Branding, Career Development, Job Search
Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill
4 Ways Helping Others Can Define Your Brand

“You are only as good as the good you do for others.” ~Unknown

The above quote has been part of my email signature since 2011 and has come to represent both the philosophy by which I try to live my life and the mantra upon which I base my career & business. As I have worked with various clients on defining their professional brand, I have realized that more than anything -- a brand is our offer of value to others. The beauty in this perspective is that we all have something of value to offer and contribute to the world. The challenge is how difficult it can be to identify and articulate this value in a way that resonates with others and inspires them to engage with you.

If you think about it, a job posting is just the far wordier equivalent of the classic, “Help Wanted” sign, hung in a retail store window. Employers are seeking the best person they can find to help them deal with a specific set of pain points that are currently hurting their business. Your job as a candidate is to develop a brand and career platform that demonstrates your experience in resolving this or a similar enough set of pain points to be compelling.

4 Ways Helping Others Can Define Your Brand
Job Search, Culture, Career Development, Career Advancement, Networking, Resumes
Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill
How Culture Impacts Talking About Your ...

“Don’t boast, it’s not the right thing to do.”

These are the words I often heard from my late mother during my childhood whenever she thought I was feeling myself just a little too much. The irony of her instruction was the fact that she, objectively, had a lot that she could boast about without anyone giving her the side-eye. My mother was the first woman to serve as the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. She was also the first woman chosen to run as a Vice Presidential candidate in Ghana’s political history.

Despite being a woman of many firsts, she was incredibly humble both by nature and by nurture of the collectivist and humility-led Ghanaian cultural context she grew up in. You would never catch her bragging and she taught me accordingly. To this day I feel awkward in the face of praise and uncomfortable when discussing my own achievements.

Does this feel/sound familiar to you?

How Culture Impacts Talking About Your Achievements
Career Development, Career Advancement, Job Search, Motivation
Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill
Speak Up, You Never Know Who is Listening

It’s been an interesting journey so far in my 18+ months of adventures and lessons as a new solopreneur. I am still yet to “arrive,” but looking back, I’ve made significant progress thanks to the community I’ve found and built on LinkedIn. One of the scariest things about joining, and more specifically, contributing to a digital, public conversation, is a fear of the unknown. This “unknown” relates both to peoples’ receptivity and response to what you or I share. This is a valid fear/anxiety that we can all trace back to the butterflies in our collective stomach when we raised our hands to participate in the classroom. On LinkedIn, similar to the classroom setting, everyone is listening, our participation matters, and also counts toward our grade.

Let me ask you a question... why did you join LinkedIn?

Was your goal simply to create a profile just to say that you have one, or were there some higher aspirational purposes for the time and effort you expended? I’ll bet that you had goals of (re)connecting with friends/professionals you already knew, meeting new people to expand your network, and furthering your professional development, including finding new jobs. The challenge is, it’s very hard to achieve any of these goals if you remain a silent observer or passive member in this digital, public, professional square.

Speak Up, You Never Know Who is Listening
Job Search, Job Search Wellness, Mental Health
Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill
5 Ways Therapy Can Benefit Your Job Search

I’m no actor, but conducting a job search can certainly feel like an endless cycle of auditions. You do research, memorize lines, & deliver several tailored monologues to countless people in hopes of landing your coveted role. Through all of this, you are doing your best to be your best authentic self when you show up to each interaction. Doing this consistently is hard, but it can be even harder if you are also feeling depressed, anxious, or managing challenging life circumstances, nevermind a global pandemic.

Let’s not forget that while you are job searching, there is no pause button for the other roles you play in your life. You don’t get to temporarily stop being a spouse/partner, parent, caretaker, or friend, just so you can focus on your job search. The regular demands of your time and energy in these roles coupled with the added stress of conducting a job search can be a lot for anyone to handle. Let’s collectively acknowledge that this isn’t easy, and that’s ok. The question is, how can you manage these various roles/responsibilities, demands of your time, energy, & emotions in a way that works best?

For some, the answer might be... therapy.

5 Ways Therapy Can Benefit Your Job Search
Resumes, Job Search
Nii Ato Bentsi-Enchill
What Kids' Show & Tell Can Teach About ...

