4 Steps to Building Your Personal Brand Story for a Successful Career Change (incl. a Real-Life Example)

Jun 01, 2023

Are you asking yourself, “How to make a career change?” or thinking, “I want to change careers but don't know what to do”? You’re not alone! Many feel overwhelmed by the idea of shifting careers, especially when it seems like their qualifications might not cut it.

But let’s consider this for a moment: the professionals you admire aren’t superheroes; they’re just regular people who learned how to tell their stories effectively. Crafting your personal brand story is the secret weapon you need in today’s competitive job market. It highlights your unique skills, experiences, and the value you bring to potential employers.

In this article, you’ll discover four key steps to build your personal brand story:

How to Gain Clarity on Your Career Change Goal
Find Your Brilliance for a Career Pivot
How to Tell Your Personal Brand Story Through the Lens of Your Brilliance
Sharing your narrative in a compelling way.

Whether you're ready to leap or still figuring out how to shift careers, this guide will give you the tools you need to resonate with hiring managers and showcase your true potential. Let’s dive in!

How To Make A Career Change

Let me start by introducing you to my former client Rachel. Rachel had 4 jobs in the last 10 years: Sales Lead, Client Services Assistant, Logistics Account Executive, and Instructional Designer.

She wanted to change careers (again), but was afraid that her lack of a straightforward career path would work against her. She was feeling overwhelmed and unsure of how to tell her story in a way that made sense to hiring managers.

Using a simple 4-step approach on how to change career paths with no experience, I helped Rachel connect the dots and craft a personal brand story that resonated with hiring managers. And guess what? You can do it, too! Here’s how:

Step 1: Gain Clarity on Your Career Change Goal

It all starts with gaining career clarity on what you truly want to do next in your career. This step is crucial because it sets the foundation for your personal brand story. Without a clear goal, it can be difficult – almost impossible even – to connect the dots and tell a coherent narrative that resonates with hiring managers.

Why Career Clarity Matters for a Successful Career Change

To gain clarity on your career goal, start by asking yourself the following questions:

What kind of work excites you?
What are your values, and what kind of work aligns with them?
What kind of impact do you want to make in your career?
What are the non-negotiables for you in a career, such as work-life balance, salary, or company culture?
What are the skills and experience you already have that can be transferable to a new career?

By answering these questions, you can begin to develop a clearer picture of what you want to do in your career. It’s important to be honest with yourself and not limit your aspirations based on your current skill set or experience. By identifying your ultimate career goal, you can then begin to work backward and identify the steps you need to take to get there.

Rachel's Career Turn: Finding Her Path

Let’s take Rachel’s example. After 3 weeks of career clarity work, she found the answer she’d been searching for for over a decade: She wants to find a position as a Training and Development Manager. By having this clarity on her career goal, she was now able to focus her job search and tailor her personal brand story to showcase her relevant experience and skills.

Without this clarity on her career goal, Rachel may have been applying to a wide range of jobs and not landing any interviews. By knowing what she wanted and focusing her job search, Rachel was able to increase her chances of landing her dream job.

Now it’s your turn. What is your ideal next career step?

Having this clarity, you can now tailor your story to showcase your relevant skills and experience.

Step 2: Find Your Brilliance For a Career Pivot

Now that you have clarity on your career goal, it’s time to find your brilliance. Your brilliance is the unique combination of skills, strengths, and interests that make you stand out from the crowd. When you can identify your brilliance, you can use it as the lens through which you tell your personal brand story.

Reflecting on Your Unique Skills to Change Profession

To find your brilliance, start by taking a deep dive and ask yourself the following questions.

What are some things that people often come to you for help with?
What are some aspects of your job that you find particularly satisfying or enjoyable?
What are some accomplishments in your professional life that you are particularly proud of?
What are some areas in which you feel confident and knowledgeable?
What are some things that you would do even if you weren’t getting paid for them because you find them so enjoyable or rewarding?

As you reflect on these questions, you may start to notice patterns and themes emerging. You might discover that you have a knack for problem-solving, that you are a great listener, or that you have a natural talent for leadership. Whatever it is, pay attention to the things that make you stand out.

