Be Yourself As You Brand Who You Are

It’s that stressful time of the school year when prelims, homework, and club commitments are piling up. In addition to that, there is also the responsibility to attend career fairs to network. I attended my first career fair today with no idea how to present myself. Later that day, I attended a Rose seminar about how to properly brand yourself and realized I didn’t have the right approach. My takeaway from the seminar was that there are three ways to present yourself to a company: resume, professional site (something like LinkedIn), or an elevator pitch. Additionally, I learned that companies tend to google you, so if you don’t have a mug shot as the first result when your name is entered into the search engine, you’re in good shape. By far the most important takeaway is it’s imperative to be yourself. In order to really stand out, you should be yourself and not what the company wants you to be since that’s the strategy most people will take. I feel very lucky to attend Cornell because Cornell provides its students with so many resources to not only brand yourself properly, but also to network and find the right internship for you. Next time I attend a career fair I’ll be ready to as the right questions and let myself stand out.

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