Perception and use of a personal brand in professional work by representatives of selected legal professions

Abstract

The volatility of the labor market, as well as the self-centeredness of employees in relation to career management, make having a personal brand a necessity if a person does not want to lose their career opportunities (Gorbatov et al., 2021). Also in the legal world there is a growing interest in caring for one's own attractiveness and value on the labor market (Vosloban, 2013), which is related to a personal brand. The work is theoretical and empirical, and its structure includes an introduction, two theoretical chapters and an empirical part presenting the methodology and results of the qualitative research. The aim of the article is to present the definition of the concept of "personal brand" with the distinction between its components and to present the possibilities of its use in professional work by representatives of legal professions from the Greater Poland voivodeship (N = 10). To achieve the goals, a review of the latest literature and research was carried out in the form of individual in-depth interviews (IDI). The qualitative research was carried out from March to April 2022. As a result, it was assumed that a personal brand is a multidimensional concept, which includes: values, reputation, external appearance and professional experience. It was also found that it can be successfully used in professional life by representatives of legal professions, including in order to acquire new clients or to open your own law firm. At the end of the article, the limitations of the applied research method and directions of research for the future were formulated.

Keywords

• personal brand
• professional work
• legal profession
• labor market