Getting hired requires a little outside-the-box thinking - but your presentation still has to be in the range of what's considered professional. There are a lot more candidates out there trying to get your job today than in the past, whether you're a fresh-out of-college business type or a guy who installs hardwood floors.

Personal branding is a huge factor when it comes to making you stand out. It speaks of confidence and professionalism, of understanding where the business world is in terms of promotion and what marketing standards are the norm.

It's important to note that your personal branding must be true. Accuracy is important all the time, but it is especially important when you are looking for a job. No matter how well you sell yourself, if you can't deliver the goods, you'll get fired.

So figure out what it is that is true about you. Obviously your brand must include your name, your specialty, your strengths, how you can turn weakness into strengths by focusing on them and thus eliminating them, and your look. Your look is very important, because it is the first impression that will stay with a potential employer. It doesn't matter that you're the whiz kid everyone's talking about - if you don't look like someone they would want in their office, they are not going to hire you, no matter what your skill set is.

You also can't be a generalist in this day and age. I don't mean that you should pinpoint your job skills down to the last nth.no employer wants to see that you have perfected your Microsoft Excel skills but have no clue how to work Word.

Take your profession, and look very hard for an area of need. If you are in publicity, for instance, many agencies have difficulty understanding the correct way to penetrate the blogosphere. If you had excellent skills in writing press releases, had a great network of media friends with whom to place stories, a keen eye for event newsmaking, and understood how to get bloggers and other social networkers to write about you.you'd have a skill that is fairly uncommon in the traditional marketplace.



Sell that worth to an employer, and you can overcome a lot of issues. Take charge of the hiring process by being the stand-out with all the right skills, plus some very intriguing new options.

A good way to start looking for a job is with your foot already in the door. Figure out what kind of job you want before you start this. A friend of mine is a very conservative guy, and wrote about conservative politics on his very popular Washington, D.C. blog. Now this proclivity did him a lot of harm in his job as a journalist, because it offended his editor's more left-leaning sensibilities. However, when he decided to leave the newsroom, it was a cinch for him to get a job as a political pundit for a conservative think tank. He'd certainly paid his dues, but he'd also paved the way for a new job at three times the money he made as a reporter.

However, if you are looking for a more standard job - one that doesn't reward you for throwing out controversial ideas left and right - it's probably a really bad idea to make your political thoughts part of your brand. That goes for sexual orientation, sexual activities, drinking activities, past drug problems, and your really bad break-up with the last significant other.

The fact of the matter is that all of these things - and many more personal details - will get you pre-judged. There's no point going into a job interview with a strike against you. Also, all of that stuff falls into the category of none of their business. If something happened - say a drug problem - which you have to address, address it briefly and say you've moved past it. There may be private stuff you have to share in the interest of keeping the job - because everybody does background checks now - but it doesn't need to be sitting on your homepage giving people the idea that you have too much baggage for them to consider.