You are marketing yourself whether you know it or not

In May, I participated in the commencement ceremony at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, receiving my Master’s of Science in Career & Technical Education. By chance, I was seated in the front row. As I watched the Bachelor’s candidates traipse past me on the way to the stage to receive their degrees, I noticed how many of them were wearing sneakers and even rubber flipflops. Some of the men had bare calves showing between too-short gowns and their sneakers—I assumed they were wearing shorts rather than actually being flashers in gowns rather than raincoats. These people were entering their next stage of life as college-educated adults and had no idea that their first action as a graduate screamed, “I’m a kid and totally clueless as to how I should act in the realm of adults.” They were marketing themselves whether they knew it or not. Conversely, the young men and women who were appropriately shod for a formal ceremony were presenting themselves as adults ready for professional careers. Whether we market ourselves actively as writers by putting "writer" on our business cards, by joining associations, or by any other marketing actions—or whether we just huddle over our computers and hope the world finds us—we are marketing ourselves as either successful (or soon to be) writers or we are marketing ourselves as clueless kids.