Workshop: Personal Branding Beyond Linkedin

 Blog post by Mireille Francis, ESSEC Global MBA Student Ambassador

On Saturday the 19th of November, students from the Strategy & Luxury track attended Youri Sawerschel’s Personal Branding workshop to help the students get their personal brand into shape, stand out during interviews, and make networking easy. One thing that stood out from Youri's presentation was his quote on Personal Branding:

“If you are smart and do a good job, you only have the basics to enter the game. Personal branding is about knowing who you are and where you want to go”  

- Youri Sawerschel 

A strong personal brand is key to successfully reach your professional objectives. Original teaching techniques were used to acquire and validate various hard and solf skills. 

Students enjoyed their Saturday at le Coeur de la Défense campus in Paris, reflecting about their past and future path and working on taking ownership of their career goals. They were able to define a roadmap and think outside of the box by doing many group and individual exercises. 

We asked one of our classmates on what he learnt during the workshop:

 “Yesterday’s workshop taught by Youri Sawerchel was definitely something to remember. Among many other things, it allowed me to think long-term by looking back, a process I had not encountered before. We took time to write our own obituaries (an interesting exercise for sure) which allowed us to reflect on our successful careers before the end of our lives. By jotting down what a successful career looked like in my eyes, I unknowingly wrote a career plan that I would be thrilled to progress through. It helped me set specific goals for myself in a very simple, yet ultimately effective manner”  

- Santiago Xavier Elizalde, Strategy & Digital MBA’22

In a nutshell, students were advised to become the CEO of themselves, define their vision, anchors, topics and eventually take the right decisions accordingly. 

Polishing our soft skills with Charles Bennett

By Ariel Gendelman, Global MBA Luxury Brand Management major 2019-2020

This week, the Luxury Brand Management majors finally had our first meeting with Charles Bennett. Our Strategy & Management counterparts had already had their two sessions, so we were eager for our opportunity to pick up tips and tricks for navigating the ambiguity of professional networking events. We headed to the ESSEC campus at La Défense and filed into the red stadium seating of the cozy classroom, eagerly awaiting the evening before us.

To get things started, Charles asked us to introduce ourselves by stating our names, where we’re from, and a fact that no one knew about us. It was a great reminder that even though we’ve spent the last two months bonding and feel like we’ve known each other for decades, we’ve just barely scratched the surface—there’s always something new to learn about a friend.

After that, we jumped into the good stuff! For starters, Charles urged us to redefine small talk in our minds—instead of treating it like idle chatter, use it as a teaser to entice your audience so they’ll want to know more. By using small talk as a forum to ask open-ended questions, you create the possibility of sparking a deeper conversation. To do this, you must perfect your 30-second pitch by honing in on your USP (Unique Selling Point); the thing that makes your personal brand special.

Everything you do is relevant; you just have to find the way to apply it.

We practiced our pitches on each other, complete with video recordings. Charles explained that we often have little unconscious habits that can put people off, so watching and analyzing videos of ourselves allows us to reflect on how we come across to others.

After making the connection, we were advised to follow up the pitch with a question like:

• Tell me about your experience in this company. What has been your career path?
• What has been your experience with this company?
• What is the mobility like within your organization?
• What are the current needs of your organization?
• What are you expecting this current year?

We were given lots of practical advice about everything we’ve been struggling with during our previous networking endeavors: how to enter tightly sealed circles, exit strategies for stale conversations, and guidelines to setting boundaries for those who have none. 

Charles closed the evening with some sage career advice:

Never be afraid to ask for what you want. Remember everyone needs to start somewhere. You are your own unique brand so don’t try to be like anyone else. Don’t be afraid to reach out and always offer value first. 

If you don’t share what you’re bringing to the table, who will?

Dress for Success Workshop with Charles Bennett

By Huang Yu, Strategy & Management major, Global MBA 2019-2020

This week, Charles Bennett conducted his second workshop titled “Dress for Success”. We were happy to have him back to talk to us about key soft skills that MBA participants need for their career development. This time, he focused on the dress code and other codes of conduct in various professional conditions. 

Before the actual workshop, Charles invited everyone to talk something unique about himself or herself. As a group of MBA participants, we are very familiar with each other professionally. Hence, during this exercise, we spoke about our personal interests, hobbies, or anecdotes that we never shared with others before. It was a great moment that allowed us to be more connected with each other with empathy and understanding, after sharing our stories and ideas from our heart. 

After that, Charles moved on to the main topic of the day, the dress code. The dress code “Business Casual” is a frequently-seen required dress code in different professional events such as networking sessions, “Casual Friday”, company dinners, etc. Yet, the actual definition of “business casual” is not well-defined. The challenging part of the definition is that the line between business formal and business informal (or casual) is not clear. The company culture, or the general culture of a country, is unique. The dress code in a company or a country may not be acceptable in another. 

During the workshop, Charles discussed various rules to follow and here are just some takeaways:

• Our dressing is part of our identity and value. Hence, it is important to be consistent in our dressing and our behavior.
• Dressing in the correct way is also showing respect to others. 
• If you are new to an event and curious about the dress code, ask the HR for guidelines. As an alternative, you can always ask and learn the dress code by observing other people at similar events.
• Over-dressing is always better than under-dressing because it is easier to “downgrade” your dressing rather than “upgrade” it.
• To match the colour of your dressing/suit is less critical. The golden rule of “business casual” is to dress as close as you can to business formal, but adding your own style. 
• Looking good does not mean spending lots of money. The trick is to buy something relatively affordable, and get a tailor to make it perfect for you. 
• Your tie node is important. It is the “face” of your dressing/outfit.

Besides speaking about dress codes, Charles also mentioned various codes in other professional situations and here are some highlights:

• In France, being polite and formal in emails and phone calls is extremely important. You can only earn respect from others when you respect others in the first place.
• Whenever your supervisor asks you for a coffee break, go for it. It is a good chance to enhance your professional relationships.
• Patient is always the key, in both emails and meetings.
• Always be punctual for any meeting. 
• Don’t use your mobile phone during meetings.

There are also many questions during the Q&A sessions and Charles answers all of them with his insights. We look forward to meeting him again for the third session.