Financial careerists will find useful ideas in this Shawn Wang post which likely had developers and designers in mind:
How To Market Yourself Without Being A Celebrity (Link)
In fact, if the thought of “marketing yourself” offends you then you are exactly the person who needs to read it. Some of you reading this are crushing it and don’t think you need to self-market. But consider another perspective. A public-facing body of work is an invitation for others to engage. This is an obvious benefit to ladder-climbers. But even if you are satisfied with your career arc, building this outward invitation will be rewarding. It can lead to collaborating on passion projects or causes, it can reduce your cost to hire, and it leads to more credible introductions into domains you are interested in. Domains where you are just a beginner. You are transmuting your prior track record into more general mana.
The entire essay is filled with useful strategies and specific tips down to the tradeoffs of platforms.
Some sections I especially liked:
- Personal branding strategies
Anything but average: I identify as a “Basic Bro” – I have my PS4, and Nintendo Switch, I like Marvel movies and watch the same Netflix shows you watch. Just like the million other Basic Bros like me. Totally basic. Totally boring. NOT a personal brand. In fact anything not “average” is a good candidate for inclusion…
Identity + Opinions: [Shawn gives examples] I really want to give you more hints on this, but I’m afraid if I gave more examples I might limit your imagination.
- Marketing Yourself In Public
Don’t Lie: Stephen Covey calls this the Speed of Trust. Once you lose trust, everything you say gets run against a suspicion check, and you have to put up more proof points to be taken seriously.
Don’t share secrets: I always think about Christopher Lee, who fought in the British Special Forces in World War 2 before his legendary acting career. When pried for information about what he did in the War, he would say: “Can you keep a secret? Well, so can I.”
Inbound vs Outbound Personal Marketing: Borrowing from Hubspot’s Inbound marketing and Seth Godin’s Permission marketing. Outbound Personal Marketing is what most people do what they look for jobs – only when they need it, and trawling through reams of job listings and putting their CV in the pile with everyone else. Inbound Personal Marketing is what you’ll end up doing if you do everything here right – people (prospective bosses and coworkers, not recruiters) knowing your work and your interests, and hitting you up on exactly the things you love to do.
Market Like Nobody’s Watching: Because normal comfort zones are not set up to market yourself, you should try to do a little more than you’re comfortable with. An aggressive form of this advice? If you’re not getting complaints about how you’re showing up everywhere, you’re not doing it enough. This makes sense to some people, and is way too upfront and annoying for others. We all have to find our balance – it’s your name on the line after all.
Market Like One Person’s Watching: Marketing is more effective when it is targeted at a specific someone instead of just everyone…
Market for the Job You Want: This is a variant of “Careful what you wish for… You just might get it.”