By Venessa Anthony
Aitken Spence Conventions and Exhibitions will be hosting an informative webinar on career guidance and creating a vision for yourself and for your career that will make you proud someday. The programme is catered towards students, undergraduates, job seekers, and all those who are interested in developing their career path.
There are many career options out there but in the present world of the new normal, it’s a bit challenging. International trainer and certified transformative coach Fahad Farook will be speaking on marketing your personality and realising your purpose, and before the webinar, we at The Morning Brunch had a conversation with him.
Marketing your personality
Farook gave us an insight on what it means to market your personality: “A lot of the time, people assume that it’s all about having a solid handshake or making eye contact. Those factors are important but in today’s day and age, where everybody gives you an opportunity to be a brand, marketing your personality is more about identifying your authentic traits and figuring out what makes you, you.” He added that some people may be outgoing, some may be shy, others might be sociable or energetic, but if one can figure out a way to market that in line with your personality, one will have a higher chance of standing out compared to everybody else.
Job hunting during a pandemic
The pandemic has put many people out of jobs, and has caused a scarcity in job opportunities as well. Farook stated that in this new normal, whatever factors that got us our previous job, just isn’t going to cut it with our next opportunity. We need to evolve and let our inner personality traits shine through in order to differentiate ourselves from everybody else.
In this new age, people have adjusted and moved most of their life online. If one does get selected for a job interview, it is very likely that it will be online. Again, this is why people need to understand how to market their personality as one does not have the opportunity to meet their interviewer in person.
Farook explained: “Earlier a person could see you physically, and you’re not limited to a small frame, but right now you have a small computer monitor and you have to try and convey who you are to a stranger. You could not be wearing pants and it wouldn’t matter if you come across in a way that seems mundane, boring, and not a very good fit for the organisation.” He added that if the interview was conducted in person, there would be a chance to be more conversational and personable, but within that restriction, it’s more important to put in effort to present yourself in a more likeable way.
Self-growth and standing out
Farook explained the aim of the programme: “We aim to bring out everyone’s unique aspects and help them realise who they are. We will guide them to find authentic ways to help them grow as citizens.” He added that at the end of the programme, they hope that everyone is going to have a framework to identify what’s unique about themselves and find ways to market themselves depending on the audience.
He elaborated: “In line with that, I want to talk about the whole aspect of how to create an internal sense of motivation for where they want to be. When I say motivation, I mean what their short-term goals are and how they are going to steer themselves to achieve it in a liberal and practical way.” He stated that it’s important that they take accountability for the fact that they’re probably going to fail initially and how their attitude towards that needs to be handled.
Marketing your personality will help you in all aspects of your life; career just happens to be one of them. Farook used an example of attending an interview where everyone has the same or even better qualifications that you do; he questioned: “If so, what are you going to do that will make you stand out?” That, Farook explained, is where marketing your personality comes in.
Experiment with your career
Farook regards the notion that kids should have their career decided on at a young age as toxic, and stated that it’s incredibly detrimental to their mental health. “That attitude is what the machine-driven corporate world is pushing on us. We’re very diverse and interesting creatures. Why would we want to narrow yourself down at the mere age of 15 or 16? Soon you’ll be 45 years old and in a career you don’t like, and that’s super depressing,” he exclaimed.
He believes that finding the career that you’re happy with is all about experimenting and noted that it is essential that one has an experimental mindset in terms of evaluating factors in life, while also managing the risk in a way that does not harm your mind or body. He also accepts the fact that not many people are fortunate enough to have an adequate liquid financial cushion to take risks while experimenting, but highlighted the importance of moving away from the damaging idea that we need to decide on our career at a very young age.
Farook hopes that the programme will help the audience come to terms with the new normal and learn how to present themselves in a way that will strike out to others.
You can watch the webinar on 12 January at 4.30 p.m. on their Facebook page: AitkenSpenceConventionsExhibitions. Register to attend at: https://aseventreg.com/events/cgm/.
