In this talk, Karen explores the concept of "street cred." She presents five strategies that companies use to build their credibility with customers, and then discusses how to apply these same strategies to building a personal brand. You may need street cred to convince an employer that you can do a job you've never done before. You may need it to show you're still relevant after a gap in your experience. Or, that you'll bring a certain discipline or rigor to the job, even though you didn't attend that four-year engineering program or have the MBA they might be looking for. Simply put, street cred can help convince an employer, partner, or customer to take a risk on you.

1. Build Street Cred
to Prove You Can Do the Job
Karen Catlin
Developing powerful women leaders in the tech industry
www.karencatlin.com
@kecatlin #StreetCred #Voices2014
March 8, 2014, Global Tech Women VOICES Conference
© 2014 by Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.
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2. What is Street Cred?
What others think of you
Your reputation
Your personal brand
Street cred can convince someone
to take a risk on you
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3. Agenda
5 Techniques
Q&A
þ Identify 1 thing to do tomorrow
to build your street cred
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4. 1: Simple Metrics
Companies use simple metrics to build their cred
Photos: www.cntraveler.com and fineartamerica.com
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5. What are your simple metrics?
# lines of code
in production
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6. 2: Association
Companies use celebrity endorsements
Photo: USA Today
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7. Who & what are you associated with?
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8. 3: Win-win Solutions
Companies give stuff away to grow their business
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9. What are your win-wins?
Images courtesy of Shropshire Council's Graduate blog and sixninepixels / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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10. 4: Wisdom of Others
Companies leverage what others think of their product
Photos: Huffington Post
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11. Can you leverage what others think of you?
This blog syndicated by
Women leading code review image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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12. 5: Staying relevant
Successful companies embrace change
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13. Are you staying relevant?
Visual CV from Andreas Graf's Software Engineering Blog: 5ise.quanxinquanyi.de
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14. Review
5 techniques for building street cred
With simple metrics
By association
With win-win solutions
Through the wisdom of others
By staying relevant
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15. Stay in touch!
Karen Catlin
www.karencatlin.com
@kecatlin
Leadership coach
Speaker
Advisor on hiring & retaining female talent
© 2014 by Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.
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