Personal Branding – UX Design Course Extra Study

I decided to do some extra study about Personal Branding for my UX Design Course. Personal Branding for UX and design is essential these days. You have to stand out! Part One of the Google/Coursera Foundations of UX Design Course included an in-depth discussion of personal branding. As aspiring UX Designers, we shall be called upon to present ourselves to the world, and sell ourselves as professionals. Although I finished the Module easily, I decided to study the element of personal branding in greater depth, dedicating a significant amount of time to it in the past three weeks.

How do others see me?

Personal Branding for UX Design is about establishing your online presence as a UX Designer. For newbies, this essential step both prepares us to present a portfolio to potential clients or employers, and solidifies our self-impression of ourselves as UX Designer.

It was particularly intriguing to compare what I think of myself to how others see me. I set the barrier very high for myself and think that healthy self-criticism is essential for both knowing oneself now, and growing in the future. My tendency is to be very direct and I know that this can sometimes be hard to take.

So, I asked on Facebook. Hey, it’s 2021, what else am I going to do? I am so grateful to all the friends who took some time to help me. I ended up with 200 words to work with for personal branding. The ones that showed up time and again where hardworking, perseverant, high expectations, friendly, creative, offbeat/original, intelligent, direct and “todo terreno”, which in Spanish means “all terrain”. Well, those fit pretty much with my own idea of myself, so the experiment was a success!

Comparing other UX Designers’ Personal Branding, I noticed a lot of originality, breadth and creativity. This emboldens me to present myself pretty much as I am. This may sound obvious, but as a rather zany character, I often felt compelled to “hide” parts of my character rather than shout it loud and proud!

Autodidact

What I did add, and which no one else flagged up, was the word “Autodidact“. As you will see from my about section, I am good at a lot of different things. I have a relentlessly curious mind, verge on the restless and honestly do not know what it means to be bored. There is always something to learn! “Thank goodness I do yoga and meditate” say I, only half-jokingly. My need to learn is constant. When I face a problem, or encounter something unknown, I study it. I make notes. I create a mental map of it, integrate it, and make it fit with the rest of the encyclopaedia I carry around in my head.

My resume now lists the winning words. I created the graphic below with Inkscape. All the words, both in Spanish and in English, are arranged. I chose the circle because it suggests both an eye (seeing myself) and a spiral into the centre.

Now that I have finished this exercise with gusto I will jump back into the course, on Part Two. I can’t wait! check back for more reflections and musings. I really must get an email list going…

Take care,

Rachel