I'd love to have more employers pipe up and comment here.
I'm guessing that, although more challenging, changing gears is not altogether impossible (or even very difficult).
Certainly one should develop skills in an area that one is interested in impacting, but this kind of mentality breeds fear and risk aversion because new grads begin to see pursuing interesting opportunities as career risks versus character/skill building.
I think most recent college graduates have bigger issues than worrying about their 'self-branding'. It takes time, and, usually some experience, to build an identity. Sometimes you just have to 'wing-it' and see where that takes you. I'd bet that most employers wouldn't expect a kid fresh out of college to know his/her 'true calling'.
As a manager, I tend to look for potential both when I review the resumes and when I talk to candidates. Most of my questions are open-ended and I try to see if they can bring some of their learnings to the field/role they want to shift to and if they have done their research on why they want to move to a particular field or role.
I'm guessing that, although more challenging, changing gears is not altogether impossible (or even very difficult).
Certainly one should develop skills in an area that one is interested in impacting, but this kind of mentality breeds fear and risk aversion because new grads begin to see pursuing interesting opportunities as career risks versus character/skill building.