A couple of weeks ago I spoke to students in QUT’s Dean’s Scholars Program about ‘The Importance of Personal Branding’. The students are participating in this leadership development program are all outstanding students in the Science and Engineering Faculty and have been identified as future leaders. But these days, intelligience is not enough—you have to be able to stand out from your very smart peers. I spoke to the students about ensuring they develop their profiles while still at university—using LinkedIn et al—and joining professional organisations while they are still students to learn how to network.

…intelligience is not enough—you have to be able to stand out from your very smart peers.

I took them through the process I use for auditing both corporate and personal brands. In the case of these students, the starting point is a ‘personal brand audit’ to evaluate and benchmark their current ‘brand’ and overlaying this with their career aspirations. Next I walked them through the process to identify the gaps and prepare a matrix to fill these gaps. These students will graduate the right ’tools’ in their professional toolkits—a degree and a personal ‘brand’. They will graduate well-prepared for whatever lies ahead!