Every forum will have an Applicant quoting with abbreviations IB/M7/Male IB/American IB/Indian IT/Chinese Hardware/Tier-2 Undergraduate – all a shorthand to evoke an association of traits.
The American IB reference immediately sparks image of the Christian Bale character from the 2000 movie - American Psycho (you must watch this to see how stereotypically the director portrays the traits of an IB person). For a relatively recent reference, the Wolf of Wallstreet’s McConoughey’s character – the hustler, pushing meaningless products to unsuspecting customers and finally going bust in a blaze of glory, rings true about many of our IB friends.
I tried to maintain an open mind about the stereotypes until a recommender (a senior banker) began comparing the client with his son and asked me if he would make it through an M7 school. It was an indirect reference of whether the client will be a competition to his son – an M7 entrant in the previous year. It was absurd to see the level of meaningless competition.
In your Personal Branding exercise, you must go by the assumption that anyone who consumes popular or social media is influenced by multiple touch points. Many unconsciously. Many choose to consume it with enthusiasm.
The talk show hosts with your political ideology, the influencer you like and the causes that evokes strong feelings for you - underneath all these tribes there are values that have a strong association with your personal brand.
The numbers and promotions are meaningless unless you connect the numbers with a story. A story about your values – the origin, why they matter, and how you will uphold them with the most sincerity.
An LGBTQ+ candidate is likely to have a strong sensitivity to the rights of minorities. An American working in an international client location or on military duty or on a short project will value what makes America great – the freedom of expression at a scale that is unlike any other country.
Try joking about ‘the leader’ in any part of the eastern world and you will be in deep slumber with a frozen expression.
Not all stereotypes need reshaping.
It is all a perception game, and to beat it, you need to understand who you are beneath the GMAT/GRE, GPA, ranking, salary, and promotions.
Why do you exist?
That is your personal brand.
And such a deep question doesn’t answer itself with some template from a personal coach or a guru.
You have to ask the tough questions.
You have to reflect and see where you flinched, where you stood up, where you ignored, and where you felt strongly about an issue.
“Why” is more important.
That is where your personal branding story lies.
For help with branding your profile and turning you from a cliched IB/IT/Tier-2/American/India/Chinese/South American/Nigerian/French/Italian/MBB or whatever shorthand you have assigned to yourself into a real person with ambition, flaws and dreams, Subscribe to F1GMAT’s MBA Application Review Service (your story is not just about the essays. It is about the entire journey – resume, and reflection of your character – recommendation letters)
