Strategies for Being Seen and Heard in Your Job Search and at Work
Mar 26, 2025
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Chloé Nwangwu, a brand strategist and director at NobiWorks, shares her expertise on increasing visibility for career advancement. She discusses the systemic issues of under-recognition in the workplace, offering insightful strategies for job seekers to amplify their presence. Chloé outlines the five stages of visibility, emphasizing how to craft a powerful personal brand and navigate biases that hinder professional growth. Her insights provide actionable tips for transforming ambition into recognition, ensuring everyone is seen and heard.
Personal branding is crucial for increasing professional visibility and shaping how individuals are perceived in their careers.
Understanding the five stages of visibility helps professionals identify their current status and develop strategies for gaining influence.
Deep dives
Understanding Under-Recognition
Under-recognition is a phenomenon where certain individuals and their contributions are systematically overlooked or underappreciated in professional settings, despite having the requisite qualifications. This concept was coined by Chloe Nguangu, who emphasizes the need to reframe discussions around this issue from being about merely being underrepresented to being under-recognized. Under-recognition often manifests in various forms, such as being passed over for promotions or failing to receive acknowledgment for successful projects. By addressing under-recognition directly, professionals can better understand the challenges they face and the systemic factors that contribute to their marginalization in the workplace.
The Power of Personal Branding
Personal branding is presented as an essential strategy for increasing professional visibility and gaining recognition in the workplace. The idea is that individuals can shape how they are perceived by others through effective branding, thereby enhancing their influence and access to opportunities. Nguangu highlights the importance of refining one's platform by understanding stakeholder motivations, which entails tailoring messages to resonate with decision-makers, champions, and mediators. By crafting a strong personal brand, individuals can make their presence felt and create pathways for more substantial opportunities in their careers.
Navigating the Five Stages of Visibility
The five stages of visibility outline the journey from being unknown to having significant influence within professional environments. These stages start from creating a memorable personal brand, advancing to being visibly present before target audiences, and finally influencing social structures. The progression includes moving beyond individual recognition to collective acknowledgment, distinguished reputation, and ultimately entering decision-making spaces. Understanding these stages can help professionals identify their current position and develop actionable strategies for advancing their visibility and influence, tailored to their specific career aspirations.
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In this episode of Get Hired, LinkedIn Editor Andrew Seaman speaks with brand strategist Chloé Nwangwu about the problem of under-recognition. Chloé describes how her experience working in international conflict resolution equipped her with the tools to help professionals and businesses increase their visibility and make impactful change. She also discusses the systemic causes and costs of under-recognition, and offers tips to under-recognized job seekers looking to level up in their careers.