Most engineers get a bit queasy when I talk to them about branding - especially about branding themselves. "I have a brand already." they tell me, "It's called 'engineer'."
Not so fast, my marketingphobic friend.
Calling yourself a "regular 'ol engineer" is fine and well, but is any employer or client out there really looking for a "regular 'ol engineer". Nope. Not a chance.
If you do job search right now for the word engineer, you'll find a ton of stuff, and all of it will be very, very specific. Nobody wants a plain Jane engineer. And if they do, it means they don't know what they want, and you should run the other way, flailing your hands in the air screaming.
So, if nobody has any interest in generic engineers, it behooves us as professionals to establish ourselves as something other than generic. We gotta brand ourselves if we ever hope to land that next job or big promotion.
What is branding anyway?
Branding is the use of names, phrases, symbols, or design in order to distinguish something (normally products and services) from other things. In our case, we want to brand a person - you. Now, I'm not suggesting you go get a logo designed for yourself or change the name on your business card from "Joe Engineer" to "MegaJoe Engineer 3000". Rather, what I suggest is that you make a decision on what you want to be known as. What makes you different from others in a way that makes you valuable?
Discovering your own brand
The best brands in the world are crystal clear on what they are and what they aren't. Apple is for yuppies like me who are into high design and high end products, not for people who are looking for high value per dollar. Costco is about low prices for higher-end goods, not about great customer service and fancy stores. These both work because the companies are good at communicating what they're about, so there's no shock when you pay much more for an Apple product compared to a Dell.
So the question for you is to decide what you are and what you are not. You can't be everything to all people.
Maybe you're a civil engineer who's specialty is long-span bridges. Maybe you're an electrical engineer with expertise in new product development. Maybe you're a business-oriented engineer who excels at customer relationship management. Whatever you are, you need to be comfortable being that and letting other things go. Look at RIM (now BlackBerry) who was the premier provider of wireless telecom for business professionals who started trying to also be a consumer product group. It blew up on them. Now that they're focused back in the business world, things are looking up again.
Now go forth and brand thyself
Once you've established your own personal brand, I'm going to challenge you to do three things:
- Share with the engineering.com community what your brand is using the comments section below
- Take a look at your LinkedIn profile. Does it communicate your brand effectively to the outside world? If not, fix it!
- Decide on one book and one conference that you're going to tackle this year that will help you reinforce your position as whatever your brand is.
About Pat Sweet