My 8yo daughter just started 3rd grade and even in virtual scooling, “show & tell” (S&T) is still a thing. It struck me that S&T is the first practice any of us ever get in delivering a presentation to an audience. While there’s no pressure to convince anyone of anything, and there is little at stake except for potential “cool points” based on your item, one thing is universally true -- kids must have a physical item to show or the whole exercise is pointless. Kids must show evidence of the thing they tell their classmates about or they won’t be believed. If we learn this lesson so early on about the need for evidence to back up stories, why as adults do we forget about it when it comes to writing our resumes?

Stop me if you’ve seen any of the language below in a resume -- no judgments if it’s in your own ;-)

  • “Proven track record of increasing sales.”

  • “Extensive experience delivering projects on time and under budget.”

  • “Demonstrated success in program development.”

While these statements don’t sound so bad at first, upon further review, they offer nothing of substance. Though meant to sound impressive and allude to success/accomplishments, in their current form, they are nothing more than claims. Further, since there is no evidence that substantiates them, they’re essentially baseless claims → until proven otherwise.

What Kids' Show & Tell Can Teach About Resume Writing

Job Search

Why Writing Your Own Job Description is the Best Way to Start Your Search

Why Writing Your Own Job Description is the Best Way to Start Your Search

Conducting a job search can be equal parts overwhelming, frustrating and more, depending on your circumstances. A lot of these feelings are tied to the sheer number of factors that are beyond your control as a job seeker. You don’t know who is going to hire you, when, and for what reason(s). When there are so many unknown quantities, I find it very important to help ground my clients in their own truths by focusing them on what they can control. Clarity is powerful and forms an excellent base from which to build a job search. This is why I often begin work with clients seeking job search coaching by asking them to identify what they really want in their next job. 

This might sound basic, but often it’s the simplest things in life that have the most profound impact on us…

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The Juice vs. The Sauce -- Which One is Your Professional Brand?

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The Juice vs. The Sauce -- Which One is Your Professional Brand?

Imagine that the whole purpose of your professional brand is to answer the question, “Why should I hire/advance/speak to you?” The quality of your response to this question is crucial, whether you are a job seeker or seeking career advancement. Whatever your response, it’s important that it be memorable and stick with your audience. This is where “the juice vs. the sauce” comes in.

“Why should I hire/advance/speak to you,” really means, “why should I care?” By answering the “why” question effectively…you can make your audience care. When they care, that means you have achieved buy-in. When you have achieved buy-in, you can be hired or advanced to the place you wish to be.

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6 Ways You Undersell Yourself in Your Resume & How to Fix Them (Part 2)

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6 Ways You Undersell Yourself in Your Resume & How to Fix Them (Part 2)

One of my favorite rappers has a line that says, “...[I] sketch lyrics so visual // They rent my rhyme books at your nearest home video.” In this vein, I strongly encourage my clients to be as vivid as possible when it comes to telling their achievement stories in their resumes. Writing a resume can certainly feel much more like an art than a science, but to achieve success in telling your story, you’ll need a bit of both. From the scientific discipline, we can draw upon certain laws that can help govern how we paint our career pictures, to ensure maximum impact on our target audience. Underselling often occurs in resumes when these laws aren’t followed.

In the previous post, we explored some reasons why people undersell themselves in resumes. Below we will explore 6 specific ways in which underselling manifests itself when writing your resume and how to fix them.

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5 Reasons Why Your Resume is Underselling You (Part 1)

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5 Reasons Why Your Resume is Underselling You (Part 1)

You’ve accomplished a lot in your career to date, but somehow, your great career story isn’t shining through on your resume. So...what gives? Chances are, you feel like your resume is underselling you and you can’t figure out why. Aside from the fact that writing a resume can be a painfully awkward exercise in professional self-reflection, it is also impacted by unseen or even unconscious internal and external factors that can influence how [well] you tell our story.

In this post, we will explore 5 key reasons why you might be writing a resume that undersells you and how to shift your mindset to overcome them.

3 Reasons You Should Chase the Company, Not the Job in Your Job Search

3 Reasons You Should Chase the Company, Not the Job in Your Job Search

I’m willing to bet that you really care about your work environment. Whether it’s the culture, how leadership treats staff, opportunities for growth, name your issue… you have spent time considering these either when choosing to leave or take a job. These concerns are key to professionals, but as job seekers, our focus is often in the wrong place. The funny thing is that the job doesn’t contain these critical elements — the company does. This is why I strongly advise job seekers to chase the company, not the job, in their job search process.