Imagine if Personal Branding 101 were a required course in college. You would be guided through the process of uncovering your unique attributes, taught the principles of personal marketing (so you can apply them to yourself as a job applicant), and work with web 2.0 tools and social media to find and more easily attain better job openings.

We at Brand-Yourself.com and Gen Y’s personal branding guru Dan Schawbel share this vision.

“Students have to understand,” Dan says, “that if they don’t uncover their unique attributes, they won’t stand out in a world of clutter.” We agree.

At Syracuse University, we plan to host a series of personal branding events. Our goal, besides educating students, is to show the school that it’s a subject worthy of its own elective course. The aim is to expand the idea to other universities, ideally proving the impact personal branding can have on a student’s hirability.

Dan sees his new book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, serving as just such a course’s textbook. While I haven’t read his book yet, there’s no question (based on Dan’s constantly updated, content-rich blog and successful branding of himself) that this book could become the personal branding Bible for Generation Y.

What do you think? Should personal branding be taught in schools? Is it a waste of time, or would it provide enough value to have its own course? Do you think such a class would improve a school’s reputation by boosting the hirability of its students?

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