This was a hard topic for me, especially now because I think I am in the process of changing brands per say. Up until now I would have branded myself as a competitive division I athlete rowing for Oregon State. With my senior season being cancelled and graduation around the corner I am beginning to look for jobs and in the process of figuring out who I am without rowing. Strengths of mine are that I am a competitive, very organised and disciplined individual who constantly seeks opportunities and challenges. My weaknesses are that I am so accepting of challenges and every opportunity that I am at risk of spreading myself too thin and not being able to accomplish everything I set out to do. And accomplishing it to the same high-level standard that I expect of myself. I have been unique in the sense that I have been involved with collegiate athletics, and I am an international student who has studied abroad for the last four years of my life.
An idea that automatically comes to mind for me is framing myself in some sport and competitive related way because it is something that I so strongly identify myself with. By doing this I would try to incorporate a company job description into rowing and sport terminology and show potential ways that I could benefit the company and team I would be working with. I think this could be effectively portrayed in the form of a poster, something static with verbiage within the picture. I am good at organising and collating data and visuals so by creating something visual I would be playing at another strength of mine with the layout of the advertisement. The best method of distribution given the very much word of mouth culture in New Zealand would be to ask a select number of business professionals that I already have within my network to have a copy and share with anyone they know who they believe may be interested. The biggest risk I foresee in positioning myself in this manner is that the employers see me as a know it all, and someone who would dominant the environment rather than blend with the existing company culture. I need to be careful applying for jobs back in New Zealand that the culture and business culture is considerably different to what I have learnt about throughout my time at Oregon State.
Hi Abigail,
I completely agree that being at the end of college – or at the end of any era that requires large scale change – can make it difficult to feel you can truly define yourself. Especially with defining activities being cancelled, such as you with rowing or me with my internship, what we thought would soon define us in order to go out into the world and become a true adult has drastically shifted. Figuring out how to brand ourselves while in a global pandemic will prove difficult since we are the only age group truly dealing with this sense of misplacement. Hopefully this time will allow us to do some self discovery into what else defines us and be able to come out stronger on the other side.
Hi Abigail,
Great post this week. I think your idea about using a sports analogy is personal to you and that’s what makes it great. I think you could go a lot of different ways with it to cater to whichever position you are applying for, and no matter what it will be really unique. I also appreciated how you touched on the cultural differences in the business world in the US versus New Zealand; being aware of the environment you are operating in is essential to doing well, I think you are on the right track!
Abigail,
This is an incredibly difficult time for everyone right now, especially all of us who are seniors in college who are about to enter the real world. I am really sorry to hear that your season was cancelled, that is an incredibly tough thing to go through. I agree with you, this time does make it even more challenging to define yourself and present yourself to future employers because everyone is in this state of shock and adjustment. Mentally, this is one of the worst times, I hope you are staying safe and healthy. Thanks for sharing!
Cole