In today’s edition:

• An engineer with a personal brand is unstoppable

• Create your personal brand

• How to market yourself like a company

Engineer + Personal Brand = 🥇 

Most engineers don’t have a personal brand. They believe that the technical skill stack they have spent many years developing will be enough.

Unfortunately hiring managers are deciding between applicants with the same skills and similar experiences.

There is a better way. The engineer with a personal brand will get hired over the engineer without one every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

A personal brand helps you showcase who you are, what you do, and what problems excite you in a way that no resume can.

Besides landing the job of your dreams, a personal brand will enable the following:

• Opportunities will chase you instead of you chasing them. 

• You will meet interesting people who will bring out the best in you and make you better.

• You will have lasting friendships with people you wouldn't have met without your personal brand.

Market Yourself Like a Company

Remember, you are the CEO of your career. As CEO, you must facilitate the discovery of your company and your product.

Imagine there was an inventor in Iowa who successfully developed a way to do cold fusion stably and then didn’t tell anyone about it, made no calls, and had no website.

That’s exactly what you are doing if you don’t make it easy for people to learn more about you.

Yes, I am implying that what you offer the world is as powerful as cold fusion.

I believe in you and what you bring to the table! The first step to building your personal brand is to believe in and not set unnecessary limits for yourself. This is called a growth mindset.

How do companies market themselves?

They have an online presence that provides a consistent customer experience, and clear compelling language around how they solve a specific need for a specific group of people.

How can you apply these elements to building your personal brand?

Create Your Personal Brand

Now that you know the importance and benefits of having a personal brand, let’s build yours!

Linkedin

As an engineer, a great place to start is Linkedin.

Think of it as a tool you can use to reach your target audience and showcase who you are and what you do.

You also will want to build relationships with companies you would like to work for by connecting with their engineers and forming a genuine relationship with them.

So, what does a good profile look like?

William has a clear target audience in his desciption with, “Helping engineers everywhere design, build, test, and ship better hardware products.”

He shows some of his personality with his joke about math which makes him likeable and human.

Personal Website

These days you can build a free no code website that looks beautiful.

Create your personal website to display projects you have worked on, things you care about, and specific language that solves a need for your target audience.

Here’s some great examples that I have come across recently:

Build yours with these tools for free (or low cost):

Create Free Value

This is the one I have done most heavily in my personal brand.

My goal is to help other engineers create a career for themselves that they love!

A pillar of my brand is The Engineering Way. The newsletter for engineering success.

I have built my email newsletter through Beehiiv and it’s been an incredible experience.

If you would like to continue to build your personal brand, consider starting a newsletter through Beehiiv.

By clicking the button below, you will get a three-month free trial and 20% off.

Takeaways:

• It's time to build your personal brand

• A personal brand is your ticket to differentiating yourself

• Market yourself like companies do

Photo of the Week:

Before you leave — HIT REPLY (and say hi)

Let me know what you think of this week’s newsletter by replying to this email. I read every response and would love to hear from you.

Rock on,

Camden