5 reasons You should promote yourself

If you are a tech professional, you know how competitive and fast-paced the industry is. You need to constantly update your skills, learn new technologies, and adapt to changing customer needs. But you also need to promote yourself because no one else will do it for you.

Promoting yourself is not about bragging or being arrogant. It is about displaying your value, sharing your vision, and building your reputation.

Here are five reasons why you should promote yourself, and how to do it effectively.

1. Promoting yourself helps you grow

One of the benefits of promoting yourself is that it helps you grow as a professional and as a person. When you promote yourself, you are not only telling others what you have done, but also what you want to do. You are setting goals, creating a vision, and pursuing your passions. You are also challenging yourself to step out of your comfort zone, take risks, and explore new areas of interest.

Promoting yourself helps you grow because it motivates you to improve yourself, seek feedback, and overcome obstacles.

2. Promoting yourself helps you learn new skills

Another benefit of promoting yourself is that it helps you learn new skills and competencies that are essential for your career success. Promoting yourself requires you to develop skills such as communication, presentation, networking, and personal branding.

These skills are not only useful for promoting yourself, but also for working effectively with others, solving problems, and delivering value. Promoting yourself helps you learn new competencies because it exposes you to different perspectives, opportunities, and resources.

3. Promoting yourself helps you share your vision

A third benefit of promoting yourself is that it helps you share your vision with the world. Promoting yourself is not only about what you have done, but also about what you want to do. You have a unique perspective, a creative idea, or a valuable solution that can make a difference.

Promoting yourself helps you share your vision because it allows you to express your passion, inspire others, and attract support. Promoting yourself helps you share your vision because it gives you a voice, a platform, and a purpose.

4. Promoting yourself helps you join a community

The tech industry is not a solo game. You need to connect with others who share your interests, goals, and challenges. You need to learn from others who have more experience, knowledge, or insight. You need to share with others who can benefit from your expertise, feedback, or encouragement.

The benefit of promoting yourself is that it can help you join a community of like-minded people who can help you grow, learn, and share – joining a community can, on the other hand, help you promote yourself – there is no golden starting point.

5. Promoting yourself helps you build your brand

Your personal brand is properly the most important part of promoting yourself, consider how you want others to think of you, how your reputation and recognition should be in the industry – ask yourself “What your legacy should be”.

Your personal brand is what sets you apart from others, what makes you memorable, and what makes you valuable. Your personal brand is not only about your skills, achievements, and credentials, but also about your personality, values, and vision.

Promoting yourself helps you build your personal brand because it allows you to display your strengths, highlight your uniqueness, and demonstrate your value.

Wrap-up

Promoting yourself is not a selfish or arrogant act. It is a smart and strategic move that can help you grow your career and personal brand in the tech industry. By promoting yourself, you are not only benefiting yourself, but also others who can learn from you, work with you, or support you.

Promoting yourself is not a one-time or occasional activity. It is a continuous and consistent process that requires you to be proactive, confident, and authentic. Promoting yourself is not a hard or complicated task. It is a simple and easy step that you can start today, by following some of the tips and examples in this blog post.

Now that you know why you should promote yourself, you might be wondering how to do it effectively. Well, it is easy; “Simply show up”.

Next, there is a few simple steps you could start with, making you memorable;

• Use the same profile picture on all your professional profiles, e.g., LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub etc. and make sure it is high quality.
• Use the same tag, or username, on all your professional profiles, and consider aligning your bio page on your profiles.

These two steps are where it all started for me, same username, same profile picture, I have not changed it since. Eventually this is where the name for this blog was born, however I did not realize it at the time.

Next step does require a bit more work, well, it requires quite some work, and it does require focus and hard work to get airborne;

• Join a user group. Joining a user group, or a community, of tech professionals can help you network, learn, and share. You can join a community that is related to your domain, technology, or interest. You can also join a community that is local, regional, or global. You can participate in community events, activities, and discussions, such as meetups, webinars, podcasts, or newsletters. You can also contribute to community projects, initiatives, or causes, such as hackathons, mentorship programs, or social impact projects.
• Share your code. Sharing your code on platforms such as GitHub  can help you demonstrate your skills, improve your code quality, and collaborate with peers. You can share your code for your personal projects, open-source projects, or projects that you have contributed to. You can also use your code to create a portfolio, a resume, or a showcase of your work.
• Give feedback. Giving feedback to others who are less experienced, knowledgeable, or insightful can help you grow, learn, and share. You can give feedback to others who work in your company, industry, or field. You can also give feedback to others who have a different background, goal, or challenge than you – just remember, feedback is a skill, and requires you to be nice, show understanding and be able to encourage. Without these skills, the feedback business might not be for you.
• Start a blog. A blog is a great way to showcase your expertise, share your insights, and document your learning journey. You can write about your projects, challenges, solutions, and lessons learned. You can also write about your opinions, predictions, and recommendations on the latest trends, technologies, and best practices. A blog can help you establish your authority, credibility, and thought leadership in your field.
• Seek mentorship. Seeking mentorship from someone who has more experience, knowledge, or insight than you, can help you grow, learn, and share. You can seek mentorship from someone who works in your company, industry, or field. You can also seek mentorship from someone who has a similar background, goal, or challenge to you. You can ask your mentor for advice, guidance, feedback, or support on your career, projects, or challenges.

If you feel compelled to start promoting yourself and learn how you can enhance your career by engaging with your peers, I highly recommend starting by watching these videos from Scott Hanselman  , an all-time favorite;

• Scaling Yourself 
• Become a Social Developer!  ( Direct link  )

So, what are you waiting for? Start promoting yourself now and see the difference it makes in your career and personal brand.

–Jesper

Header image attribution: Created using Adobe Firefly