Young Business Professionals Building Their Personal Brands

Purpose of the study Personal branding, that is, presenting one’s skills, motivation and personality to create a certain image of oneself, is suggested as a solution to fight the insecurities of today’s working life. This study sheds light on how young business professionals, in search of their entry positions, build their personal brands to gain employment. The study concentrates, but is not limited to online context and professional social networks. Data and methodology The research is conducted with qualitative methods and is adopting an interpretive approach. Netnography in the biggest professional social networking site, LinkedIn, was first conducted. Based on theory and netnography, six semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed, coded and analyzed. Findings Six themes were found: (1) conscious and consistent building of online presence, (2) leveraging networks to facilitate employment and visibility, (3) sharing personal facts to find a real match, (4) conforming to industry norms, (5) fighting the insecurity by offering proof, and (6) using visual aids to support claims and enrich the story. Millennials seem to place more emphasis on social capital and personality, than on competence, since they highly appreciate e.g. self-fulfillment. Especially the new findings on anxiety towards personal branding offer an important avenue for further research