The CollegeRecruiter blog reports on an article published by the New York Times, informing us that getting into college is now more difficult than ever before.  Harvard turned down 1,100 student applicants with perfect 800 scores on the SAT math exam; Yale rejected several applicants with perfect 2,400 scores on the three-part SAT, and Princeton turned away thousands of high school applicants with perfect 4.0 grade point averages.

Why?  Well, competition primarily. The demographic bulge of the children of the baby boomers means that students are graduating from high school in record numbers. About 3.1 million will graduate from high school this year, up from 3.1 million last year and 2.4 million in 1993. The peak will be in 2008.

Fast-forward a couple of years, and all these college students will be clamoring for the same junior level positions in the business world.  If you’re a young twenty-something, or will be by 2008, this means you’d better start thinking about how you’re going to differentiate yourself when the war for these jobs starts to really heat up.  The solution may be in “personal branding,” a concept first introduced by Fast Company in 1997 and quickly becoming all the rage in corporate circles.  A few tips from professor and consultant Garr Reynolds:

• Develop your brand by asking yourself some basic questions that determine who you are and what you stand for.  What are your values? What do you love? What do you hate? What are you insanely great at doing? What are you most proud of? What do you want to be? What is important and valuable to you? What do you want to be known for?  Your answers must be answered and must be true.

• Package your brand by creating an effective identity portfolio.  Superficial or not, people judge products (and people) based in part on first impressions. Your visual identity should, like a product package, attract, inform, and persuade the customer to “buy.”  Items in your brand identity portfolio include your business card, your presentations, your office space, and your Web site or online resume. 

• Communicate your brand by trumpeting your expertise and great work.  If you want people to talk about the wonderful things you do, then you must give them the opportunity to experience you. This means attending networking meetings and getting involved in external organizations inside and outside your field.  One way to get out there is to volunteer to make presentations and speeches. Writing expert articles for magazines, newspapers, and online outlets is another!

You don’t have to be a CEO or high-powered consultant to make these tactics work for you.  I started using them in my mid-twenties, when I wanted to develop a national profile as a twenty-something career expert.  Try them, and perfect your brand now, before those college grads start knocking on doors!