Will personal brands matter more than CVs in the next 5 years?
Everywhere I look, I see founders and operators investing heavily in their personal brand:
LinkedIn posts every day
X threads
Podcasts, YouTube, newsletters and substacks too
Meanwhile, their CV or portfolio gets updated maybe once a year.
I’m wondering if we’re heading into a world where your online signal (what you say, who engages with you, what you ship publicly) will matter more than any formal CV or resume.
At the same time, there’s a risk of confusing “being visible” with actually being good at your craft.
How do you see it? And If you had to choose, would you invest more in your personal brand or in deep skills that nobody sees?
From a revenue perspective, I’m curious if the strongest personal brands will automatically own more deal flow and pipeline, or if there’s still room for quiet experts to win.
Replies
IXORD
A personal brand is definitely a form of trust among clients. I don’t think that every profession will require having a personal brand that replaces a résumé. There are already some professions where this is the case, but for now, they are still relatively few
Hyta
@ixord I totally agree, it’s unlikely that every profession will need a public-facing brand, especially If you’re doing highly internal work in a big org, a strong résumé + internal reputation is more than enough. But it feels like right now it mainly matters in roles where clients have a lot of choice and big ACVs on the line, in those cases, the people who show up online just get picked more often.
TinyCommand
I feel like personal brands will matter more, but not in a “post every day” way. It’s more about letting people see how you think once in a while.
Deep skills still matter the most the brand just helps people find you faster.
Quiet experts will always have space, they just take a different route.
Hyta
@anushkahode definitely, posting every day is just very noisy. Also letting people see how you think once in a while feels way more sustainable than the “post daily or die”
TinyCommand
@ray_watcher Yeah, totally. Posting every day just for the sake of it doesn’t help anyone. Sharing when it feels real is way more sustainable.
minimalist phone: creating folders
I yapp on LinkedIn more than ever. People started reaching out to me. When I sent my CV somewhere, I barely heard back... As for me, to be a visible personal brand will be an asset.
Hyta
@busmark_w_nika definitely tracks, I see your posts everywhere (love your content btw)!
But I guess CVs feel like pushing, but having a strong personal brand is pure pull. Cool to hear you’re getting more replies from just showing up online than from sending a traditional résumé!
minimalist phone: creating folders
@ray_watcher Thank you, Ray. It is true, the more visible you are, the more attention you attract (and the right people into your life) :)
Hyta
@yeva_menshikova Agreed, it’s super dependent on the role and industry. A surgeon and a solo SaaS founder don’t need the same level of online presence haha
Recap
In a world where building products and creating content is becoming easier, I think this is definitely a trend.