Careers blog: Rethinking your personal brand

Your personal brand isn’t about self-promotion, it’s about clarity on what you do, how you add value, and where you’re heading next. Alumni Careers Manager Konstantina Dee takes us through a festive-themed framework for rethinking your personal brand.

The holidays are almost here! While I'm revisiting classics like the Nutcracker and 'The Little Match Girl' (a personal favourite!), it's Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" that always sparks insights into personal and professional transformation.

For me Scrooge's transformation mirrors a challenge many alumni face: He'd lost clarity about who he was and where he was headed. He was trapped in an outdated identity, unable to see how he needed to evolve.

Sound familiar? Many experienced professionals struggle not with past failures, but with articulating their current value and future direction. The three spirits gave Scrooge perspective on past, present, and future. I would like to use that framework to rethink personal brand.

Past: Update your personal brand

Scrooge's initial character is trapped by his painful memories and past disappointments. Similarly, professionals get caught in past failures and in past versions of their successes. Let’s pause and consider how your expertise has evolved.

Carry out a personal 6 months’ review to cover:

• What challenges am I solving now that I wasn't addressing three years ago?
• How would I want someone to describe what I do today?
• Does my professional narrative reflect my present reality?

The answers to these questions will help you update your LinkedIn profile, your CV and give you a different language to talk about your current work. It is not re-inventing your personal brand, it is maintaining currency and accuracy.   

Where WBS can help: Your school Careers Team, your mentor, and fellow alumni can help you talk through your evolution and update your career narrative.

Present: Position yourself in an evolving landscape

You have heard and read it all, the way we work is changing daily and people fear losing their jobs. However, in the anxiety it is easy to lose sight of aspects of your expertise that are becoming more valuable in the present. Pause and recognise that your existing knowledge and skills will be naturally transferable to the next challenge.

At the end of each year, you can consider:  

• What new challenges emerged this year where I was well positioned to help?

Where WBS can help: Faculty research shows you where industries are heading. Read the latest Core Insights and the latest Core Magazine. In addition, WBS alumni in similar fields can provide insights for new fields for your expertise.  

Future: Your career insurance

You're already an established professional. You don't need personal branding as a marketing tool to prove yourself. Instead, think of personal branding as career insurance or strategic positioning for opportunities you can't predict yet.

The goal isn't the typical definition of personal brand: “What people say about you when you're not in the room.” To me this feels too passive and vague.

How about a new goal? When someone in your network asks: 'Who do we know in X who understands Y challenge and can actually deliver results?”. You want to be the name that surfaces.  So, unlike other advice around personal branding, I would suggest that your personal brand comes through:  

• Kindness and generosity in your network
• Showing up consistently in the right conversations
• Making valuable introductions and connections
• Having a clear, current profile that reflects your expertise evolution.

Your personal brand review should consider what you want to achieve, and this will determine your strategy too. Is it:  

• Internal promotion?
• Opportunity for an industry shift?
• Establishing board credibility?
• Staying intellectually engaged?

Where WBS can help: You have institutional credibility. Starting with “As a WBS alum...” instantly signals your calibre, your rigorous thinking, analytical depth, high standards. It's a shortcut most professionals don't have. You can increase your visibility through WBS platforms like alumni panels and networking events, research and conference engagement.

Scrooge's transformation wasn't about being nicer but was about seeing himself clearly for the first time in decades.  Don’t let the ghosts of your present, past and future haunt you but consider: 

1. What version of my professional self am I carrying that's outdated?
2. Where has my expertise evolved in ways I haven't articulated?
3. What does my strategic positioning lie?   

 Happy holidays and here’s to your clarity of who you are!