How Good Are You at Marketing Yourself?

Take control of your own career

UPDATE: AI generated podcast from this article

You are probably good at marketing the company you work for. But how do you respond if you are told to market yourself? You should have the answer ready before you use it.

Today, people change jobs more frequently than just a few years ago. In the last two or three years, large parts of the world’s working life have been through a major wave of downsizing and restructuring. And it is not a temporary state, but a reality we have to get used to.

Being employed today is a risky sport. If you deliver poor results, you can lose your job for the day. No one is safe. Even if you enjoy your job and have your finances in order, changes can suddenly occur that make you have to think again. Humans in manufacturing companies are increasingly replaced by robots, and digitization means that the work employees do can be outsourced to low-cost countries. Some gain different perspectives on their career when they start a family, or discover that they really want to do something completely different.

Have a plan B

If you suddenly find yourself in a situation where your career takes a new direction, it is important to be prepared.

You simply have to have a plan B. There are exactly the same principles that underlie career management as for running a business: You must have a product you can sell, a network to sell the product to and a brand that says something about the product.

It is important to have genuine relationships with the people you have in your network, because you don't do business with a logo, but with people.

When it comes to career management, you yourself are the product you have to sell: Who are you? What value do you create for potential employers? What is your market value? You must build a network towards the target group you are attractive to, and who will buy you and your services.

You should also work on building up a personal brand: What do others say about you when you are not present? It is what determines whether you get your dream job or responsibility for exciting projects you want to lead.

LinkedIn as a tool

Even if you are in a secure position and enjoy your job, there is no reason to wait to take control of your career.

At the same time as you build relationships in your job and spread the company's brand, you can also create relationships in relation to your own career and strengthen yourself as a brand. I work with many senior managers, and I am constantly surprised that even managers who work with branding, and who have no problems marketing the company, suddenly become speechless when I ask them to market themselves.

Make an overview of what you do that creates value (preferably documented in kroner and øre), what is your career capital (education, experience, valuable competence and so on), what are your signature strengths, which network you have and which platforms you operate on.

If you use LinkedIn correctly, it can be a very valuable platform.

Examples of networking platforms can be LinkedIn, a blog, lectures, books you have written or a podcast. It's about finding places where you can make yourself visible to those in your target group.

When it comes to both business and career, LinedIn is definitely the best networking platform.

If you use LinkedIn correctly it can be a very valuable platform. LinkedIn is not a social network like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, which are parts of your private sphere. It is a business network that is not - as many people think - a place to find a new job, but rather a place for skills development. On LinkedIn, you can keep up to date with what is happening within your industry and your field of expertise.

As of 2024, LinkedIn has over 950 million users globally, continuing its growth as a major professional networking platform. It's also home to more than 67 million companies, making it a vital space for business networking and marketing. LinkedIn's reach and engagement have seen significant improvements in recent years, with features like newsletters boasting over 450 million subscriptions.

LinkedIn is a fantastic tool for networking, where you can stay professionally up-to-date and work strategically towards your own defined target group. I have gotten to know many people via LinkedIn whom I have since met in person and developed good, personal relationships with.

This is how you take control of your own career

• Build strong, genuine relationships. It's not about how many people you know, but about how many people know you.

• Build your personal brand. Think about whether you have the right brand in relation to the network you want to make your mark in. It doesn't help if you're the smartest in the world if only your family knows it.

• Be aware of your personal market value in relation to work and career. What value do you create for your employer and customers that makes you deserve your salary?

• What is your career capital: What is unique and valuable about you in terms of education, experience, etc.?

• What are your signature strengths? What tasks are you good at?

• Which people do you have in your network?

• Do I have the right networking platform to succeed in my career?

Are you curious about how you can design your own career and succeed in it? Does that sound interesting?