differentiate yourself Archives - Engineering Management Institute

This is a guest blog by Jamie Buck

In this article, I’d like to discuss how I stumbled onto the path of personal branding by identifying my area of expertise. By sharing this story, I hope you are able to take a few shortcuts to finding your own path to personal branding.

First, why are personal branding and expertise important?

Personal branding is a way to differentiate yourself from the crowd, a time-tested cornerstone of career development. Additionally, it invites conversation with like-minded folks.
Developing expertise is essential to personal branding. It may be subjective but can be seen as a skill that adds additional value. You may ask, don’t we all have expertise? Well, yes and no. To the outside world, a discipline (such as engineering) may be seen to have a level of expertise, but within the bounds of that discipline, at best, it can be a level playing field unless you actively build your expertise.

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In this session of The Engineering Career Coach Podcast, I am going to give you six action items you can use to differentiate yourself in the industry. Please note, most of these actions are the opposite of what most people will tell you to do.

“The job is what you do when you are told what to do. The job is showing up at the factory, following instructions, meeting spec, and being managed.

Someone can always do your job a little better or faster or cheaper than you can.

The job might be difficult, it might require skill, but it’s a job.

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

I call the process of doing your art ‘the work.’ It’s possible to have a job and do the work, too. In fact, that’s how you become a linchpin.

The job is not the work.”

― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

The Take Action Today segment of the show will highlight one of the items discussed that can give you immediate results.

Listen to this session and learn: [Read more…] about TECC 27: The Engineering Career Coach Podcast – Six Action Items for Differentiating Yourself as an Engineer by Doing Things that You Are Not Always Supposed to Do