Today we had a guest lecturer, Ellie Doyle, founder of the TalentHub recruiting startup agency based in Ireland, on a lesson about personal branding. I knew how important it was to have a self identity, but from her talks, I realized how important it is not to just build your unique self identity, but to promote it and let it flourish through your ever-expanding network. Just from my personal background, I knew how important it was to immerse yourself in extracurriculars and not just schoolwork. A good GPA is important, but at the same time, everyone has a GPA. Recruiters at the end of the day are there to hire good and matching people, and if the only thing that represents you is a perfect GPA, that is not saying much. However, maintaining a 3.6-8 GPA while participating in sports, music, academic clubs, and others is what makes you special. We all have unique circumstances and interests, so what we do and get out of extracurriculars will be different as well. Coming into the presentation, this is what I knew, but I learned that there is one more crucial step to it. There is no reason to make money if you don’t spend it. I needed to promote my personal brand that I built with so much effort and have experience networking. I first experienced networking and its crucial part of business after I have transferred into the business in the spring semester, but all my networking was from events. I never really tried to reach out to people or show my true self to other people without there being a special circumstance. Self reflecting on myself, I should start to be more active on my LinkedIn and actively networking with alumni and people with similar interests.

Thinking about my own competencies and my branding, I have come up with a few things crucial to my identity today. First, and most importantly, I am passionate. Things that I am interested in, like history, business, food, or different cultures, are not just things I truly love, but things I am very much interested in learning more about. With my passion comes the pure dedication and work ethic I am able to put into my work and studies, which I am not entirely forcing myself to do, but something that is driven purely out of my own interests. Scrolling through LinkedIn for a summer internship or reading articles about business is not something I force myself to do, but something that happens naturally. From there also stems my adventurous mentality and lifestyle along with my dedication to put out at least 110%. From my background living in Shanghai and Singapore during my childhood, I have gained the mentality to try everything out, or everything I can. There was so much diversity, especially in Singapore, that it became sort of a habit of mine to order the weirdest, yet best sounding item on a menu. This adventurous mindset seeped into my academics as well, where I love to learn more about any subject, maybe not get a major or minor out of it, but to at least see what it is about. Furthermore, from my general attitude for somewhat-perfection, I have developed a dedication to have all my essays, projects, and work to have more than 100% of my dedication. They do not have to be perfect by my standards or the teachers’, but for me to be satisfied with at least my part of my project or my work in general is some pride that I’m not willing to let go. If I do poorly, I can hold my head high and at least I can say that I gave it my all. I hope that as I develop more as a budding business professional, I am able to take my core competencies and weave it into an intricate pattern unique and personal to myself.