Cultivating Your Brand
The Power of Personal Identity
🎯 Objectives
- Identify your personal brand
- Build your professional network
- Leverage your brand to land internships and permanent employment
Identify Your Personal Brand
When you roll out of bed in the morning and choose something to wear, you’re branding yourself. Your vocabulary, facial expressions, social media posts, and activities contribute to that brand by communicating who you are and what you value.
Does your brand communicate your alignment with the BYU Marriott values of faith in Christ, integrity in action, respect for all, and excellence? Does your brand communicate your values?
The BYU Marriott Brand Position Guide states this:
"A lot has been written about what constitutes a brand. Most experts agree, however, that a brand isn’t what an organization says. It’s what the organization’s audience thinks." What does your audience think about you? What people say about you when you are not around is your BRAND.
Think further about the names you represent: with your family name, you represent your family brand. With the name BYU Marriott on your diploma, you represent the BYU Marriott brand. With the name Brigham Young University on your degree, you represent the BYU brand. By extension, you represent the brand of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every day, then, you are on the Lord's errand. Do you represent HIS brand?
Constantly manage your brand to make it a personal and professional asset. As you do, you will be better positioned to land fulfilling, satisfying internships and jobs.
Land an Internship and a Job
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emphasizes temporal preparedness, but its updated Handbook reminds us that “all things unto me are spiritual, and not at any time have I given unto you a law which was temporal” (Doctrine and Covenants 29:34 (Links to an external site.)). To that end, the Church Handbook provides information about education and employment: 22.1.3 Education and Employment. (Links to an external site.)
The Savior taught that “the glory of God is intelligence” (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36 (Links to an external site.)). He also taught, “Seek learning, even by study and also by faith” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:118 (Links to an external site.); see also 130:18 (Links to an external site.)). Education or vocational training can lead to better employment so members can provide for personal and family needs.
Developing the capacity to work will help members contribute to their families, the Church, and the world. Members are counseled to work hard and be honest in all they do.
As you complete this unit, think of it as a way to progress not only temporally but also spiritually as you develop greater faith in Christ--that through His grace and your effort you may obtain all of the spiritual and temporal necessities of life.
You'll find all sorts of pathways to great jobs. Large organizations have established pipelines, websites, and staff tasked with advertising and hiring. In smaller organizations, job descriptions often exist solely in the mind of a business owner who is feeling a pain point and thinking about hiring someone to help. As a BYU Marriott student, you have access to a world-class Business Career Center (Links to an external site.) (BCC) whose career counselors (Links to an external site.) are well-trained to help place you in the internship or job of your dreams! If you have not yet visited the BCC, you SHOULD! You should also check out the career fairs available to BYU students.
MCom 320 leverages the BYU Marriott School BCC services to provide students with chances to improve their resumes, online presence, and interview skills needed to land an internship or job. By the end of this lesson, you will feel more comfortable understanding how to navigate what might otherwise be a tricky hiring process.
Read the following page & textbook chapter
Marriott School of Business Additional Career ResourcesLinks to an external site.
Watch the following video
Complete this week's assignments