Today our group was graced with a wonderful presentation given by a woman named Ellie Doyle. Within this presentation, Ellie touched on a number of topics including new technology’s ever-changing role within business, how competencies relate to the work environment, and how personal branding can have a massive impact on the future of an individual. After listening to Ellie share her ideas, this made me reflect upon how I want to be seen and how I can use my distinctive talents to shape a personal brand of my own. When it comes to my individual competencies, I would say that my social skills and interactive capabilities carry me a long way. Coincidentally, Ellie and Darren (another CAPA faculty member present at the lecture today) spoke on the importance of soft/essential skills. In a nutshell, they said that the analytical side of business takes care of itself, but it’s someone’s personality that can propel them to new heights in their career. My understanding of this concept has led me to hone in on the social aspect of my personal brand. Pertaining to job performance, it is not simply enough to produce in an efficient manner. A key attribute is to show that you work well in groups and can have a positive impact within a company outside of personal performance. Because of this, I have made it a point to present an amiable, well-read disposition in and out of professional settings. While there are other factors that play a part in building a successful career, this notion stuck out to me the most and was echoed by the lecture provided this morning.