By Rylee Seavers | Staff Writer
Baylor Career and Professional Development will hold its annual Etiquette Dinner on April 6 in the Paul L. Foster Campus of Business and Innovation room 250. The dinner is a chance for students to learn about proper etiquette in business settings said Haley Davis, career event and program coordinator.
“It’s the little things that make a good candidate stand out,” Davis said.
Davis said companies are often looking at how a person interacts with people and carries on conversation before hiring. They want to hire people that will be good representatives of their company, and good etiquette is central to that, Davis said.
Sarah Aynesworth will teach students about etiquette at the event. Aynesworth has been teaching etiquette since 1996 and said etiquette can help people feel confident in professional and social situations.
“It’s important to know [etiquette] because it makes you feel confident, and when you feel confident you make other people feel confident,” Aynesworth said.
In addition, Aynesworth said that etiquette is what relationships are built on, and good manners can make the people you interact with feel valued and manners are also much more common and practical than most people think, Aynesworth said, and Manners are the details that allow people to go far in life and their career.
“Good manners are just a constant awareness of the feelings of other people,” Aynesworth said.
Knowing proper etiquette is also important in a business setting, Aynesworth said, because those are the things that will set you apart from other applicants and employees.
Lack of self-awareness is the most common etiquette mistake that Aynesworth sees among college students. Aynesworth said this is a lack of awareness of how a person is being being perceived by others and how those actions are affecting others.
“The person with the best manners in a room is someone who goes up to someone that no one else is speaking to and introduces themselves and says, ‘Hi, I’m Sarah Aynesworth. What is your name?,’” she said.
Davis said Baylor wants students to stand apart from other job applicants. Etiquette can make a person seem polished and is not “stuffy,” contrary to popular belief, Davis said. The event is not just for business majors, Davis said, and is intended for students of all majors. Davis said etiquette skills are essential for people of every profession.
LinkedIn photos will be offered at 5 p.m., and the dinner begins at 6 p.m. Students can register online, and the event costs five dollars.
