I’m still wrestling with my personal brand, and let me tell you, nothing maims and shreds personal brand development like working on a personal statement for graduate school. I’m living one life with my eye on one I want to move into. It’s become quite the experience, full of its own obstacles, mental barriers, and research.

Frequently on my drive home from work, I’ll be thinking about either answers to questions or items for my brand. The second nearly always comes out, “You want to hire me because…” Thanks to my diverse background, there are a number of ways to answer this question, but the one currently my favorite (despite its lack of application to my future) is:

The reason you want to have me on your team is because I can bounce back and forth between teaching algebra students and student just learning to read without mising a beat or losing my cool!

That was a particularly fun night. Quite literally, I was teaching fractions and factoring polynomials and then turning around to time a student reading her fluency reader or sounding out new words. I was yoyoing between a pair of teenagers who wanted to be anywhere else and a hyper five year old.

This isn’t really all that uncommon for me, either. When I was teaching in museums, I was the one who often was handed preschoolers in one group, and then my very next group was high school seniors. I’ve always had to be able to handle that quick switch in gears. I’ve done it for so long that I reallly don’t give it a second thought (not that I ever really gave it a first one).

Actually, though…I say that my ability to bounce between diverse groups easily is not applicable to my future…but the ability to move quickly back and and forth between subjects might be. I’ll have to think about that!

Posted by Rebecca in Personal development, Uncategorized