What's Your Competitive Advantage?

I almost bailed on attending my Health & Safety class today as a half-hearted attempt to balance some other pressing “to-do’s” on my  ever growing agenda.  Instead, my type A personality gave the necessary boot in the butt as I glanced over at my visual goal chart with guilt.  I scolded myself, “It’s only Tuesday, you cannot be tired until at least Thursday.”  I briefly considered my teacher knowing I had skipped his class, and I immediately felt lame.  After beating myself up mentally over the thought of skipping a slightly dry two hour class, I showered and drove to school while singing obnoxiously in my car to shake off the sleepies.  I was right, class was a little on the dry side.  I blame content, not the teacher.  WHMIS just doesn’t get my blood flowing.

After class, I strolled through the business wing to ensure my marketing diploma was approved (confirmed - I will in fact be graduating from two business programs this spring) and decided to drop in to say hello to my favourite former marketing teacher.  He informed me of a potential opportunity with an exciting online brand management company.  After a quick conversation, I exited his office asking myself three essential questions:

• What are my competitive advantages? 
• How do I set myself apart from the crowd?
• Do I have a strong online presence and is it branded in accordance with “I incorporated”?

While tweaking my resume, and writing my cover letter to reflect the imperative answers to the above three questions, I became incredibly aware of how passionate I am about applying my experience, knowledge, and ideas within a growing company.  Although I am passionate about lifelong learning, I have long outgrown the desire to be a full-time student, and am eager to become an asset in business.  

Before meeting with any prospective employer, I recommend challenging yourself in some form of the above listed questions.  Know what makes you an asset over your classmate who is coincidentally applying for the same position and has passed all of the same required courses as you have.  I challenge you to Google yourself, and make a plan to build your wings both on and offline.  

To see how I measure up in Google search, click here.  Have you Googled yourself lately?  What are your areas for improvement and what is your action plan to address them?