Now’s the time to come up with a “tag line,” something that identifies you, describes you, brands you.  I might meet someone and say “Hi!  I’m Paula, and I teach self-marketing magic for the real world.”  What can you say about yourself?  Make it short, punchy, useful, and above all, memorable.  And use it, the way — a couple of millennia ago — Avon used to use “Ding-dong! Avon calling!”  The line for Energizer batteries is, “It keeps going, and going, and going…”

What value do you add?  What sets you apart?  What could bring you immediately, and memorably, to mind in a positive way?  Start thinking up that line now, and when you’re satisfied with it, use it at every opportunity.  Put it on your Linked In profile.  Use it on your website.  Introduce yourself at business functions by using it.  And, of course…when you say it, smile.

But if you’re looking for an assessment that is accessible, remarkably easy to self-administer and score, incredibly accurate and perceptive, and takes only 10 minutes to do, I’d recommend picking up a book titled “CAREER MATCH…Connecting Who You Are with What You’ll Love to Do”, by Shoya Zichy with Ann Bidou.  The book, published by Amacom, the imprint of the American Management Association, is all that and more.

What can you learn about yourself from “CAREER MATCH”?  What are your natural work-related strengths?  What’s your ideal work environment?  Your ideal boss?  What careers attract you?  What are you like as a leader, and as a team player?  What are your personality’s challenges?  What’s your job search style and your interviewing style?  How can you get along with other, very different, styles at work?  What’s your salary negotiating and investment style?  It’s all here, in one superb book!

My suggestion?  Buy the book — it’s available on Amazon.com — take the 10 minute exercise, and then let’s work together, using the results, to get the very most out of what you now know about yourself.  Can I help you figure out what you want to do?  It’s a lot easier with this information under your belt!

Gone.  Finito.  Job hunting is more time-consuming now, and much, much more sophisticated.  And what it has become is . . . sales.  Well, guess what?  What do really successful products and services have?  Right!  They have instantly recognizable and well-loved brands.  Sometimes those brands are so successful that their names have come to stand for all the different makes of the same thing. . . think of “Kleenex” for facial tissues, and “Scotch Tape” for cellophane tape; think “Jello” for fruit-flavored gelatin dessert, and “Coke” for cola-flavored sodas.

What’s happened to the job search is that, to differentiate yourself from your competition, and turn you into the candidate of first choice, you’ve got to build your own brand.  Who are you?  What are your key strengths?  What sets you apart from your peers?  How do you want people to remember you?  For what?

It took me a couple of years to realize that what I did, and what I wanted people to know that I could help them with, was developing their “career charisma.”  It’s my way of letting you know how maximize your identity and strengths.

I’m hereby inviting all readers to send me a one-sentence description of your brand . . . what’s your personal statement, which will make you instantly recognizable, and make you stand out, memorably, in people’s minds?

What I’d like to suggest, additionally, is that while you’re waiting for my site to be fully operational you check out an excellent book.  Titled Career Distinction, and written by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson, it provides amazingly clear and helpful information about “personal branding”…what it is, why it’s important, and how to do it.  It’s published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., ISBN-13:978-0-470-12818-3