This post is a response to Bill Barnett’s “Build Your Own Value Proposition” blog post on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network.

In class this week, we learned about value propositions and worked with the “to blank, our blank, is blank, that blank” format. However, we labeled value propositions as something that companies use in marketing. This is why reading Barnett’s blog post was mind blowing. Value proposition statements aren’t only useful to companies; they can be used on a personal level by someone applying for a position. Barnett gives the example of an individual Steve who applies for a manufacturing executive position.

Now, excuse me as I go off on a slight tangent, but this blog post really made me think back to the Sauder Student’s Workshop to Success on Imagine Day. Ann Stone, a marketing professor, was our speaker and what she had to say to us students was truly entertaining. One remark which she made that stuck with me was this: “Every day, you are all marketing yourselves.”

You don’t have to be a marketing major to be marketing yourself. At a networking event for PwC or KPMG, an aspiring accountant isn’t going to be auditing – they’re going to be marketing themselves!

So now that you think about it, what is your personal value proposition?