Career Corner: "Playing the Game is Knowing the Rules."

You've heard the question over and over and over again. More so in the past few years than ever before, and most of us still don't have any idea how to answer. To what question am I referring you ask? None other than the dreaded "what do you want to do with your life?" As first year students come into the college environment only about four months older than they were in high school, it's not like some epiphany hit them over the top of the head during the summer. That could have happened for some, but for others, that situation unfortunately just does not apply. Of course the upperclassmen may be a bit closer to discovering the answer to this question, but even most adults who have been out of school many years will answer, "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up." If someone who has been out in the "real world" can't answer this question, how can a bunch of eighteen year olds? This is the journey that we are now embarking on in college, but what we may forget is how we plan to "get there" is just as, if not more important than, where you want to go. Yes, you may have your goals set on a specific position your whole life, but if you don't know how to attain that position, you are out of luck.

This is the topic that nationally known motivational speaker and team building consultant Jim Reed came to talk to the students of Plymouth about on Tuesday the 27th in Room 144 of Boyd Hall. Brought to our university by the Marketing Association of Plymouth State (MAPS), Mr. Reed spoke to students, regardless of their major, about how important it is to "know the rules" of the job world. More than anything, Mr. Reed emphasized the crucial component of making a "brand" for yourself. He states that every single one of us is our own brand, and we need to learn how to market ourselves, to learn how to make ourselves stand out, not by necessarily having perfect credentials or by portraying what we think an employer wants, but by being our original selves. To Mr. Reed, who you are is so much more important then simply what you do.

From a very young age, we are put through schooling with the sequential mind frame that we must go through school, earn our degree, and proceed to attain a job, but this formula is not guaranteed. What will guarantee you that position after you receive your diploma, according to Mr. Reed, is the ability to sell your brand. Mr. Reed does not obtain a college degree, but his ambition and his life experience helped him sell his brand. Though degrees really are essential today, the ability to experience internships in your field, to have a knowledge of the world around you, to not misrepresent yourself on social media sites, to coherently answer tricky interview questions, and to embrace culture and understand diversity will set you apart from a group of people who think they should get the job because they did the bare minimum and got the degree. You need to invest yourself into what you do, and Mr. Reed states that you have to bump up your "best" just one degree in order to accomplish this.

At the conclusion of the presentation, Ross Ferguson, a senior in attendance, asked Mr. Reed "How do you portray your brand today?" Mr. Reed replied with a number of examples and stories about how promoting and living your brand never stops. It is who you are that stays with you for your entire life, therefore he represents himself to the best of his ability in everything he does and in every presentation he gives. This is a great message to come away with, that you are who you are for the rest of your life, so you should know that person inside and out and be able to use that knowledge and confidence to secure any position you aspire to. When asked what junior Noelle Lake took away from this presentation, she stated that she learned "How to separate herself from the competition." This was a very inspiring presentation to attend and gave everyone in the audience a lot to think about when it comes to not only choosing what you want to do with the rest of your life, but how you want to get there.

Follow Jim and his motivational journies at www.jim@jreedconsulting.com.