Jackie’s blog

Been doing some one to one branding work with some young graduates and they have been struggling with some of the early sections on Vision, Purpose, Values and Passions. It seems that the things they immediately think of as being passionate about are all about enjoying themselves, having fun with their friends, getting hammered and having a great laugh. From listening to them talk about life at university it sounds almost like living through a ‘Big Brother’ experience with a bit of study and essay writing thrown in. When I was at uni (gosh, that sounds old and boring) I was heavily involved in student politics - taking minibuses of women to Greenham Common and circling the base by holding hands, attending Anti Nazi League Rallies and campaigning against campuses being closed and such like. When I mention this, many young graduates now look at me like I’m mad. My generation (sounds better if spoken with a deep, Yorkshire accent) were also busy in all sorts of clubs and societies but this seems to be less prevelant nowadays too.

Someone told me about a radio programme today in which some professor or other was talking about the work he has been doing, studying the current generation of young people at university. Apparently every year he asks new entrants if they consider themselves to be Adults, Young Adults, Young People, Teenagers, Children. In the past most replied Adults or Young Adults. Nowadays most answer Young People. He was saying that university students increasingly see university as an extension of their teenage years and not their entrance to adulthood; they want to put that off for a few more years. I can’t say I blame them with loans and debts looming up, astronomical mortgages to find and some employers who pay high salaries to graduates but expect them to sleep under their desks.

So, the point of all this? Well it can make Personal Branding a bit difficult. Why? Because Personal Branding is about looking at where you want to position yourself in the world and if all you want to do is not think about where you are going to position yourself in the world, well at least not until you are a bit older and have had some fun in your life, that can be hard. Though work and fun can be synonymous if you can get yourself into the right place. Interesting.