Dr. Neil Hair

Flying the flag, but failing in the plight of the personal brand? Did you know that the world wide web was invented by a Brit? Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented global hypertext – the language that allows us to share and experience hypermedia information (web sites people) – and is now, largely as a result of this, a Knight of the British Empire. Sir Tim also embodies the simple fact that engineers do not always make good designers when it comes to personal home pages. As you will see, there is much to be learnt. Closer to home in America, I am increasingly alarmed at the fact that students getting ready to graduate have little to no experience with managing their own 'personal brand'. Whilst I've eluded to tactics that might be adopted in previous posts I've not talked as much about the use of sites. As with any strategy, benchmarking good practice is a sensible starting place. See what others are doing out there, forget google, for the moment. Consider looking through student homepages that are situated on university servers. Not everyone can afford expensive monthly charges on external hosts. You'll spend more time swearing at google then gaining any benefit from it. Consider a virtual CV, additional points about you that you cant cram onto a single sheet of paper. Dont forget the blog, but please make it relevant (no one need know you penchant for 'Pearings with Andria' or your love of Monty Python [as commendable as those things are]). Pictures also add value to a prospective employer, they show a life outside of work, outside of university and outside the 2 dimensional resume. What about examples of your efforts? Market yourself in the same way you'll be asked to market your organization. Remember above all else though, that the site should be professional in nature, the frat pics have got to go the same way as the schmuck@schmucksville.com email address and 'tanning with my girls' comments in personal interests of your bios. For a good example of how to do it, visit my good friend and former student's site www.mopostal.com. A similarly excellent example is that of Jason Parry, another former student whose work remains cutting edge http://homepage.mac.com/jason.parry/. Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the means by which we can communicate our wares, what you do with it to market yourselves is limited only by your own creativity. As ever, I would love to hear from your own efforts in this area.