i'd say you have have to have a resume and a web persona doesn't hurt. it depends on what you try to get across with various web pages. i'd say employers google prospective workers.

I find that part of my "personal brand" is integrity and that is a personal charecteristic.

Austinato,

I agree with you that your brand is a reflection of your work and its quality.

I feel that if someone wants to have a personal brand, especially one online, you do have to cultivate it and tell people about what you do so well.

I think many people are afraid to speak about themselves and how unique, awesome, smart, innovative, etc. they are.

And, of course, it helps to know the audience for your brand--know them really well.

Regards,

Leila

That's a great comment, Leila. I mentioned personal brand as something cultivated or deliberately built up, but you very correctly point to the kind of personal branding which is simply a person's innate good qualities automatically shining out because, well, they're good qualities. Even people who are shy about tooting their horn probably have great qualities that make a good sound on their own.

Right or wrong, your image can affect your career. When you project a confident, professional "brand", people have more confidence in you.

The most important thing I tell my clients is that it should reflect who they really are, people can see right through a fake.

HMMmmmm. Let's see, how much do you enjoy hearing other people tell you how 'awesome' they are. No, me either.

Words are cheap - but important - that is why they should be used wisely. Your accomplishments should define you, not what you say about yourself. The trick is to convey your accomplishments in a none self absorbed manner, and yes, that is a tricky thing to do.

For myself, I let other peoples observations about the quality of my talents and accomplishments do my talking for me. See my LinkedIn profile as an example.

I know I am awesome, but it is somehow unseemly to self promote that fact, don't you think?

Great comment, Rockin. By virtue of their virtues, skilled and talented people are often by nature unwilling to toot their own horn very much, and it is always a good strategy to let others do the horn-tooting for you. That concept goes all the way back to the book of Proverbs in the Bible, and probably even further back.

Assembling a brand from a variety of what could be called documentary sources - LinkedIn, blog, contributions in collaborative environments like TBD - all fit together to help show what a person is about. In career-building mode, you have to have the discipline to maintain these sources and keep the information current and remarkable.