For experienced professionals in supply chain, logistics, and commercial roles looking to position themselves for growth, progression, or change
Your experience speaks volumes – but does it speak for you? Here’s how to shape a clear, credible personal brand that reflects who you are, where you’re heading, and why it matters.
By this point in your career, you’ve delivered results, led teams, solved problems, and built solid relationships. But whether you’re looking to step up, change direction, or explore something new, experience alone isn’t always enough.
You need people to see what you bring – not just through your CV, but in every interaction, profile, conversation, and impression.
That’s where personal branding comes in.
This guide is about making sure your professional presence – online and off – reflects your capability, credibility, and potential. Not through self-promotion, but through intention.
At this stage, your personal brand is more than a first impression - it’s your professional identity. It’s what people associate with your name, your working style, your leadership approach, and your value.
It’s shaped by:
It’s not about marketing yourself - it’s about ensuring that what people see aligns with who you are and what you’re aiming for.
At mid-career, you’re often:
In all of these cases, your personal brand can accelerate trust, clarity, and connection – if it’s working well.
It helps hiring managers and decision-makers understand:
“This is someone who knows what they do well – and where they’re going.”
At this level, your brand shows up in every touchpoint - and every gap.
That includes:
If your message is clear and consistent across all of these, people don’t just know what you do - they remember you for it.
1. Define the Narrative
Take a step back. What are the through-lines in your career so far? What themes come up repeatedly in your work – e.g., operational improvement, team leadership, supplier performance, systems transformation?
Build a short narrative you can use to introduce yourself or frame your CV/LinkedIn. It might sound like:
“I’ve built my career in fast-paced retail logistics – leading teams, improving fulfilment, and driving end-to-end visibility across the chain.”
“I bring commercial thinking into operational roles – making sure what we do on the ground supports what the business is aiming for.”
Make it real, relevant, and reflective of your actual strengths.
2. Audit Your Visibility
Is your LinkedIn up to date? Does it reflect where you’re heading – or just where you’ve been?
Does your CV match the roles you’re aiming for now, not the one you had three years ago?
Check for consistency: tone, messaging, keywords, and examples should line up with the narrative you want to project.
3. Back It Up With Proof
Mid-career branding is about substance over style.
Don’t just say you’re a problem solver. Show a brief example:
“Reduced cost per delivery by 11% by leading a route optimisation project across three regions.”
Don’t just say you’re collaborative. Say:
“Worked across procurement and operations to redesign supplier onboarding, improving turnaround by three days.”
Small wins, clearly stated, build big trust.
4. Get Comfortable Talking About Yourself
You don’t need to oversell - but you do need to articulate your value.
Practice talking about your career like you’d tell a colleague or mentor:
If you can do that naturally, you’ll show up confidently in interviews, meetings, and networking conversations - without the hard sell.
5. Engage With Your Sector
You don’t have to post every week. But joining relevant conversations – especially on LinkedIn – reinforces your positioning.
Share articles, comment thoughtfully, follow companies you admire, and support people in your network. These actions help others see you as active, engaged, and switched-on in your field.
Your personal brand is especially powerful if you’re:
Your brand can help employers see past “role fit” and into longer-term value.
Use your profile and interviews to highlight transferable themes: leadership, stakeholder management, cross-functional collaboration, system thinking - not just tasks or industry knowledge.
At this stage, a mismatched or unclear personal brand can create confusion or missed opportunities. A few common pitfalls:
At mid-career, your experience gives you credibility – but your brand gives you momentum.
It’s how you signal what you’re ready for next. It helps you show up with clarity, confidence, and control. And it separates you from candidates who just list duties without direction.
You don’t need to reinvent yourself. You just need to take ownership of your story – and tell it with purpose.
