Do you ACTUALLY need to?? Or is better to simply "network" among "people who matter"? I'd argue the latter is far better, more effective and efficient. You c

Do you ACTUALLY need to?? Or is better to simply "network" among "people who matter"? I'd argue the latter is far better, more effective and efficient. You can do the math on this: networking smartly due to "6 degrees of separation" is far more efficient than broadcast advertising your skills. Broadcasting "your brand" to the world requires communication of the least common denominator of information quality while the person on the other side who is your "match" (for jobs etc.) now has to wade through millions of same-looking other people's information. It's just stupid. Compare that to being separated from that same person by 6 hops of people. If you do the networking smartly, you'll reduce those hops and find people in the path who have a vested interest in honest endorsement of you and of the other person you are seeking. In any case, it's a whole lot less work for everyone and the match is better. The thing I notice about this "maxim" of "personal brand" is that it's based on a "mass market selling Coke or Pepsi" mindset of marketing. Which is NEVER what a person should seek or use as an individual - you are unique and that's your selling value proposition which can never be marketed that way. Instead you should focus on all parties having agency and intelligence (which is anti-assumed" with traditional mass market branding) and also presume that iteration, planning and intelligence are part of what YOU have and what others that matter have. That's changes EVERYTHING about finding things like jobs and maximizing either joy and/or pay in a career.