Reflection Essay: Digital Portfolio and Brand

My digital portfolio and brand have been predominantly designed to fit the status and ethics of investment banking. Investment banking primarily assists the capital market in capital market intermediation. For instance, they are of high significance to companies and governments in raising money through selling and issuing securities in the primary market.  For a long time, I have desired to become an investment banker since I always perceive it as a respectable and well-paying career. To me, investment bankers are an integral part of the investment aspect and have the power to disrupt or control a country’s investment growth through the principle of “business of money”. This idea solely drove me to intensively study accounting and financial courses with the objective of landing a job in the investment banking sector. Coupled with accounting and financial courses, creation of an effective digital profile and footprint is of higher importance in achieving my dream career.

An investment banker needs various specific skills. To suit these skill-set demand, my e-portfolio and brand have intensively highlighted my efficacious understanding of the key investment banking skills. It highlights my ability to perform various financial modelling activities such as building LBO models and discounted cash flow (DCF) models, the skill to perform a wide range of business valuation like comparable company and DCF analysis, the ability to create effective presentations and pitch-books from scratch, creating of transaction documents such as an investment teaser and Confidential Information Memorandum (CIM), relationship management and negotiations as well as business and sales management. In addition to aiding in landing a job in the sector, these skills will be of importance to my long-term goal of being a successful and influential investment banker.

Undertaking this course has helped me learn the importance of cleaning my web presence. As I have mentioned earlier, an effective online presence aids in job acquisition. I have leant in the course that it is specifically a positive web presence that will positively be of importance in achieving the aims of a digital portfolio and brand. As per my case, I employ various steps in ensuring that I maintain a positive reputation on the web. First and foremost, I have to identify my reputational leaks. These can either be passive (digital footprints that are left on websites unintentionally) or active footprints (they are digital footprints that are intentionally left on websites like posts and comments). I have used various search engines to search for my first and last name, including the common misspellings and nicknames. Performing this was to check whether the results perceived me in a respectable and professional light. In case a post portrayed my negativity, I have politely requested site administrators to pull down the posts. For a long-term web presence reputation building, I have to constantly review the privacy settings of the web pages I visit including social media pages, utilize strong and memorable passphrases, use up-to-date software, constant review of my mobile usage, and creating a positive web reputation through behavioral change. It is important to maintain my positive reputation by posting information that help create the professional image that I desire.

My digital portfolio and brand is aimed at aiding in achieving my long-term goal. To accomplish this task, I must design long-term promotional activities for my brand. To start with, I have performed the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for my e-portfolio. This is an important step in improving my online availability. Various employers currently search for prospective employees via the search engines and social sites, and thus, it is a better platform to commence my brand advertisement. Consequently, SEO is an ongoing process, and hence, I will be performing it regularly to maintain my-long-term web presence. Furthermore, social media sites are an important aspect in a brands long-term success. This is due to its easy engaging ability, creating a means through which investment bankers and investors can easily engage with me, and in platforms that plays an integral role in their daily activities.  

There are numerous social sites that effectively supports my brand. For instance, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google +, Instagram, and YouTube. My brand as per now has utilized LinkedIn since it is a career search social site, Facebook, and Twitter due to their huge worldwide following. I will incorporate the other social sites in the future upon adequate consideration and understanding of their impacts in my career development. This development has been orchestrated by the fact that I have to first get into the investment banking sector, where the social sites utilized so far are deemed to be the best promotional sites as per now and in the long-term. 

This course has taught me that to achieve my investment banking dream, an effective digital portfolio and brand is of higher significance. The course has further made me realize the importance of maintaining a positive online reputation since it positively influence my e-portfolio and brand on the web. The course has, thus, helped me create an effective online portfolio and brand as well as equipped me with the most viable techniques to help my brand achieve long-term online success.