Today’s guest lecture really opened my eyes to a whole new outlook on hiring and job seeking. I have been in business school for two years, so I am no stranger to the idea of a “personal brand”, however todays lecturer, Ellie Doyle, shared some amazing advice when it comes to recruiting. Ellie is the founder of a recruiting company called TalentHub, and she seemed to be able to turn anything you do into a helpful recruiting tool. For example, she talked about how just moving and organizing chairs in a classroom could be seen as a demonstration of a competency.
Ellie described competencies in the business setting as traits that are very hard, nearly impossible, to learn. Things like creativity and emotional intelligence are competencies that many companies are hiring for, rather than just pure knowledge. Hearing this from a person who has years of experience in the multiple different corporate settings, and who is clearly very knowledgeable on the subject of recruiting was both reassuring and confusing for me. All my life I have understood the fact that “school smarts” are the most important aspect of getting a job, and while I am smart when it comes to school, after giving it some thought I realized that I have many competencies outside the realm of school.
When Ellie was giving examples on how certain jobs and skills could be seen as competencies, I thought about my job experience and how that could be used to put myself ahead of other job candidates in the future. I have a lot of experience in childcare; I started babysitting when I was 14, and continued throughout high school. During the summer, I am a counselor at a sleep away camp, which is a very stressful and exhausting job, however I have learned and grown so much because of it. Working with kids requires patience, problem solving skills, and conflict resolution skills, which are all sought after skills to have in the corporate world. Ellie showed us that even the jobs that aren’t very flashy can show off your personal brand and competency skillset.
I want others to see me as a confident leader who faces problems head on, and who has the skills to solve these problems. I think that finding ways to express this as my personal brand will help me to get jobs and find a workplace that fits me, not one that I am trying to fit into a box that I don’t belong in (loosely quoted from Ellie).
Thinking about my personal brand also connected to our tour of Croke park today! I have been thinking about how being on a team has helped the players grow in their careers, and it is just so cool to me how all of these connections can be made back to Ellie’s presentation!
Overall, I had a great day and I can’t wait for the Docklands and Google visit tomorrow!