Strategies to Identify Your Brilliance

Identifying your brilliance can be challenging, as it may be difficult to recognize your own strengths and talents. You might not even be aware of the things that make you stand out because they come so naturally to you. Here are 3 strategies that can help you overcome this challenge:

Asking for input from others. You can ask friends, family members, colleagues, or mentors what they think your strengths are or how they perceive you. Their insights might surprise you and help you see yourself in a new light.
Working with an experienced career coach to gain clarity on your brilliance and career goals. A great coach will guide you through a process of self-discovery, ask you the right questions, and help you see patterns and themes that you might have missed on your own.
Taking an assessment. The Sparketype Assessment is a great option, as it helps you identify the work that makes you come alive, which is the thing that you were born to do. Another popular tool is the CliftonStrengths assessment which helps you identify your top strengths and talents and gives you insights into how to use those strengths to your advantage in your career.

Rachel's Career Change Journey: Finding Her Brilliance

Let’s go back to Rachel’s example. By identifying her spark, skills, and strengths, she built her confidence and found her brilliance to be building trusting relationships and mentoring and guiding others to grow.

Knowing your brilliance, just like Rachel, will give you a solid foundation for crafting your personal brand story.

So, take the time to explore your brilliance and use it to your advantage in the next step.

Step 3: How to Tell Your Personal Brand Story Through the Lens of Your Brilliance

After gaining clarity on her career goal and identifying her brilliance, Rachel was able to craft a personal brand story that highlighted her strengths and made her stand out to hiring managers. The key to crafting a compelling personal brand story is to tell it through the lens of your brilliance.

Changing Job Roles with Confidence

Rachel looked back at her previous roles and identified specific examples of how she used her brilliance to excel in her work. She focused on her ability to build trusting relationships, mentor and guide others to grow. Here are examples of how she told her story:

As a Sales Lead, Rachel conducted regular training sessions to help her team develop their sales skills. She identified each team member’s strengths and weaknesses and tailored her coaching to their individual needs. Her team consistently exceeded their sales targets and received positive feedback from clients.

As a Client Services Assistant, Rachel listened to her clients’ feedback and concerns and offered personalized solutions to help them achieve their goals. She built strong relationships with her clients, which led to repeat business and referrals.

As a Logistics Account Executive, Rachel collaborated with her team to develop effective logistics solutions and supported and mentored younger colleagues. She was known for her ability to motivate her team and foster a positive and productive work environment.

As an Instructional Designer, Rachel created engaging and interactive training materials to help learners develop new skills and deepen their knowledge. She incorporated her passion for mentoring and guiding others into her work, and her training programs received high praise from learners and managers alike.

Career Change: Crafting a Future Vision

In the future, as a Training and Development Manager, Rachel seeks to foster a culture of continuous learning and development through ongoing feedback and coaching. She is dedicated to helping others reach their full potential and is always looking for new and innovative ways to improve the training programs she oversees.

By telling her story through the lens of her brilliance, Rachel was able to show hiring managers how her unique strengths and experiences could benefit their organization. Her personal brand story demonstrated her passion for mentoring and guiding others, and her ability to create engaging and effective training programs.

Now it’s your turn. What is your story, told through the lens of your brilliance?

Step 4: Connect the dots

Now it’s time to bring together the different pieces of your personal brand story and weave them into a cohesive narrative that will resonate with hiring managers. This step is where you connect the dots between your career goals, your brilliance, and your past experiences to create a compelling story that showcases your unique value proposition.

For Rachel, this meant taking her examples from Step 3 and using them to tell a story that demonstrated her expertise and value as a Training and Development Manager. She started with her career goal of landing a position in this field and then used her brilliance as a guide to showcase her unique strengths and abilities.

By connecting the dots between her past experiences and her future goals, Rachel was able to create a personal brand story that highlighted her ability to build relationships, mentor others, and foster a culture of learning and development. She talked about how she had used these skills in her previous roles as a Sales Lead, Client Services Assistant, Logistics Account Executive, and Instructional Designer, and how they had prepared her for her next career move.

For example, when talking about her time as a Sales Lead, Rachel highlighted how she had conducted regular training sessions to help her team develop their sales skills. This demonstrated her ability to mentor and guide others, which was a key part of her brilliance. She also talked about how she had listened to her clients’ feedback and concerns as a Client Services Assistant, and used this information to offer personalized solutions that helped them achieve their goals. This demonstrated her ability to build trusting relationships, which was another aspect of her brilliance.

