Robins Senior Redefining Personal Branding

When Kelly Power, ’17, came to University of Richmond she had one goal in mind.

“Everyone in my family is in the medical industry, so for me it was the natural, easy path,” Power said. 

But then she took a First Year Seminar (FYS) in international marketing with Dr. Dana Lascu, which completely changed her perspective.

“It introduced me to a totally different world and a new challenge,” Power said.

Lascu, professor of marketing, noticed Power’s curiosity immediately.

“Kelly's passion for and ability in conducting research are remarkable,” Lascu said. “One purpose of the FYS course is to prepare students for classes they might pursue in social science research. Kelly was keen on learning how to use different software programs to analyze data for the research project assigned in the class. I thought she would make an excellent marketing analyst, and suggested she should pursue it.”

Power took her advice, applied for an internship that summer, and even though she had little experience, landed the position in London.

She worked as a marketing intern at a start-up non-profit called Just a Platform, a website that promotes collaboration between diverse and independent writers to effect social change.

“It was interesting to watch a business start from the ground up,” Power says of the experience. “It was a very hyper-focused environment, and there were a lot of ideas being tossed around.”

She wrote articles for the site and learned how to brand a small company as a whole.

“I did some research for the organization to try to identify their best market what their strategy should be moving forward,” Power said.

That internship inspired her to change how she marketed herself to potential employers, which paid off in a big way.

Power created her own website with a creative resume showcasing her work instead of listing her accomplishments.

“Creative resumes are becoming more and more common, especially in the marketing industries,” Power said. “I noticed an immediate increase in the number of callbacks I received after I made the switch.”

So, she decided to share her experience with other students through a personal branding workshop hosted by the University of Richmond’s Office of Career Services.

“A creative resume shares the same information, it’s just set up in a more interesting way,” Power said.

She’s encouraging other students to follow in her footsteps to land that first job. She advised them to create their own website, a LinkedIn profile, and to keep them up to date. She says, if students use multiple platforms, employers will see consistent information, but portrayed in new and creative ways.