making recommendations based on experience and knowledge that you hold that is helpful for others within your team. Having good intentions and a focus on teambuilding even from a position of non-leadership will help you be seen as a helpful and well-intentioned coworker invested in the success of the team, as well as the company.

Be Helpful in the Industry

When was the last time you updated your social and professional profiles online? Are you on LinkedIn? Facebook? Twitter? Do you have fresh and relevant content posted regularly? What comes up when someone Google’s your name? These are all key elements to building your personal brand online. If you haven’t bothered to keep up appearances online, it might not seem like a big deal. But if you are looking for some easy wins on building your professional reputation outside of the workplace, this is the place to start. Make sure that these digital touchpoints are saying what you want them. It’s a critical step to building a solid brand online and therefore establishing yourself as a subject matter expert online.

Similarly, being active in online communities such as Facebook or LinkedIn groups or forums can be a reliable way to be helpful in the industry. Your interactions with younger industry professionals will help establish you as a mentor in the industry, and you can even learn a lot about the work outside of your day to day experiences. Being helpful doesn’t just apply to your current team or company. By being helpful within the industry, you can set yourself up for future opportunities simply by building a name for yourself online.

Be Helpful in your Community

While most professionals only reserve a line or two at most for any community activism or volunteering within their resume, being helpful within your community can make a big difference for your career. The truth is you never know who you will meet at a community event or volunteering opportunity. You are actively doing better for your town or community, and therefore doing the work needed to establish yourself as a helpful and caring individual within the broader context of your life. You’ll never know where good actions such as these will take you, in life and in your career.

Connect with ESGI for Career Advice

For more advice on how to build your personal brand and grow your career in the power industry, connect with the team at ESGI today. Check back to see the next part of this personal branding series, coming soon!

 

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