Rajesh Setty has some unusual advice for IT professionals: stop wasting time in the technology skill-set rat race, and start building your personal brand:
lead a user group
mh
kk
let’s have a try …
resistance is futile. you will be assimilated.
obey me you brave readers from coding horror 
ps: as a german i just wondered about the word “spiel” 
So I am doing this. But I have not figured out how to transform my resume to sell my brand. Have you seen this done? If so could you give an example, maybe even one done well and one not done well?
I feel like such a Walmart shopper. In my inability to refuse free junk, you’ve infected my household with your brand.
I can’t have the paparazzi showing off a pic of my computer with YOUR Wumpus sticker!
Insidious.
But I have not figured out how to transform my resume to sell my brand
The network effects from these public activities should mean you don’t have to transform your resume; people will have already heard of you. And if they haven’t, they can evaluate the quality of your work without a resume: just do a google search for your name!
Of course, you’ll still need a resume, but it becomes more of a formality, a summary. It’s not who you are. Your work should represent you.
Chad Fowler’s book covers the personal brand as part of a three pronged approach- choices, skills, and marketing. It has a bit of a odd feel, but building a brand is a something you end up doing, you had might as well put some thought into it so that the message is accurate.
link to some free bits of the book:
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/titles/mjwti/
Most of the remarkable things are quite difficult. As a peon at my company, half the articles I write get somebody else’s name slapped on them and most of the other things are pretty challenging to make happen.
It’s difficult, because many of those require some amount of initial notoriety.
half the articles I write get somebody else’s name slapped on them and most of the other things are pretty challenging to make happen
Why release them within the company? Why not go outside to , say… sourceforge, codeproject, blogs, etc?
Dear Jeff,
I’m thinking of striking out on my own, and thought your Wumpus was incredibly cool.
Is there an online tool I can use to find my power animal without too much actual thought being involved? I’d like an instinctive/intuitive power animal rather than a considered one, and a web form seems like the easiest way to get there.
I am a scorched earth tank, if that helps.
Yours Searchingly,
Tristan
I will do this for my Branding.
Never underestimate the Wumpus.
You’ve got some brand fragmentation - are you Coding Horror or Wumpus? Maybe Coding Horror, a Wumpus Media Ventures Production?
I, for one, welcome our new Wumpus overlord.
The Wumpus lives on. Long live the wumpus.