The world of tech has always been extremely fast-paced, especially after the advent of AI-based tools. Now, simply being incredible at programming is no longer sufficient — to get customers for a product you have built or simply get approached for jobs, standing out as a developer is crucial!

Does creating a personal brand feel like a gigantic, insurmountable task? Don't worry - this article will demystify the steps & help you build an image that is authentic to yourself, which will lead to recruiters lining up to hire you!

What is branding?

Branding is the art of crafting an identity of how people perceive a product. In terms of personal branding, it refers to encapsulating your skills, experiences & values and showcasing them such that makes people want to work with you, collaborate on projects, or seek your expertise.

When it comes to personal branding, authenticity is the key - your brand should be a reflection of who you are and should be consistent across various touch points on numerous platforms.

For example, I take great pride in delivering sleek UI/UX that works without much hassle - if you visit my portfolio, you will find the theme to be consistent with what I claim to deliver!

How others perceive you is crucial too - being true to your word, a stupid simple task, is a superpower. We live in a world where the majority overpromise & under-deliver, so if you can say what you are going to do & do what you said you would do, there's nothing in the world that can stop you from being an incredibly high-demand developer, who can charge much above market rates.

Take my Upwork profile as an example. For each of my clients, I delivered on time with the promised results & they were happy to leave a good review which led to building trust in me delivering to future clients - this creates an upward spiral, allowing me to get clients in the future far more easily (even though I primarily DON'T use Upwork anymore), and I get to charge much above market rates - in India, the average software developer salary is $5/hour, and I can say no to any clients offering me less than $75/hour without thinking twice!

Building a personal brand

We know what branding is - tell me how to create a personal brand

Glad you asked!

Know your strengths

You should always be playing to your strengths - highlighting what you are good at, it can be hard technical skills or soft skills that enable you to land better opportunities, any skill that you are extremely good at works, even if the skill is fairly common!

For example, most of the developers I have encountered in the past few years - hate the idea of working on styling in front-end development, but I love it. It comes easy to me & building layouts, regardless of whether it's Yoga (React Native) or basic web-based CSS/SCSS. As a result, in my early days, doing only front-end development got me to the $50/hour mark!

Eliminate or work on your weaknesses

No matter what most people say, you should NOT work on improving (most of) your weaknesses, but eliminate working on them altogether!

Let me explain: weaknesses are skills that don't come to you naturally (even after spending countless hours actively focusing on honing them) - even though it's possible to get world-class at these through repeated practice, you will hate the process & someone who enjoys the grind of developing the skill would easily beat you!

For example, when I was trying to decide which niche of tech I should be joining, I was keen on getting into data science as it had the highest average salary - but it took me months to understand some of the basic concepts & realized it was not for me. NOTE: I spent hours each day focusing solely on data science without any distractions, studying it - you shouldn't give up until you spent at least approximately 100 hours of active undivided attention on a topic

There is one exception to this rule - if the weakness is something that is actively holding you back from achieving the results you want, no ifs, no buts, you need to work on the skill.

For example, if you don't have the necessary negotiation skills but exceptional development skills, you will always receive low-ball offers & will not be able to negotiate the compensation. Here it's crucial to learn how to negotiate & get to a point where you can charge what you are worth. I once had a client who increased their budget by 50% to ensure I got paid what I was asking for - money is rarely the problem as long as you are providing more value to the client than what they are paying you.

Define your target audience

Once you have identified your strengths & weaknesses, you need to identify your target audience too & build up your brand image such that it caters to their desires - instead of chasing the people you want, you want to start attracting them!

For example, my brand is built specifically for potential clients, looking for sleek websites or native apps who prefer tasks done fast and well, instead of cheap & who enjoy injecting occasional light-hearted fun in the mix of work

Getting noticed

This is probably the most important tool for building a personal brand - you may be the best developer in the world, but nobody is going to hire you if they don't know you exist!

You need to actively get in front of people's eyeballs to get noticed & be considered a viable candidate for the roles you want. I found blogging and open source contributions exceptionally useful for this purpose - even though I had quit for a few years & started rebuilding my blogs recently, in the early days, I received 2.8M+ views. It gave me credibility for providing value for free to others consistently for years! The contributions I had made to large projects like Material UI & Microsoft ages ago on GitHub, still make potential clients take me seriously.

You don't have to start blogging, but ensure you have a platform where you regularly provide value to others in the developer community, it may be posting on LinkedIn, making Youtube videos, answering questions on Stack Overflow or even contributing to open source projects - you get to choose what resonates the most with you!

Conclusion

Building a personal brand as a developer is a long and arduous journey that requires self-awareness, consistency, and a willingness to put yourself out there. It's not going to be easy, but when done consistently, it will yield dividends you never imagined - earning crores while working part-time anywhere in the world. It's not easy by any stretch, but given I was able to do it (someone people used to label as stupid & delusional) I am sure that with proper effort anyone can achieve the same and even surpass me.

By following these steps, you'll not only stand out in a crowded field but also attract opportunities that align with your values. Best of luck!

That's all folks! 🎉

Thanks for reading

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FAQ

These are a few commonly asked questions I receive. So, I hope this FAQ section solves your issues.

1. I am a beginner, how should I learn Front-End Web Dev?
   Look into the following articles:

   1. Front End Buzz words
   2. Front End Development Roadmap
   3. Front End Project Ideas
   4. Transition from a Beginner to an Intermediate Frontend Developer

2. Would you mentor me?
   
   Sorry, I am already under a heavy workload and do not have the time to mentor anyone.