Serif’s Tips for Creating a Dynamic Personal Brand

Below are a few creative tips from Serif, a leading developer of professional and consumer-oriented desktop publishing, design and graphics software, which will help candidates create materials that can exceed the growing expectations of recruiters.

1. Catch Their Eye With a Personal Logo on Your Cover Letter
A well written cover letter can instantly stand out from a pile of applications when emblazoned with a representative personal logo. As with any brand, a personal logo should represent the characteristics a candidate is presenting to a potential employer. Following some brief brainstorming, a logo can be created quickly and easily in a desktop publishing (DTP) program often by slightly modifying an included template.

2. Add Omphf to Your Resume with Color and Graphics
Once the cover letter grabs a recruiter’s attention, maintain their level of excitement by elevating the traditional text-laden resume to a compelling new format by incorporating finely tuned color pallettes or accent graphics. Utilizing a DTP program, like Serif PagePlus X3, a single click can turn the document into HTML format for sending via email or a PDF to preserve formating. This simple step adds that extra bit of professionalism to your resume.

3. Continue the Conversation With a Personal Website
Once a recruiter’s interest is sparked, their first move will be to search for the candidate on the Web. Make an impact by extending your personal brand through an interactive personal website. Web design programs which do not require complicated HTML language knowledge can help create professional, attractive and informative sites that integrate a peronal blog to reinforce qualifications and industry expertise, and provide a clearinghouse for the candidate’s social media feeds.

4. Leave a Lasting Impression With A Portfolio & Business Card
Great qualifications, a perfect resume and a good-looking online presence can help get the interview, but then the focus shifts to maintaining the personal brand during and after the interview. Candidates should make sure they offer samples of their relevant past works (such as artistic portfolio or sample projects or writings) in a full-color, seamless presentation and leave behind a personal business card with all relevant contact information including website address.

5. Brand Your Replies and Thanks You’s
Following any job interview a candidate should send a hand-written thank you note to the interviewing recruiters. Stay fresh in their memory by mentioning a point of conversation from the interview and being sure to include the now-recognizable personal brand logo on any thank you cards or follow-up correspondences.