The Power of Perception

I am speaking at an event called recruitDC on Thursday. I will talk about personal branding for HR and recruiting professionals. I have given this talk 100 times. Sometimes it’s geared for human resources professionals. Sometimes I talk to job seekers. And I have delivered this keynote in a bar to a bunch of drunks-slash-comedians.

(This is true.)

I always start off by telling people that I don’t believe in branding. You are not a bottle of Tide. You don’t have a brand. You have a soul.

I do believe in the art and power of perception.

1. What do people think of you when they see you?
2. What do people think when they find you online?
3. What exists in the gap between what you convey and what people perceive?

And I am totally obsessed with narrowing the gap between who you are in your private life and who you are in your public life. We all wear masks, of course, but a bifurcated identity is no way to manage life. You are not Batman. You don’t need to differentiate your public life from your private life.

(You sure as hell don’t need two LinkedIn accounts and two Facebook accounts, by the way. That’s just a waste of time — as a recruiter, a job seeker, and a human being.)

I hope to see you on Thursday, but if not, you can always hire me to talk to your recruiters about personal branding and perception. Your talent acquisition team evaluates candidates based on sketchy and invalid google searches; however, many of them can’t stand up to the scrutiny they demand of job seekers.

I can help you fix that.