Crafting a Compelling Career Change Story

By highlighting these specific examples and connecting them to her brilliance and career goals, Rachel was able to position herself as an expert in training and development who had a proven track record of building relationships, mentoring others, and fostering a culture of learning and development. This made her stand out from other candidates and positioned her as the ideal candidate for the job.

This step is all about bringing together the different pieces of your personal brand story and weaving them into a cohesive narrative that showcases your unique value proposition. By connecting the dots between your career goals, your brilliance, and your past experiences, you can create a story that resonates with hiring managers and sets you apart from other candidates.

Rachel's Career Shift Journey Results

As Rachel’s journey shows, you can overcome the challenges of a non-linear career path and find success in a new field. Just three months after crafting her personal brand story, she landed a position as a Talent Development Manager at a leading tech company, enjoying a 17% pay increase and a role that aligns perfectly with her passion for mentoring others.

Remember, the people doing the work you’d love to do aren’t superheroes; they’re just regular folks who’ve successfully crafted their personal brand stories. You can do the same!

Take a deep breath. Gain clarity on your career goal. Identify your brilliance. Tell your story through that lens, and connect the dots between your experiences and aspirations. Following these steps puts you on the path to a personal brand story that showcases your unique strengths and empowers you to take control of your career.

Frequently Asked Question About Career Change

How do I write my personal brand story?

Writing your personal brand story involves four essential steps.

Step one is gaining clarity on your career goal, which serves as the foundation for everything, including your personal brand story.
Step two is discovering your brilliance by identifying what makes you unique and defining the lens through which you want to present your brand story.
Step three involves telling your story through this lens of brilliance, highlighting your unique qualities and strengths.
Finally, step four is about connecting the dots and weaving all your previous work experiences into a cohesive narrative that resonates with hiring managers.

By following these four steps, you'll create a compelling story that sets you apart from other candidates and captures the attention of hiring managers.

How long should I stay at a job before making a career change?

In general, staying at a job for one to three years can be sufficient before making a strategic move to a different position. To decide if now is the right time for a change, consider your job satisfaction—if you feel unhappy and unfulfilled in your role, it's a clear sign to consider a change. Evaluate your work-life balance; if your current job doesn't allow for a healthy balance, it might be time to explore other opportunities. Assess growth opportunities within your organization; if your growth has stagnated or there are no prospects for advancement, moving on could be beneficial.

Be clear about your future professional and personal goals, including your income aspirations, and align your career moves with these targets. Lastly, if you're unsure whether now is the right time for a career change, seek professional advice. Consult mentors, a career coach, or other professionals in your desired field to gain insights and guidance. By considering these factors, you can make a well-informed decision about your career trajectory.

What is a personal brand and why is it important for your career?

A personal brand is an authentic statement that defines who you are professionally and the unique value you bring. It’s essentially what others perceive about you when you’re not in the room—what you are known for. It's crucial to intentionally craft this perception rather than leaving it to chance.

Your personal brand should reflect what you want to be known for, and this should be evident in every professional interaction, whether on your LinkedIn profile or in conversations. A strong personal brand is vital for your career because it communicates your strengths, skills, achievements, and aspirations clearly to others. Without a defined personal brand, people may not fully understand your capabilities or career goals.

This clarity is essential for career advancement, whether you aim to move up in your current field, transition into a new industry, make a lateral move, or seek a promotion. By consciously shaping your personal brand, you ensure that others recognize you for the qualities and ambitions you want to be known for, significantly impacting your professional growth and opportunities.

Conclusion: Your Personal Brand Story

And now, go ahead and embark on this journey of self-discovery and storytelling. Believe in your potential, embrace your brilliance, and let your personal brand story be your edge in the job market. You have the power to create your own opportunities and shape the future you desire.

The world is waiting to hear your story – so go ahead and share it with confidence and conviction. And just like Rachel, you too can create a happy ending for your career journey with exciting new opportunities, personal fulfillment, and success in an industry that aligns with who you are.

Before you dive into crafting your own personal brand story, I encourage you to get your copy of the Ultimate Transferable Skills Guide. In just 12 minutes, you'll have a refined list of skills that not only highlight what you're good at but also what makes you feel alive.

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