Post #5: My Personal Brand

The material in chapter five is very similar to my previous post, so I have decided to discuss my goals for this semester – one of our alternate prompts to work with. Ironically, I will be providing more information about myself, which is what personal branding is all about. So here’s my personal brand:

My name is Timothy Nagy. I am a junior at Saint Michael’s College, majoring in business administration and religious studies, and minoring in classics and medieval studies. Most people will say, “Oh, well that’s an interesting combination! What are you planning to do with those degrees?” I used to tell people that maybe I could go into business ethics or managing a non-profit organization. Today, I am very focused on the religious studies route.  So what can I do with this personal brand?

Well, I have a few goals in mind. First, I’ve got to finish up the project that I mentioned in my previous post. The research has been completed, now I’m just trying to write it all up in a paper. Once I finish the paper, which has to be by the end of the month, I am planning on submitting it to the American Academy of Religion’s regional meeting for the Northeast and Maritimes. Fairly ambitious, but I’m optimistic. If it is not accepted, I will look for other journals and conferences to send it to. The main goal is to get my work published.

My second goal is to find a good summer program that will improve my research skills and my graduate admissions chances. The best program that I’ve found so far is this - http://cer.berkeley.edu/training. The only problem is that it’s in California. Otherwise, it’s really a great fit. Take a look at the poll question to the right and tell me what kind of program I should look for.

My third goal is to go to graduate school. I’ve been doing some research on what types of programs are out there, but the process is going to take several months to finalize. I am trying to keep all of my options open, but I’ve narrowed things down a bit. As of now (these things can change frequently), I want to study pneumatology, and I want to take an ethnographic approach to future research. Ideally, I would like to either stay in the northeast, or study in the UK because many of their programs are shorter.

Those are my primary goals for this semester. Notice I didn’t mention classes at all, but I am certainly committed to earning good grades this semester, and, more importantly, adding to my knowledge. For my marketing class in particular, I hope to keep learning about how I can best market myself so that I can make my primary goals as achievable as possible. Ever since I started the semester by reading Karen Kang’s book about personal branding, BrandingPays, my perspective has been focused on personal branding. I hope this blog has been at least somewhat helpful for you in terms of improving your perspective on how to present yourself to the world and improving the chances of achieving your goals. Have a great week! -Tim