When I first started out in data science, I was just like anybody else when it came to finding a job in data science space.
Long story short, I went to job portals, submitted hundreds of resumes for various data scientist jobs, and “hoped” for the best.
As expected, most of the time I got rejected to a certain point where my inbox was filled with email like:
Thank you for your application for the position of Data Scientist at ___. Unfortunately…
Thank you for your application for the position of Data Scientist at ___. Due to the large volume of applications we received, I am sorry to inform you that…
Sorry… I wasn’t fine.
And most importantly, I was facing a hard time to even get a chance for an interview.
🚀 A Turning Point in My Life
But there was a turning point when I started being active on LinkedIn by learning and sharing with the data science community.
Never did I realize I was actually building my personal brand as a data scientist.
Since then, I’ve also been approached by recruiters/headhunters and companies who are looking for data scientist role.
More surprisingly, the door of opportunities opened up to me — speaking, writing, business and jobs.
These opportunities have not only helped me discover my potential and step out of my comfort zone, but have also brought my career, and even life, to a whole new level which I’d not think possible.
Now, if you were to ask me if there is one thing that I hope I could have learned earlier in my career…
It would be building my personal brand.
By the end of this article, I hope you’ll understand why it is so important to build your personal brand as a data scientist, and hopefully to inspire you to start taking action! 😄
Let’s get started.
So… What’s Personal Brand?
There are many definitions of personal brand if you just google it.
But here is how I see what a personal brand means.
Personal branding is about being YOU — the authentic self with your belief, your own story and experience that demonstrates expertise and authority in your niche.
Personal branding is not about faking your own brand and experiences just to impress hiring managers or employers.
You see. Everyone is unique. Everyone has different perspective, different mindset, and different belief.
You don’t need to be someone else but you. Personal brand is about who you’re and how people perceive you even when you’re not there.
And the best way to build a personal brand is to be YOU.
What are your values? What do you believe in and stand for? Why are you doing what you’re doing? What motivates you?
For me, my mission is to make data science accessible to everyone as well as to empower people and business with clarity and insights using data.
This is what I believe in and this is what motivates me. What about you?
That’s because of their brands and what they believe in. Period.
🍎 Apple believes that people with passion can change the world for the better.
✔️ Nike honors great athletes and they honor great athletics.
Both Apple and Nike rarely talked about their products and people are still buying them because people like their brands and believe in their vision.
And this is very similar to building our personal brands. How would people perceive you when they think of you? Your brand and belief are what attract people/companies towards you.
Each of us has our own brands that we’re carrying ourselves, knowingly or unknowingly. And that’s why it is important that we have self-awareness and discover ourselves at a deeper level.
Why you should build your personal brand as a data scientist… NOW?
1. More job opportunities
If it’s not obvious by now, building a personal brand is a long term strategy for job opportunities in the near future.
You won’t immediately get approached by recruiters/companies when you’re starting out to build your personal brand.
It takes time to build and earn the trust, credibility and relationship.
But once you’ve established your own personal brand in your niche… Trust me, job opportunities will gradually come to you as you’ve positioned yourself as an authority in your space (data science in this case).
And guess what? You no longer have to submit hundreds — sometimes even thousands — of resumes to different job portals, hoping to get replies from them.
2. Network with like-minded people
During the journey of building your personal brand, chances are you’ll leverage social media platforms (LinkedIn, Medium etc.) to provide content and add values to others and let it speak for you.
As a result, you’ll also have the opportunities to network with like-minded professionals in your space.
What this means is that it allows you to continue learning from others while being able to share your passion and knowledge with others beyond geographic restrictions.
3. Discover more about yourself
You see. Talking about building personal brand is easy.
But to really understand what your values are and what it is that you believe in… It’s a different story.
It takes honest, brutal and thorough self-analysis and self-awareness to truly discover yourself at a deeper level.
You’ll begin to question yourself for everything that you’ve been doing and try to understand the WHY behind.
The good news here is that you’ll also be able to understand and discover more about yourself to motivate and drive you forward.
4. Inspire and help others
At the end of the day, building a personal brand is NOT about you.
It’s about inspiring and helping others.
It’s about how you can help other people with your passion, expertise and belief.
And being able to help others is one of the best gifts that I’ve ever received as the fulfilment to help data science aspirants learn more about this field as well as to help business with data science solutions… is invaluable.
Final Thoughts
Thank you for reading.
I hope by now you’ve understood why it is so important to build your personal brand as a data scientist, and hopefully to inspire you to start taking action! 😄
If you think that data science is your long term career path, then building your personal brand in data science is your long term strategy to take your career to the next level.
In fact, I recently created and launched an online course — Data Scientist Personal Brand Toolkit — from scratch to guide you step-by-step on how to build your personal brand as a data scientist.
Those are the exact steps and framework and strategy that I’ve been using to build my personal brand in data science space, and ultimately receive abundant job and other opportunities. Check it out and you’ll know what I mean.
