Rahn Barthelmess, a marketing expert, visited Quinnipiac on Monday to deliver a presentation titled “Turbo-Charge Your Career With Strong Personal Branding.”

“If you don’t learn anything else today, I want you to actively manage your personal brand,” she told the group of just over 20 students in the Mancheski Executive Seminar Room.

The field of personal branding takes the traditional approach to branding commonly used by businesses and celebrities, and applies it to the job search process. Barthelmess’ tips included broad themes such as identifying areas of strength, as well as more specific points like keeping in touch with professional contacts every five to six weeks.

Before going into personal branding, Barthelmess had worked for corporate brands including Lego, Miracle-Gro and Texaco.

One area that she talked about in-depth was social networking.

“Your digital brand matters,” she said. “The person who is interviewing you is going to look at your Facebook account.”

Barthelmess also stressed that if you have a new skill you would like to add, or if you’d like to change your personal brand in any way, it is possible in today’s world.

“If there is something you want to change about what you do or who you are, just start doing it,” she said. “You can learn anything; it’s all on the Internet.”

Greg Tempesta, a senior computer science major, said that Barthelmess’s presentation was helpful for developing a job-searching strategy.

“She helped me think of how to make myself stand out and come across as professional to potential employers,” he said.

Barthelmess’ methods were aimed at identifying and marketing personal strengths, as well as building up areas that need improvement. Her ideas for creating and altering a personal brand included writing articles or holding campus events on subjects with which you’d like to be associated.

All students in attendance received a free box of resume paper from Southworth Paper Company, the event’s sponsor.

“Everyone has worth, and everyone is unique,” Barthelmess said, encapsulating the main point of her presentation. “Just talk about what is unique about you in a confident way.”